THE MOOD SETTER花樣情懷
The films of Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai are featured in a special collection this month本月精選香港著名導演王家衛最膾炙人口的電影於機上放映
For the past three decades, Wong Kar-wai has turned romantic yearning into an art form. His witty internal dialogue, his examination of emotional loneliness and his distinctive visual style continue to inspire aspiring directors today; Barry Jenkins, the director of last year’s Best Picture Oscar winner, Moonlight, cites Wong as one of his biggest influences.
As Hong Kong’s flagship airline, Cathay Pacific aims to curate the best of Hong Kong cinema for passengers around the world. This month, we’re featuring a collection of films by Hong Kong’s premier arthouse auteur for the first time.
Wong made his debut with As Tears
Go By, a gangland drama that shows his style coming into shape with the use of vibrant colours, undercranked action scenes (shot at a lower frame rate to create a more chaotic effect) and music choices that set the mood perfectly. But it was his second film, Days of Being Wild, that marked the start of his move into arthouse. The film tells a story of romantic entanglements in 1960s Hong Kong, with a smooth-talking playboy portrayed by Leslie Cheung at its centre. Its lack of a traditional plot structure and slow pace baffled audiences, but it has since become one of Wong and Cheung’s most-loved films.
That collaboration forged a longstanding partnership that produced two other contemporary Hong Kong classics. In subversive martial arts drama Ashes of Time (a re-edited ‘Redux’ version is onboard this month), Cheung plays a lovelorn master swordsman in the desert. In Happy Together, Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai (another frequent Wong collaborator) play a couple in Buenos Aires. Both films reveal Wong to be a meticulous and melancholic stylist who views love as unattainable but always worth yearning for.
Then came Chungking Express, about two heartbroken police officers and their encounters with new loves. The handheld cinematography captures Hong Kong with raw, immediate energy that was far ahead of its time in 1994. One of the cinematographers for this film was Christopher Doyle, an Australian who built his reputation working on seven of Wong’s 10 films. (Read about Doyle’s latest work on page 86.)
Speaking to Discovery, Doyle says his relationship with Wong is similar to a marriage. ‘ Why would you spend some time with anybody who wasn’t giving you something you didn’t have yourself? Wong Kar-wai was looking for something he can’t articulate alone, and then we found a voice,’ says Doyle, who calls Wong the ‘Genghis Khan of Chinese cinema’. ‘I think the most important thing that Wong has ever said to me is, “Is that all you can do, Chris?” It’s a mantra. It’s a way to address who you are in any aspect. Ninety per cent of the time you say, “That’s all I can do,” but occasionally you’ll do better. And that occasional is what matters.’
在過去30 年，王家衛把對愛情的渴望化成藝術，他那睿智的內心獨白、感對情 寂寞的探究，以及獨特的視覺風格，仍對今天的新晉導來演帶 啟。發 去年奧斯卡最佳電影《月亮喜歡藍》的導演 Barry Jenkins，也曾表示王家衛是響影 他最大的導演之一。
國泰航空是香港的旗艦航空公司，一直致力為自來 全球的乘客搜羅優秀的香港電影。本月，我推們 出這位藝術電影大師的多部經典之作。
王家衛的首作是黑幫電影《旺角卡門》，初試啼聲已經展示出他獨有的風格，鮮明亮的麗 色彩、減速攝影的動作場面（以較慢的幀率拍攝，塑造混亂的效果) ，以及完美表達氣氛的背景音樂。不過他的第二部電影《阿飛正傳》才是奠定他藝術電影方向的代表作，電影以1960 年代香港為背，景 張國榮飾演一個口甜舌滑的不覊浪子，道出一個情愛糾結故的 事。電影摒棄傳了 統的劇情結構，節奏緩慢，雖然令當時不少觀眾困惑不解，但卻自此成為王家衛與張國榮最受觀眾喜愛的電影之一。
這部電影造就了王家衛和張國榮往後的長期合作關係，拍出了另外兩部當代經典香港電影。在顛覆傳統的武俠電影《東邪西毒》（本月機上放映重新剪輯的「終極版」）中，張國榮飾演因失戀而隱居沙漠客的劍；在《春洩光乍 》中，張國榮與同樣經常跟王家衛合作的梁，朝偉 飾演對一 在布宜諾艾斯利斯離離合合的同性戀。人 王家衛在這兩部作品中，以細膩而略帶憂鬱的手法，表達了他認為愛情雖不可得卻值得渴望看。的法
然後還有《重慶森林》，述描 兩段失戀警察再結新歡的故事，以手搖鏡頭捕捉香港粗獷和野性的面貌，在當時1994 年說來是相當前衛的。來自澳洲的杜可風是本片其中一位攝影指導，在王家衛的十部電影中，他參與了七部的製作，更因此在電影界奠定穩固地位。杜（ 可風最近推作出新 ，請參閱 86頁）
杜可風向《Discovery》表示，他與王家衛的關係有如婚姻：「你為何要花時間跟一個不是與你互補不足的人在一起？王家衛在尋找一些他無法獨自表達的東西而，我起們一 可以找到一種風格。」他形容王家衛為國「中 電影界的成吉思汗」。杜可風補充說道：「王家衛跟我說過最重要的一句話是你︰『 已經盡力了嗎？』這句話有如神奇魔咒，幫可以 助你在各方面發自揮 己的最大潛力。十次有九次你會說：『我已盡了力。』但偶爾有一次你還可以做得更，好 而這個偶爾就是關鍵」。