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Re: OK, Andrew T, you've done it again

Posted by Andrew T. (A) on February 3, 2002 at 14:42:07

In Reply to: OK, Andrew T, you've done it again posted by Victor Khomenko on February 3, 2002 at 12:05:23:

Hello Victor,

So sorry, but if you check my earlier post, I never once said that I liked Fallen Angels ( :-)!
I too was extremely disappointed when I saw it, and felt it was a step down from Ashes/Chungking.
However, due to the fact that it is one of his most popular films in the West, I didn't think it my place
to not include it on the list...I don't only recommend films I like, so my apologies for the misunderstanding.

Besides, you may wish to anticipate your wife's mood the next time you show her something from WKW...
I can't blame her for not wanting to watch it after a bout with the 'flu... a film about an itinerant killer and
his middleman/woman played to a triphop soundtrack with bits from Tricky and Laurie Anderson
isn't exactly what I'd consider cinematic ' chicken soup' .

It may be best that I tell you what the other storylines are about, with the hope that the next film you choose
may prove to be more propitious for the occasion.

I believe that most, if not all, of WKW's films are brief explorations/dissertations about time, space and memory,
our ( or the character's ) personal and individual reactions to them, and when those personal 'worlds' intersect.
Each film he puts out is a fragment of that idea, and is often open ended, and is uncomfortable with the notion
of and end ( Days of Being Wild, for instance, ends just as another story begins...although one has to remember
that these decisions are not always consciously made, or made for 'artistic' reasons...budgets in the dog eat dog
world of HK filmmaking have as much to do with them ) Thus one gets the feeling that the films are constant
works-in-progress. That may be why many critics have been comfortable with the notion that he is more often
about mood, than about plot.

' Happy Together' which won the Palme d'Or, is about a relationship ( it really is quite irrelevant that it is between
two men ) between two people who really can't get along. It is about regret, with a positive note at the end.

'In The Mood' is about a relationship between two people who get along, but for other reasons cannot be together.
It is about regret, without the positive note at the end.

'Ashes of Time' is probably his strongest statement about time and memory, in that two swordsmen drink from
the same 'magic' bottle of wine, said to erase memories, to different effect. One, who believes that memory is the fount
of all human misery begins to forget everything soon after, while the other, believing that the only true way to
hold to anything in this world is in one's memory, finds the drink ineffectual. It is about regret, plain and simple.

Does your wife read French? I can send you copies of the Cahiers article to read for background, if you'd like.

Hope the other films don't disappoint!

Regards,
A.

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