68 Fun Facts About Wong Kar-wai

Though his films are steeped in Hong Kong, Wong Kar-wai was born in 1958 in which mainland Chinese city?

Shanghai was home until he was five, when his parents left for Hong Kong; the border closed before his older brother and sister could follow, and he did not see them for ten years.

What job did Wong Kar-wai's father take after the family moved to Hong Kong?

Managing a nightclub put him in charge of the Bayside, which Wong remembers as one of Hong Kong's best, smart enough to host the Beatles when they came to town.

Before a television training course set him on the road to directing, what did Wong Kar-wai study at the Hong Kong Polytechnic?

Graphic design led not to a studio but to a television network's training course for would-be directors, where he ended up writing scripts instead.

Which 1988 crime drama was Wong Kar-wai's directorial debut?

As Tears Go By was the safe gangster picture his backers wanted, and its success with Hong Kong audiences paid for the far more personal film he made next.

Wong's debut feature was inspired by which Martin Scorsese film?

Mean Streets lent the story of a small-time gangster forever bailing out a reckless friend, and critics likened Jacky Cheung's frenzied turn to Robert De Niro's Johnny Boy.

Which Hong Kong director took the young screenwriter Wong Kar-wai under his wing and became his mentor?

Patrick Tam found a protégé in the young screenwriter and had him script his 1987 gangster drama; a year later the pupil was directing a gangster film of his own.

Who played the disillusioned playboy Yuddy at the centre of Days of Being Wild?

Leslie Cheung led a cast drawn from the cream of Hong Kong's young stars, yet the downbeat film flopped spectacularly on release, only to be showered with awards and acclaim afterwards.

In Days of Being Wild, Yuddy learns his birth mother lives in which country?

The Philippines is where he finally finds her house, only for her to refuse to see him, and the trip ends with him shot dead on a train.

Which cinematographer first worked with Wong on Days of Being Wild and shot his next six films?

Christopher Doyle left when In the Mood for Love overran and Mark Lee Ping-bin finished it; Wong later likened Doyle's camera to jazz, 'improvised, explosive', and Lee's to something classical and precise.

Wong's longtime cinematographer, known in Chinese as Dou Ho-fung, was born in which country?

Australia: born in Sydney in 1952, he shipped out with the merchant navy at 18 and worked as an oil driller and a cow herder before he ever picked up a film camera.

Which production company did Wong form with Jeff Lau in 1992?

Jet Tone Films grew out of a flop: after Days of Being Wild failed at the box office its producer dropped the planned sequel, and Wong spent about a year looking for anyone willing to back him.

Ashes of Time was loosely based on The Legend of the Condor Heroes, a novel by which author?

Jin Yong's plot went unused: Wong borrowed only a few of the novel's ageing martial artists and invented their younger days, turning the adaptation he was hired to make into a prequel of his own.

Under what title did Wong re-edit and re-score his 1994 wuxia film for release in 2008?

Ashes of Time Redux was a rescue job: Wong found his original negatives rotting in a closing film lab, pieced the film together from copies scattered around the world and added cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma.

At which festival did Ashes of Time compete for the Golden Lion in 1994?

Venice gave its cinematography prize to the film's desert images, yet the wuxia epic failed commercially at home, a poor return on its starry cast and its cost.

Chungking Express was conceived and completed in roughly how long?

Six weeks took it from first idea to final edit: Wong wrote by day and shot by night in story order, calling it a holiday after the two years he had just spent on Ashes of Time.

Which song does Faye Wong's character play over and over in Chungking Express?

"California Dreamin'" loops so often through the film's second half that it becomes Faye's signature, the sound of a snack-bar worker who would rather be somewhere else.

In Chungking Express, Cop 223 buys tins of which fruit that expire on 1 May?

Pineapple tins dated 1 May pile up as the jilted Cop 223 waits a month for his ex to come back, convinced that everything, love included, carries an expiry date.

Wong's 1994 film about two lovelorn policemen takes its English title's first word from what?

Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, a warren of guesthouses and stalls on Nathan Road, hosts the first story; 'Express' comes from the Midnight Express snack bar over in Lan Kwai Fong.

Faye Wong sings a Cantonese cover of which Cranberries hit in Chungking Express?

"Dreams" soars, in her own Cantonese version, while Faye lets herself into the policeman's flat and secretly rearranges it, a home invasion the film plays as courtship.

Which director's label, Rolling Thunder Pictures, brought Chungking Express to American audiences?

Quentin Tarantino loved the film so much that he put it out through his own short-lived label in 1996, and his championing helped turn it into Wong's international breakthrough.

Fallen Angels, grown from a story cut out of Chungking Express, has a score imitating which trip-hop band Wong couldn't afford?

Massive Attack proved too expensive, so Wong asked his Hong Kong composer to write something like them, and the film's signature track reworks their Karmacoma.

Who plays the hitman in Fallen Angels?

Leon Lai's killer rarely meets the woman who books his jobs and cleans his rooms, insisting partners shouldn't get emotionally involved, while she is secretly in love with him.

What kind of lens did the cinematographer use extensively in Fallen Angels to distort the actors' faces?

Wide-angle lenses, held right up to the actors, flip the look of Chungking Express: there long lenses shot from far off made people feel close, while here they are close yet seem far away.

Takeshi Kaneshiro's character in Fallen Angels, Ho Chi-mo, is what?

A mute ex-convict, he takes over other people's shops after closing time and bullies late-night passers-by into paying for haircuts, laundry and ice cream they never asked for.

Happy Together follows a Hong Kong couple who travel to which country?

Argentina was an escape: asked why Buenos Aires, Wong said he didn't want to make a film about Hong Kong in 1997, then found the finished film was about home after all.

Which prize did Wong win at Cannes in 1997 for Happy Together, a first for Hong Kong?

Best Director had never gone to a Hong Kong filmmaker, yet Wong waved it away when asked: 'it makes no difference, it's just something you can put on an ad.'

In Happy Together, the couple break up after getting lost on the way to which landmark?

Iguazu Falls is reached only by Fai, alone, once he has earned his fare home; Wong said he wanted something that never changes, so the waterfall stays the same while the people keep changing.

Happy Together's English title is borrowed from a 1967 hit by which band?

The Turtles' sunny hit is saved for the very end, as Fai heads home through Taipei, so a film about a couple tearing each other apart closes on a rush of security and homecoming.

Whose bandoneon music recurs throughout Happy Together's soundtrack?

Astor Piazzolla's melancholy music set the mood for a slower, more linear film: with everyone now expecting fragments from him, Wong said, 'we had to move on.'

In the Mood for Love's betrayed neighbours grow close while writing what together?

A martial-arts serial gives them a reason to keep meeting, and the hotel room he rents so they can write unobserved is numbered 2046, the title of Wong's next feature.

In the Mood for Love left Cannes in 2000 with a technical prize and which other award?

Best Actor went to Tony Leung Chiu-wai for a film that barely made it: Wong was still editing at the eleventh hour, cutting a whole 1970s section he had already shot.

At which ancient site does Chow whisper his secret into a wall at the end of In the Mood for Love?

Angkor Wat stands in for the tree in an old story Chow tells earlier: a man with a secret finds a tree, carves a hole, whispers it inside and seals it with mud.

Which magazine's 2022 critics' poll ranked In the Mood for Love fifth among the greatest films ever?

Sight and Sound's critics placed it that high, yet it is a love story that holds nearly everything back: the affair is never consummated and the cheating spouses' faces are never shown.

In the Mood for Love dresses Maggie Cheung in a famous succession of which garment?

Cheongsams, each pattern more striking than the last, piled up over a 15-month shoot, and they are so grand that a neighbour in the film asks, 'She dresses up like that to go out for noodles?'

Which composer wrote 'Yumeji's Theme', the mournful string refrain that recurs in In the Mood for Love?

Shigeru Umebayashi wrote it for a 1991 Japanese film; Wong borrowed it early, said its plucked strings felt like a heartbeat, and repeats it because 'repetition is how memory works.'

The Chinese title of In the Mood for Love comes from a 1940s pop song by which singer?

Zhou Xuan's song plays on a radio in the film, and Wong used its title again the same year for a short film.

Which city's backstreets stood in for 1960s Hong Kong in In the Mood for Love?

Bangkok's less modernised neighbourhoods supplied the alleys, so the Hong Kong on screen is an illusion built from mere hints of a place.

Which Hong Kong writer's tale Intersection helped inspire In the Mood for Love?

Liu Yichang's Intersection runs two strangers' lives side by side, an old man's memories and a young girl's hopes, and Wong said it gave the film its spine: two stories, mirror images.

Wong's title 2046 refers to what?

The last year of the 'one country, two systems' promise is 2046: China pledged that Hong Kong would go 50 years unchanged after 1997, and Wong wondered whether anything in people's lives stays that unchanged.

Which Japanese star plays Wang Jing-wen's boyfriend in 2046?

Takuya Kimura plays the Japanese lover her father forbids and, in the science-fiction story the hero writes about them, the one traveller who ever comes back from 2046.

What forced Wong to halt the 2046 shoot partway through?

The SARS epidemic interrupted filming, one reason the film took four years; the print then reached Cannes so late that it missed its scheduled screening.

Wong's segment of the 2004 anthology Eros, starring Gong Li as a call girl, is titled what?

The Hand follows a shy tailor through years of making dresses for a call girl he can never have; critics often rank it the best of the three parts.

Which singer did Wong cast as the lead of My Blueberry Nights in her first starring role?

Norah Jones found an acting teacher to get ready, and Wong told her to stop the lessons because she was a natural, though, as she pointed out, he had never seen her act in anything.

With which crime novelist did Wong co-write My Blueberry Nights?

Lawrence Block was a stranger whose stories Wong had long admired; writing in English for the first time, he meant to hire a writer per chapter, but Block worked so fast that he got the whole film.

Which cinematographer shot My Blueberry Nights, taking over from Wong's longtime cameraman?

Darius Khondji already knew Wong from commercials, and the two found the film's locations the hard way, driving across America through the night with their production manager.

The Grandmaster is a biopic of which martial arts master?

Ip Man is famous as Bruce Lee's teacher, but Wong's film starts long before that, opening in 1936 and following him through war and invasion; Wong gave seven years to researching and shooting it.

Which injury to Tony Leung twice halted The Grandmaster's shoot?

A broken arm, twice over, helped drag the production out for years, so long that rival films about the same kung fu teacher reached cinemas before Wong's did.

The Grandmaster's two Academy Award nominations were for Cinematography and which other category?

Costume Design and Cinematography were its two nominations, in technical races; as Hong Kong's official entry it reached the foreign-language shortlist but not the final five.

The Grandmaster took about $64 million worldwide on release, most of it from which market?

Mainland China supplied most of it, as planned: Wong built the film as a big co-production with the mainland industry, and said he was surprised but happy that young audiences there turned out.

Which celebrated action choreographer also appears on screen in The Grandmaster, as the hero's first teacher?

Yuen Woo-ping, who staged the fights in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, choreographed this film's battles too, then stepped in front of the camera to initiate the young hero.

Which label released a box set of Wong's restored films in the United States in March 2021?

The Criterion Collection got restorations Wong had supervised himself, and he did more than clean them up: some films came back with a new frame shape and new colours.

Which laboratory worked on the 4K restorations of Wong's films?

L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna is the restoration lab of the city's film archive, and it went back to the original negatives with Wong himself supervising the work.

Wong's first television series, which aired from December 2023, was based on a novel by whom?

Jin Yucheng is one of the few novelists to write directly in his city's own dialect, and Wong bought the rights to his prize-winning Blossoms about a decade before the series finally aired.

Which Wong-directed series about 19th-century San Francisco gangs did Amazon order in 2017 and later drop?

Tong Wars never reached the screen: Amazon let the rights go, and Wong's television debut did not air until the end of 2023, six years after the order.

Which accessory is Wong almost never seen without?

Dark sunglasses are his trademark, kept on even indoors; by his own account they are part of the job, a habit that tells him he is working.

Wong credits the fragmentary structure of his films to novelists from which region?

Latin America gave him Manuel Puig: Wong traced his fragmented storytelling to Puig's novels and later set out to adapt one of them for the screen.

Wong's shoots famously run long because he starts filming without what?

A finished script is what he goes without: the actors get a bare outline and no rehearsals, and he finds the film as he shoots, which is why his productions can run for years.

Which channel did Wong say impressed his generation of Hong Kong filmmakers when it first reached the city?

MTV, by Wong's account, arrived in the late eighties, and its energy and fragmented structure struck filmmakers used to smooth, lyrical storytelling as the direction to take.

Which lifetime achievement honour did Wong accept in Lyon, France, in October 2017?

The Lumière Award he dedicated to his wife and producer, calling her on stage as his muse: every heroine he writes has something of her, he said, which is why her name comes first in his credits.

Which longtime collaborator designs the sets and costumes for Wong's films and edits them too?

William Chang is already designing the lights when he designs a set, Wong says, so the cinematographer has nothing left to work out; one of Wong's stars summed him up as the man everything has to go by.

Which 1987 Haruki Murakami novel do critics count among the inspirations for Wong's films?

Norwegian Wood is the novel critics point to; Wong himself put the kinship down to age: he and Murakami, he said, both grew up buying the music, cigarettes and lifestyle that came with the US Seventh Fleet.

Which Best Picture winner's director has cited Wong's films as an influence on it?

Moonlight is one of many: its director has cited Wong's films, and critics trace the look of In the Mood for Love through Lost in Translation and Everything Everywhere All at Once as well.

Which Hong Kong star plays the lead in As Tears Go By, opposite Maggie Cheung and Jacky Cheung?

Andy Lau plays a triad enforcer forever dragged into trouble by his hot-headed sidekick; Wong says the genre chose itself, because a John Woo hit had everybody in Hong Kong making gangster films.

In Ashes of Time, what trade does the swordsman Ouyang Feng ply from his desert inn?

Hiring out assassins is how Ouyang Feng gets by: Wong's wuxia hero mostly leaves the fighting to others, brooding at his inn over the woman who chose another man.

Who won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards as The Grandmaster's kung fu heiress?

Zhang Ziyi won as Gong Er, heiress to a northern martial-arts dynasty, while the film's leading man lost his category; critics noticed that Wong seemed more interested in her than in his hero.

Which British actor plays the New York café owner the heroine keeps returning to in My Blueberry Nights?

Jude Law's Jeremy was written as a melancholy man, but Wong kept asking him to walk busy and talk loud until a brighter character emerged, and praised the actor's feel for the rhythm of a line.

Which actor plays A Bao, the stock-market millionaire at the heart of Wong's first television series?

Hu Ge plays an ambitious young man who rides the early-1990s stock market to a fortune; viewers could choose between two versions of the series, one in Mandarin and one in the local dialect.

Which American crooner is heard singing in Spanish throughout In the Mood for Love?

Nat King Cole croons 'Quizás, quizás, quizás', Spanish for 'perhaps, perhaps, perhaps', almost mocking the two hesitant neighbours; Wong said the music brought a longing for somewhere else.