A Companion to Wong Kar-wai
2016. Wiley-Blackwell.
With 25 essays that embrace a wide spectrum of topics and perspectives including intertextuality, transnationality, gender representation, repetition, the use of music, color, and sound, depiction of time and space in human affairs, and Wong's highly original portrayal of violence, A Companion to Wong Kar-Wai is a singular examination of the prestigious filmmaker known around the world for the innovation, beauty, and passion he brings to filmmaking.
This collection, edited - and including two essays by - Martha P. Nochimson, brings together the most cutting edge and interesting scholarship on arguably the greatest living Asian filmmaker. The essays are written by a multinational group of established and rising film scholars and critics. They cover a huge breadth of topics, including the tradition of the jianghu in Wong's films; queering Wong's films not in terms of gender but through the artist's liminality; the phenomenological Wong; Wong's intertextuality; America through Wong's eyes; the optics of intensities, thresholds, and transfers of energy in Wong's cinema; and the diasporic presence of some ladies from Shanghai in Wong's Hong Kong.
These essays examine the political, historical, and sociological influence of Wong and his work, and discuss it from a variety of perspectives including modern, post-modern, postcolonial, and queer theory. Also included are two appendices, which discuss his work in Hong Kong television and commercials. This collection marks the most comprehensive in-depth scholarly study to date of this award winning director and serves as an essential resource for film scholars, critics, and devoted moviegoers looking for a deeper understanding of Wong's fascinating body of work.
"This superb collection traces the local and global pathways of Wong Kar-wai's films, parses their moods and sensory textures, and animates the histories they interweave. What emerges is a multi-faceted portrait of a director who defies categories." -- Jean Ma, Stanford University
"This splendid collective labor of love provides a window to the dazzling spectrum of the film art of Wong Kar-wai, one of the most exciting art-house directors in contemporary world cinema." -- Sheldon Lu, University of California, Davis
"Each essay in this multifaceted diamond of a collection shines a different light on the grandmaster Wong Kar-wai. From the Sinophone to queer, music to colour, his Shanghai roots to American dreams and more, the range is a kaleidoscopic delight." -- Chris Berry, King's College London
