Wong Kar-wai

by Silver Wai-ming Lee

  TL: Why would you still ask him to score when you two always argue?

  WKW: Film scoring is a very special task. As the director, I want someone who can give me the music as precise as possible so that I do not need to guess what kind of music it is and what effect it produces. If I had to communicate with a composer, a classically-trained musician, it would be a very difficult task. Therefore, if there is any suitable ready-made music, I will use it in my films.

  It is difficult for a director to talk about music with a composer because the feeling and the language they use are different. For example, what is happy or sad? Everyone has his/her own definition of a particular word. I believe I have a relatively strong sense of music, but it is still difficult to express in language. Besides, it is about the visual image. I have found that many composers’ music does not have any link to the film. Some music is pleasant to listen to but not suitable for a film score. The composer does not have a sense of the visual, so he/she does not know the chemistry of image and music.

  Perhaps Frankie Chan may not be an outstanding musician, but he is definitely an excellent film composer as he knows the relationship between music and film and knows how to coordinate one with the other.

  TL: You love music. Do you listen to it every day?

  WKW: Not necessarily. I listen to music because I have to make films. I listen to every kind of music, but my criterion is whether the music could work with the image and give you a visual shock.

  Some music is not special and doesn’t grab your attention at the first hearing. But I know there will be chemistry if the music coordinates with a particular image.

  TL: So it is only about your own intuition but not anything logical?

  WKW: Right. You can’t follow any formula. You can’t tell the reason anyway, but you just know the feeling is right. But you may also create chemistry because of the history of a particular music. In Chungking Express, I put in a ’70s song, like “California Dreaming” by the Mamas & the Papas. It is a contemporary story, but after adding the song, it creates a ’70s atmosphere. Film scoring can be fun like that. There is another implication in the song, of course. Faye Wong’s character wants to go to California. It’s her dream so she keeps on playing that song in the fast food shop. It’s fun to include a song with various implications.

  TL: Do you have any preference of music?

  WKW: No, I listen to all kinds of music. Recently I am listening to the music of a female singer banned in Iran, and the music of a popular female singer in South Korea. I don’t have any reason but to just listen to it. The difference between me and other people is that I have a large database. When I listen to the right music, some images will arise in my mind. I know how to deal with that music and will use it at a suitable time.

  TL: You spend a lot of time listening to music. Is the music chosen before you shoot the film?

  WKW: In some cases. Like the repeating music in In the Mood for Love; it was chosen when I started shooting. There are two important elements when I deal with sound: first, it has to work with the rhythm of the film; second, one is about the time reference of a specific era.

  As In the Mood for Love is set in Hong Kong in the 1960s, I wanted the image and costume to present the atmosphere of that era. I was born in Shanghai but grew up in Hong Kong. The most memorable thing was the different kinds of sound from the surroundings. It was the so-called radio days.

  I listened to the radio when I was young. What I listened to created the atmosphere in the film: Pingju from [northern] China, Cantonese opera, Huangmei opera and popular songs (western music),2 etc. (TL’s note: The old music used in In the Mood for Love also includes: “Silang Visits His Mother” [Silang Tanwu] and “Leaving a Son in the Mulberry Garden” [Sanyuan Jizi] performed by Tan Xinpei—the master in Peking Opera—and songs like “The Age of Blossoms” [Huayang Nianhua] performed by Zhou Xuan. He also invites a sixties singer Rebecca Pan to make a guest appearance as well as perform her famous song “Bengawan Solo.” That’s why I made an effort to find old dubbing artists for recording, to re-create the feeling of that era. Therefore, basically the soundtrack in the film is to rebuild the radio sounds of that time. When I made In the Mood for Love, I wanted the audience to not only see, but also hear, that era.

  TL: It is said that Rebecca Pan is your music consultant?

  WKW: I should say she is one of the people who enlightened me in music. She was a famous singer in ’60s, and I grew up with many of her songs. Her performance is the most significant part in Days of Being Wild. At first I wanted to mix her old performance with her new one, to do a remix. However, it did not work well as her pitch and range changed. I had to give up that idea. Besides, she knows ’60s music very well and has a rich collection. I can directly consult her if I have any questions.

  TL: Besides rebuilding the sound and atmosphere, you also found a composer to write the music?

  WKW: Right. At the ending scene at Angkor Wat in In the Mood for Love, the music is composed by Michael Galasso, who worked with me in Chungking Express. He composed the opening theme in Chungking Express.

  First, I confirmed that I would use the “Yumeji’s Theme” composed by Shigeru Umebayashi in 1991 for the film Yumeji that was directed by Seijun Suzuki and starred Kenji Sawada. Then I told Michael Galasso that there should be a similar piece of music at the end of the theme, as a hallmark of the entire film and as an epilogue. Then he composed it.

  TL: How is your cooperation with Michael Galasso?

  WKW: First, I let him listen to the theme music composed by Umebayashi for Yumeji. I told him a similar kind of music would appear often in the film [In the Mood for Love]. I hoped he could give me a set of variations on this theme; but he could also have his own thoughts. Two weeks later he gave me the master tape. I was in a hurry to go to Cannes at that time. He composed many good tracks, but I only used one. Others were put in the original soundtrack.3

  TL: How about you and Umebayashi?

  WKW: Umebayashi is my old friend as he has composed for many Hong Kong movies and let me listen to his previous work, like [the soundtrack of] And Then (1985), directed by Yoshimitsu Morita and starring Yusaku Matsuda. After listening to the theme song of Yumeji, I thought it matched the rhythm of In the Mood for Love, so I told him I would use this piece of music.

  As this is a piece of waltz in triple time, it requires the interaction between a man and a woman. It is kind of rondo; it keeps repeating itself. It is just like the relationship between Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung in the film.

  TL: But the theme melody is played repeatedly for a disproportionate amount of time. Why?

  WKW: Not only is the music repetitive, but also the shots. This is what I intended to achieve. For example, each character in the film has his/her own way of life, its regularity, but when we concentrate on their apparently repetitive actions, we can observe the subtle changes. These changes are the dim truth of life.

  Therefore, through the same music and scenes, we can see how time changes the protagonists’ attitudes and minds: some changed, others remained the same. This kind of subtle depiction is the interesting part of the film.

  TL: You put three Nat King Cole’s pieces together. Why?

  WKW: My mother liked Nat King Cole’s music very much. It represents the music of 1960s. Many people ask me why I chose Cole’s Spanish songs instead of the English ones. It is because ninety percent of the musicians in 1960s Hong Kong came from the Philippines. They were deeply influenced by Spanish culture, so I chose Cole’s Spanish songs to accentuate that era.

  I think every era has its own sounds. To be more accurate, Elvis Presley represents the voice of the early ’60s; I think Nat King Cole represents the sounds of the late ’50s and early ’60s. It is like when people talk about the sound of the late ’60s, they think of the Beatles. Their music will remind you of that era. Nat King Cole’s music brings the same effect.

  TL: The part of Angkor Wat appears in In the Mood for Love came
so abruptly. Why aren’t there any clues or foreshadowing?

  WKW: I had originally planned some foreshadowing, but later I did not want that. I leave it to the audience [to make the connection]. Tony Leung’s character became a journalist in South East Asia. He reported about the Vietnam War and then went to Cambodia with some foreign journalists. He stayed behind at Angkor Wat sightseeing. I had shot some relevant scenes [to show his trail], but I cut them out as I did not find it necessary. It was around four years after he left Hong Kong.

  To me, Angkor Wat is timeless. This film can be understood on three levels. The first one is the fictional story: a love story between the male and female protagonists. During that period of time, we could see the events happen in history. It is like a documentary. In the film, we put the fictional drama and the real documentary together. The last level is the sense of timeless space. To Angkor Wat that has experienced ages of change, a tourist passing by is just a second, or one of many chapters. In fact, it has [written] countless chapters like this.

  TL: The music and the scene at Angkor Wat seem to draw a conclusion of the film?

  WKW: Yes, it is the conclusion. At any era, at any place, Angkor Wat is an absolute thing. I think everyone’s heart has an Angkor Wat, an eternal sacred place. After living a luxurious or frustrated life, when you go back to your eternal sacred place, it is like a cleansing, a confession, or a consolation.

  NOTES

  1. See “All Memories Are Traces of Tears: Wong Kar-wai on Literature and Aesthetics (Part 1 & 2)” collected in this volume.

  2. Wong Kar-wai used the term “Shidaiqu”(時代曲), literally translated as “song of the contemporary era” or “trendy song.” In Hong Kong context, it usually refers to the Mandarin popular songs in 1950s and ’60s.

  3. The sleeve note can be read from: http://www.wkw-inthemoodforlove.com/livingRoom/notesGalasso.asp

  2046

  Mark Salisbury / 2004

  From London Net (UK). http://www.londonnet.co.uk/ln/out/ent/cinema_wongkarwai.html. Interview conducted in English. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

  Mixing with In the Mood for Love, SARS,1 and four of Asian cinema’s top female stars, Wong Kar-wai divulges why his newest film, 2046, is an expression of Hong Kong’s broken promises and regret.

  Acclaimed Hong Kong writer-director Wong Kar-wai’s last film was the gloriously romantic and inordinately sensual In the Mood for Love, which starred Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung as neighbors in 1962 Hong Kong whose other halves are having an adulterous affair and who fall in love with each other but never consummate their relationship. All achingly restrained, repressed emotions, it was exquisitely photographed and beautifully acted and confirmed Wong’s lofty position in the art-house firmament. His latest film, 2046, has been almost five years in the making. A sort-of-sequel to In the Mood for Love, 2046 tells of a playboy writer ([Tony] Leung Chiu-wai again) and his relationships with four women (Crouching Tiger [Hidden Dragon]’s Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li among them) several years after the end of his affair with Maggie Cheung (who appears briefly in 2046). Presented alongside these sexual adventures, is one of Leung’s character’s own tales, a science fiction story in which a train heads into the future to a place called 2046 where one can capture lost memories but from where no one has ever returned. The cryptic title refers to the number of the hotel room next to Leung’s, but, most pertinently, it’s also the date of the fiftieth anniversary of Britain’s handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese, with Wong offering up a treatise on love, memory, unfulfilled promise, and regret, as well as the impossibility of getting back one’s past.

  Mark Salisbury: You started making 2046 before In the Mood for Love. Why did it take so long to finish?

  Wong Kar-wai: We had the idea for this around ’97 during the handover because at that moment the Chinese government promised that for fifty years Hong Kong wouldn’t change. 2046 is the last year of this promise, and I thought it would be interesting to use these numbers to make a film about promises. At the beginning we intended to make the film like an opera, with three short stories based on Western opera. By the time we got the financing and the production together it was already the end of 1999. At the same time we were working on In the Mood for Love, so at first it was two different projects. In the Mood for Love was a very simple story and we thought it would take two, maybe three months [to finish] and then we could start on 2046 again. But somehow In the Mood for Love took much longer than we expected, so we had to delay the production of 2046. Because the cast were very busy we had to work out the schedule again, but we also had other problems. At first we wanted to shoot in Shanghai, but we had to wait for the permits. By the time we got the permits, built the sets, and got the cast ready, we had the problem with SARS.

  MS: At what point did the two films become linked?

  WKW: It’s because of the room numbers. One day when I was shooting In the Mood for Love in Bangkok in the hotel room, the room that Tony and Maggie spent their time in, I realized the room number was like 3-0-something. I said why don’t we put it as 2046? At first it was like a joke, but for me, psychologically, the two films are related. Then the structure of 2046 began to change and evolve around this point. So now these two stories had something in common and the character played by Tony became the link between the two films. We didn’t have this character of the writer in 2046; the original character was a postman.

  MS: In the Mood for Love was a film about restraint and repression while 2046 is very much the opposite, much more sexual and passionate.

  WKW: For me In the Mood for Love is a love story, and the man, Tony, the writer in the film, is a family man. He believes in commitment, in marriage. He works hard. He stays at home. Afterwards, when he goes through all the things with Maggie and his miserable days in Singapore, he goes back to Hong Kong, and he goes to another extreme. He’s not married. He doesn’t believe in commitment. He becomes a cynical person and prefers to stay in hotel rooms instead of finding a place to settle down. In the Mood for Love is a relationship about these two people. Even though we don’t see any physical contact between them, we can feel the love is growing. But 2046 is more like a story about what love means to him. In this film Maggie is not a person. She’s an image, an ideal woman in his memory, so he always compares this woman with all the other women he gets involved with in his life. He tries to feel that emotion again, but at the end he realizes it’s not what he wants. At a certain point, these two films are a mirror of each other. And if the audience hasn’t seen In the Mood for Love, they should watch 2046 first. If they want to know what happened between Maggie and Tony, they should watch In the Mood for Love—it’s like the missing chapter of this novel.

  MS: This time period of Hong Kong in the ’60s is one you’re obviously fascinated with. It’s when you grew up, but its present not only in 2046 and In the Mood for Love but in Days of Being Wild too. Why are you so enamored with it?

  WKW: I think the reason we wanted to make In the Mood for Love in the year 2000 is we realized Hong Kong was going through big changes. Hong Kong is a city that moves very fast, changes very fast, even its own history, so we wanted to capture some of the locations and places and even the manner and the way people live in those days in the film. We re-create all this, so on film, on celluloid, it will not change; we’re just trying to preserve that history.

  MS: In 2046 you’ve worked with Zhang Ziyi for the first time. Why did you cast her, and what she brings to the film?

  WKW: I met Zhang Ziyi before she made Crouching Tiger. I still remember her in Zhang Yimou’s film [The Road Home (1999)]. She’s rather young, but she’s very aggressive and very sensitive. That’s why I thought she would be good in this film. In fact, the role in 2046 is extremely hard for her because she doesn’t know anything about the ballroom dancers in Hong Kong during that period, so I had to give her a lot of references. I had to show her some of the Shaw Brothers’ films that were made during that period about those women, at least to give he
r an idea about how they behave. And I asked William [Chang], my production designer, to give her all the costumes to dress up in and to rehearse in on her own because those costumes restrict the body and you have to behave in a certain way.

  MS: Did Tony enjoy playing his role more this time around because his character in In the Mood for Love doesn’t say much and is very internalized in his emotions, whereas in 2046 his character is much more expressive?

  WKW: I think it’s more challenging for him because he goes from one extreme to another. He’s almost a very dark character at the beginning. In the chapter between Tony and Zhang Ziyi he’s like a playboy, and he always asks me, “Am I the same person?” And I say, “Why not?” It’s very hard for him; he has to work with the five strongest actresses in Asia. Each of them is very attractive, and they are doing a very good job. He has to have three or four very intense relationships during a few months, so it’s very hard.

  MS: What can you tell us about Lady from Shanghai, the film you’re doing with Nicole Kidman?2

  WKW: Well, we’re working on the script. We have ideas. Normally I will build a story around one character, and I think it will be interesting to have Nicole Kidman play it as a woman who claims she came from Shanghai. It’s very mysterious. This will be the next one and Grand Master [renamed as The Grandmaster] will be the one after because Tony needs some time to practice all these martial arts skills.

  NOTES

  1. In early 2003, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic broke out in Hong Kong. Within a few months, nearly three hundred deaths were reported. The epidemic has created much social and economic unrest, including a decline of international investment in the territory, resulting in a decline of jobs.