final reminder for all sorts of things

Everything, including final projects, weekly posts, and whatever you left behind, is due by the end of Thursday.
For papers, email it to ec193209@ohio.edu. Make sure you get my response by Friday. If not, email your paper again.
For final projects, upload it to our class dropbox account. If the storage space is not enough, you can delete the readings, or create another dropbox account with your own id, and share it with filmsofwkw@gmail.com. BE AWARE NOT DELETE OTHER PEOPLE'S PORJECT!!! WRITE ME AN EMAIL ONCE YOU FINISH UPLOADING AND MAKE SURE YOU GET MY RESPONSE BY FRIDAY.
For class evaluation, if you weren't there when we did the evaluation, and you're still willing to submit one for our class, please visit the School of Film office (Lindley 378) during office hours and ask for the sheets.

Look forward to your projects!
Ellen

examples for wkw final project

The project is inspired by three filmmakers, Yasujiro Ozu, Wim Wenders, and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. If you want to conduct your final project by analyzing one or more particular cinematic elements employed among several wkw's films, you can refer to this example.

This project is inspired by an experimental filmmaker, Chick Strand. If you choose to complete your project by focusing on one specific film of WKW, and analyzing one or more elements within that film, you can refer tho this project. It's also applicable for those who are dealing with a series of WKW's films. A project description was handed out in class on Thursday. No matter which way you're doing your final project, you can always refer to that hand-out if you have no clue how to start your project description or presentation.

Final Project and Presentation

For you final project, you can choose to work on either one of the following formats (You'll have to notify me by May 31 in class which format are you going to work on):

1.     Your creative project for this class can be performed in any kinds of format: graphics, videos, crafts, music, or any types that you can think of. Your inspiration can come from one or multiple films, or cinematic/narrative elements.

2.     Your Final paper (8-10 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt.) for this class should focus only on one film from Wong Kar-Wai’s oeuvre. You may either examine a topic we covered in class in more depth, or select an area of interest that we did not directly address. Quotations from at least two readings assigned for class, and at least three readings excluded from the syllabus are required. For online sources, they must only be quoted if they could be classified as academic journals.

Your presentation for the creative project should have at least the following elements – though how you construct the presentation is up to your discretion: (It's always welcome if anyone working on a writing assignment wants to do a presentation as well.)

a.     (A rough draft of your creative work) with a brief introduction of your topic for the final project, including a short review of the important literature on it, and the general approach you propose to follow.

b.     A short clip (approximately 3 minutes) from your selected films as to support your argument.

c.     The presentation should be around 8-10 minutes.

Presentation will be on June 2 in class.

Your final paper is due June 9 by email. (Make sure you get my confirmation email) 

Your creative project is due June 9 by turning in your work to the School of Film office @ Lindley 378.

week7.k.w

Wong Kar-Wai claims that 2046 is about promise, but pretty evidently it's at the same time about making changes and letting go of the past. A series of transformation happens on our leading character, Chow Mo-wan and his past/present relationships with other females somehow hint on this notion.
Tony Leung played out the same character, Chow Mo-wan, in both In the Mood for Love and 2046; however, besides those similarities (name, appearance, outfit...) passed down from the earlier In the Mood for Love, many more different characteristics have been displayed throughout the later 2046.

At the Cannes press conference, Tony Leung said, "This film is about a man who is trying to get rid of his past. Wong told me that it was the same character as before, but that I should treat him as a completely new character. This was quite different and challenging to do, so I asked Wong if I could at least have a mustache to represent this change in the same character for me." Leung was granted the mustache and, indeed it, does help make the transition for the viewer as well. (Brunette, 102)

Watch the clip and consider how the notion of making changes is portrayed in 2046 through either the protagonist, Mr. Chow, or other characters/cinematic elements that you would like to discuss.

The DVD I showed today has too many scratches, which resulted in several scenes being skipped. If you want to catch up with those missing parts, 2046 is available on youtube with English subtitle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNKn5O_XmwA&playnext=1&list=PL0FD52C22B28F7E5B

week6.k.w

Above is an alternative ending for In the Mood for Love, in which the two protagonists have their last encounter in Cambodia.

Watch the clip and consider which ending you feel like working better in contributing and developing the overall atmosphere or narrative for In the Mood for Love. If you like, you're always super welcome to share another ending created by you, which you feel like working better according to your understanding of the film.

PS. It's natural that different people have different perspectives and understanding of the same film, so don't worry about arguing for the alternative ending which wasn't selected as the official ending for In the Mood for Love by the filmmaker.

week5.k.w

"Wong relies once again on voice-over, but in [Happy Together] its role is somewhat reduced, more conventionally, to providing minimal exposition, as well as the intimate calibration of Yiu-fai's feelings. In the earlier films, the very existence of so much voice-over was a sign of the characters' alienation from one another, but Happy Together actually contains a great deal of dialogue. The alienation remains, but it's shown through the more conventional--and perhaps ore emotionally involving--method of having characters talk to (and scream at) each other." (Brunette, 74)

Before the screening, I introduced Happy Together as a gay film, which cares less about the social-political issues surrounding the notion of homosexuality. In Teo's reading, a debate on whether Happy Together should be categorized as a gay movie was deployed by introducing Edward Lam's critique of the film published in City Entertainment (See Teo 105: "A Man and a (Wo)man"). Teo, having a counter viewpoint from Lam, analyzed the role of our two protagonists by quoting one dialogue between them, and augured that Wong was trying to "parodies the notion of the surrogate woman and the idea of acting like a man" in Happy Together. (Teo 108)

For this week's response, either investigate how dialogue is being used in Happy Together, how it is different/similar to the voice-over in the film and how it contributes to the overall meaning of the film, in consideration of WKW's earlier works or analyze how those dialogues (or other techniques) in Happy Together are adopted to complicate the discourse of homosexuality.

* Happy Together is available on netflix (although not for instant watch). Our library also has a VHS copy with English subtitle aviable at the 4F circulation desk, and there are players right next to it.

[Dialogue 1: Lai gets sicks and sleeps on the sofa. Ho tries to wake him up]

HO: How do you feel?

LAI: Terrible.

HO: You're feverish.

LAI: Of course I am... jogging in that unbearable cold

HO: Didn't know you're so weak... getting sick so easily... Can you get up?

LAI: For what?

HO: Cook something... We haven't eaten for two days!

LAI: Are you cold blooded or what? Asking a sick man to cook for you?

(Lai goes cooking...)

[Dialogue 2: Ho is lying on the bed as Lai sleeps on the sofa. He goes over to the sofa and snuggles up to Lai] (see Teo 108-9)

LAI: Why do you want to sheep here where we're so pressed for space?

HO: Because I like it.

LAI: Don't you think this is too small for us?

HO: No it's comfy.

(Ho gives Lai a bite)

LAI: Ow! Why are you biting me?

HO: I'm hungry.

LAI: Do you want to sleep here on the sofa?

HO: Why?

LAI: Because I'll sleep on the bed then.

HO: Don't go on about it. Just go to sleep.

LAI: Or else you take the bed and I'll sleep on the sofa.

HO: What an old fusspot you are.

(Lai stnads up and gets into the bed. Ho follows, and again tries to snuggle up to Lai)

HO: You are not so heartless, are you?

LAI: We are tight for space.

HO: Not at all

(Ho climbs on top of Lai)

HO: I'll get on top and we'll just sleep like this.

(Ho lies on top, his face digging into Lai's neck)

LAI: So you want to sleep here?

HO: Are you going to be like that?

(Lai pushes him aside and tries to get up)

HO: All right... I'll sleep here. Let's sleep together.

LAI: All right. Go to sleep. But don't you trifle with me.

HO: Who, me? Don't you trifle with me.

(He quickly plants his lips on Lai's cheek)

Give us a kiss! Good night.

Start working on your midtern paper!! No weekly response for Fallen Angels!

Midterm Project (due on 5/10)

Film of WKW

Spring 2011

Midterm Project

For your Midterm paper (6-8 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt.), specify and analyze in depth one cinematic technique (narrative, character, cinematography, and music, etc.) on your own choice.

The paper should cover at least two films from Days of Being Wild, As Tear Goes By, and Chungking Express. It is recommended that you compare and contrast between two or more films we’ve covered. A good example would be “Chasing the Metaphysical Express: Music in the Films of Wong Kar-Wai,” which is listed as one of the reading for Chungking Express.

Quotations from at least two readings assigned for class, and at least one reading excluded from the syllabus are required. For only sources, they must only be quoted if they could be classified as academic journals.

Your midterm paper is due on May 10^th  in-class.  

week4.k.w

"Wong Kar-Wai has opened up a new emotional dimension in Hong-Kong cinema, [...]. His use of music is characteristic of this approach, which aims the whole time to bring out an unstated emotion. Unlike other Hong-Kong directors, Wong Kar-Wai never uses Chinese music, because in his films the sound-track never illustrates a precise, real context, but evokes a purely referential, even interior world (Lalanne, 30)."

 

In "CHASING THE METAPHYSICAL EXPRESS: MUSIC IN THE FILMS OF WONG KAR-WAI," Jean-Marc Lalanne profoundly analyzes the role of music in WKW's films, giving examples from films like Chungking Express, Days of Being Wild, Happy Together, Ashes of Time. Although we've only watched a couple of them, the significance of the usage of music in WKW's films is already obviously presented.

His comment on the interaction between music and the characters remarkably fits to Chungking Express, in terms of the young waitress's relationship with her beloved song, California Dreaming:

"The interaction between music and the characters is expressed visually just as much as symbolically. In Wong Kar-Wai's films the characters create their own sound environment. They hear and above all listen to music. Music exaggerates their narcissistic impulses, brings out their natural sensuality and consolidates the fantasy worlds that they invent for themselves. Music creates pockets of fiction within the overall fiction of the story, mini-narratives for the characters (31)."

Some similar comments could also be found in both Brunette and Teo's writings on Chungking Express.

Read through all there readings for Chungking Express, and investigate how music is mapped out in the film and how it contributes to the overall meaning of the film, in consideration of WKW's other stylistic choices of cinematic elements.  You can always refer to any films/shorts that we have watched in class or anything else of your own interest.

* Keep in mind that week4.k.w is designed to be a shorter/similar version of our midterm paper. An assignment sheet will be ready next Thursday.

* Chungking Express is available on netflix (although not for instant watch). Our library also has a VHS copy with English subtitle aviable at the 4F circulation desk, and there are players right next to it.

Athens Film Festival

Post your response for both your selection of the feature film and the category of shorts here.
Approximately 300 words of each.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Class Cancellations for 2011 Athens International Film+Video Festival: 4/21 (Thursday) and 4/26 (Tuesday)

Athens annual film festival is coming!!
Since one of the goals of our w.k.w. class is to get you familiar with filmmakers outside the States, film festival is always the best way to start!! Therefore, I will be canceling our class on 4/21 and 4/26 for the festival.

Please go to at least one feature film (see p.2~p.11 of the festival program) and one category of short films (p.12~p.32) presented during the festival week.

Post your response (around 300 words for each) under the topic of "Athens Film Festival" by the end of next week (4/30).
We will talk about Chugnking Express on 4/28, so make sure you finish the readings and post your weekly response before you come to class next week.

enjoy!

week3.k.w

In "Images from the Inside," Jean-Marc Lalanne, giving voice-off example from Chungking Express like "In 48 hours, I was going to fall in love with this women," commented on how WKW's use of voice-off "[refuses] to allow complete involvement in what is being lived through, [and in such a refusal] lies the film-maker's most profoundly nostalgic outlook. Because true nostalgia, the saudade, is not a nostalgia for the past (which is a fairly sterile feeling) but rather the nostalgia for the present, the melancholic awareness that the present is always what is in the process of coming apart, of ceasing to exist" (24).

A similar comment was also made in Brunette's article on Days of Being Wild. "[In Days of Being Wild, the] unceasing desire to capture the present moment, for whatever reason, is always defeated, as the present is always already gone as soon as we begin to look for it" (20).

Yuddy's initial come-on line to Li-zhen, "One minute before 3:00 P.M. on April 16, 1960," the loud ticking of a clock, the frequent hammering of the rain, a woman cleans a clock over and over again, etc, altogether became a set of running motif in the film, interlacing with the theme of the implacable impossibility and hopelessness of love.

Read through both Brunette and Teo's comments on the development of those romantic (heteroerotic/homoerotic) pairings set in Days of Being Wild, and WKW's use of clock/time. Consider in what way(s) the two aforementioned techniques complement each other by sorting out the relationship set between them. You can try to develop your idea by analyzing how the concept of time/clock embedded within one particular pairing in the film. Jean-Marc Lalanne's "Images from the Inside," which provides a comprehensive overview of the characteristics of WKW's films, might also be helpful for you to develop your thought.

p.s. Days of Being Wild is available on netflix for instant watch. Our library also has a DVD copy of it.

[youtube] Australian interview with Wong Kar-wai

This interview might be helpful for your week2.k.w post. They talked a lot about As Tears Go By.
 
This interview covers a lot of information about WKW's films starting from his very first one, his earlier career before becoming a director, and also some artistic choices he's made in his career. 

Australian interview with Wong Kar-wai Part 1 of 6
Australian interview with Wong Kar-wai Part 2 of 6
Australian interview with Wong Kar-wai Part 3 of 6
Australian interview with Wong Kar-wai Part 4 of 6
Australian interview with Wong Kar-wai Part 5 of 6
Australian interview with Wong Kar-wai Part 6 of 6

week2.k.w

In his "Tears, Time, and Love: The Films of Wong Kar-wai," Peter Brunette mentioned that "the central critical debate around As Tears Go By concerns its relation to the dominant tradition of Hong Kong genre films. Is it primarily another example of a generic gangster film, in the tradition made famous by John Woo and others? Or is it an altogether new beast, an art film from Hong Kong that bears the unmistakable imprint of an auteur interested in moving beyond genre?" (3)

David Bordwell was brought up to represent the generic camp while Chuck Stephens represents the antigeneric group. Read through their arguments for each of their standpoints and consider how you'd categorize WKW's As Tears Go By. To support your argument, provide examples from the film in terms of narrative, any type of filmmaking techniques, etc. It might help you sort out the examples you need by comparing As Tears Go By with some other gangster films you've seen before. 

p.s. As Tears Go By is available on netflix. Our library also has a VHS copy of it.

week1.k.w

Several stylized choice in wkw's films have been mentioned in class this week (refer to our readings for week 1 on dropbox if you need). Try to specify a single trait, provide example(s) from the shorts and elaborate how you identify with this specific characteristic. You can also compare and contrast wkw's filmmaking techniques with some other filmmakers with whom you're familiar if that helps.

Refer to the following links to re-watch the shorts you need:

The Hand (from Eros)
(no subtitle embedded. check out the library copy if you're looking for subtitle)

The Follow (The BMW commercial collection, The Hire)

There's Only One Sun (Commercial for Philip Aurea)

I Travelled 9000 km To Give It To You (from Chacun son cinéma, the Cannes festival 60 anniversary special collection)

Six Days (music video for DJ Shadow) 

Hua Yang De Nian Hua

Clip excerpted from 2046

Clip excerpted from In the Mood for Love

Comments and Concerns

Comments or Concerns?

Let me know what you think about the class especially if there's something that you wish to know more but I accidentally skipped through!

You can always email me or bring it up in class.

schedule

Week 1

Introduction

Class 1

Screening: The Hands (Eros, 2004)

I Traveled 9000 km To Give It To You (Chacun son cinema, 2007) for the 60^th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival

wkw/tk/1996@7’55”hk.net (1996) for Takeo Kikuchi

Follow (The Hire, 2001) for BMW

There’s Only One Sun (2007) for Philip Aurea

Six Days (2002) music video for DJ Shadow

Class 2

Reading:

·         Lalanne, Jean-Marc. “Image from Inside” Wong Kar-Wai. Dis Voir: Paris, 1997. 9-28

·         Stringer, Julian. “Wong Kar-wai.” Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers. Ed. Yvonne Tasker. Routledge: New York/ London, 2002. 395-402.

·         Cow, Rey. “Sentimental Returns: On the Use of the Everyday in the Recent Films of Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar-wai.” Reading Chinese Transnationalisms: Society, Literature, Film. Eds. Maria Ng, and Phillip Holden. Hong Kong University Press: Hong Kong, 2006. 173-188.

Week 2

In Mainstream Gear: First step into Hong Kong Film Industry

Class 3

·  Screening: As Tears Go By (1988)

Class 4

Reading:

·  Teo, Stephen. “As Tears Go By.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 15-30.

·  Brunette, Peter. “As Tears Go By.” Wong Kar-Wai. University of Illinois Press: Urbanna/ Chicago, 2005. 1-15.

Week 3

Wong’s Heartbreak Tango

Class 5

Screening: Days of Being Wild (1990)

Class 6

Reading:

·  Teo, Stephen. “Days of Being Wild.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 31-46.

·  Brunette, Peter. “Days of Being Wild.” Wong Kar-Wai. University of Illinois Press: Urbanna/ Chicago, 2005. 16-29.

Week 4

Space-Time Tango: Wong’s portrayal of the urban and its dwellers.

Class 7

Screening: Chungking Express (1994)

Class 8

Reading:

·  Martinez, David. “Chasing the Metaphysical Express.” Wong Kar-Wai. Dis Voir: Paris, 1997. 29-38.

·  Teo, Stephen. “Chungking Express.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 47-64.

·  Brunette, Peter. “Chungking Express.” Wong Kar-Wai. University of Illinois Press: Urbanna/ Chicago, 2005. 45-56.

Week 5

Wong’s Biographical Histories of Knights Errant

Class 9

Screening: Ashes of Time (1994)

Class 10

Reading:

·  Teo, Stephen. “Ashes of Time.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 65-82.

·  Brunette, Peter. “Ashes of Time.” Wong Kar-Wai. University of Illinois Press: Urbanna/ Chicago, 2005. 30-44.

Week 6

Pathos Angelical

Class 11

Screening: Fallen Angles (1995)

Class 12

Reading:

·  Siegel, Marc. “The Intimate Spaces of Wong Kar-wai.” At Full Speeds: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World. Ed. Esther C. M. Yau. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis/ London, 2001. 277-94.

·  Teo, Stephen. “Fallen Angels.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 83-97.

·  Brunette, Peter. “Fallen Angels.” Wong Kar-Wai. University of Illinois Press: Urbanna/ Chicago, 2005. 57-69.

Film Analysis Due In-class.

Week 7

Wong’s Buenos Aires Affair and his portrayal of the characters’ physically and mentally solitary.

Class 13

Screening: Happy Together (1997)

Class 14

Reading:

·  Abbras, Ackbar. “The Erotics of Disappointment.” Wong Kar-Wai. Dis Voir: Paris, 1997. 39-82.

·  Teo, Stephen. “Happy Together.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 98-113.

·  Brunette, Peter. “Happy Together.” Wong Kar-Wai. University of Illinois Press: Urbanna/ Chicago, 2005. 70-85.

Week 8

The Performance of Gender and the portrayal of affection in all types.

Class 15

Screening: Hua yang de nian hua (2000, short)

      In the Mood for Love (2000)

Class 16

Reading:

·  Palmer, Augusta Lee, and Jenny Kwok Wah Lau. “Of Executioners and Courtesans: The Performance of Gender in Hong Kong Cinema of the 1990s”. Multiple Modernities: Cinemas and Popular Media in Transcultural East Asia. Ed. Jenny Kwok Wah Lau. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 2003. 203-21.

·  Teo, Stephen. “In the Mood for Love.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 114-133.

·  Brunette, Peter. “In the Mood for Love.” Wong Kar-Wai. University of Illinois Press: Urbanna/ Chicago, 2005. 86-100.

Week 9

Wong’s Time Odyssey: China’s Promise of 15 Years no Chang.

Class 17

Screening: 2046 (2004)

Class 18

Reading:

·  Teo, Stephen. “2046.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 134-152.

·  Brunette, Peter. “2046.” Wong Kar-Wai. University of Illinois Press: Urbanna/ Chicago, 2005. 101-106.

Week 10

Special Screening and Overview

Class 19

Screening: My Blueberry Nights (2007)

Reading:

·  Teo, Stephen. “Mini-Projects and Conclusion.” Wong Kar-Wai. British Film Institute: London, 2005. 153-166.

Class 20

Final Project Presentation.

Written Final Paper due on the first day of final exam week. (TBA)

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