Chungking express is a great film to probe these ideas. What chungking express lacks in narrative action, it makes up for with a dazzling, psychologicallyrich visual style. The cinema of wong kar wai is important 20th century cinema in 90s hong kong society, which was in a postindustrial and postcolonial situation. This is also a process through which researchers understand the complexities of. Huang 2002 have analyzed wongs manipulation of time, space, and chance in chungking express via narrative and. Analysis of personal narratives catherine kohler riessman. Notably, wongs editing style gives the film a vast looping feeling, similar to a series of recurring dreams or a song.
Cop 223s girlfriend has dumped him, but he isnt yet ready to accept that shes gone, so he contrives a monthlong waitingmourning period that gives their alreadydead relationship an expiration date. An excerpt from an episode of observations on film art, now streaming on the criterion channel on filmstruck. For comments on an earlier version of the chapter, i thank elliot mishler, paul rosenblatt, jay gubrium and jim holstein. The male protagonist in each is a police officer in hong kong, while the two female protagonists are very different from each other. Sympathy for inanimate objects in chungking express. Chungking express, he worked within a very wide range of styles and genre. Wong karwais in the mood for love is a radiant homage to the neglected posterior.
Chungking express, directed by wong karwai in 1994, is a tale of the pains, troubles, and benefits of love. There i try to show how its narrative construction welds together bits that might. Narrative analysis handout narrative analysis is a key competency of the par researcher, and a starting tool for collaboration and building empathy. Narrative analysis in the human sciences refers to a family of approaches to diverse kinds of texts, which have in common a storied form. The movies buoyant mood, created with the help of charismatic performances from a cast. The movie is split into two parts with the main focus of each being a male and female protagonist. Wong grasped this apprehension and wove it into his films dual narrative. Notable films include days of being wild, chungking express, in the mood for. Therefore, analysis of wongs cinema for me is more like finding a better understanding of myself, and that was the reason his films attracted me. It was with trepidation that i watched chungking express for the first time, having heard of it in passing, together with the name wong kar wai in connection with chinese language cinema. Theorizing narrative data analysis and interpretation. The parsons institute 68 f avenue 212 229 6825 for. Brief analysis of the story structure in chungking express. Nightly reading notes, citizen kane response piece, shotbyshot analysis 810 pages 4.
It is a loose sequel to wongs films days of being wild 1990 and in the mood for love 2000. Through these approaches, social researchers explore how people story their lives. The widely acclaimed films of wong karwai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. Narrative approaches in qualitative research margarete sandelowski there is a new attention across disciplines to narrative know ingthe impulse to story life events into order and meaning. As nations and governments construct preferred narratives about history, so do social movements, organisations, scientists, other professionals, ethnicracial groups. The feeling of uncertainty, mixedup genres and disorder narratives belong to wongs postmodernist strategy of reconstructing his narratives. Narrative symmetry in chungking express the current. Early days of cinema and historiography bordwell pp. Sample syllabus this syllabus is provided as a sample. The ambivalent identity of wong karwais cinema papyrus. Music and the future in wong karwais chungking express 1994. Wkw warps and expands the ultratransience of modern hk, where the issue of identity is never clear cut. In chungking express, the narrative comprises two separate stories, told in sequence, about policemen working the beat in the vicinity of the chungking mansions, a famously seedy hong kong locale and gathering place for night people of all ethnicities.
Narrative is a pervasive form of communication in the social world. The two central male characters are policemen who have recently split up with their longterm girlfriends, and now find themselves alone in. This study of wongs filmmaking techniques uses a poetics approach to examine how form, music, narration, characterization, genre, and other artistic elements work together to produce certain effects on audiences. In doing so, we explore how narrative analysis enables us to explore the socially constructed nature of the research process and the role stories play in the construction of identity.
But more broadly, the films narrative treats time in an impressionistic, slippery. It got a chapter in planet hong kong and an analysis in film art. The research method of narrative analysis would be analyzed along with a narrative from an engineering graduate student to better demonstrate its validity and show its practicality as a research method in the engineering field. It also marked a turning point in his work, a shift in direction that is actually signaled within the film, when the desultory underworld revenge narrative fades away and is replaced by a love story as simple as it is delirious. Narrative analysis may focus, for example, on text, media text, picture, film, music and an environment, which act as a story or have a storylike structure.
I dont mean to detract in any way from maggie cheungs overall. In this paper, narrative is presented as a framework for understanding the subject and interview data in qualitative research. Narrative analysis aims to identify the kinds of stories told about the researched phenomenon and the kinds of story representing the phenomenon in culture and society. Chungking express is a definitive example of how the presence of an actors song brings fan gossip and popular knowledge into the narrative. This works in both a personal sense the roving jungle of urban existence, swamped by the shifting identities of global commerce and fashions. The cinema of wong karwai a writing game senses of. The cinema of wong kar wai is important 20th century cinema in 90s hong kong. The films second story ultimately pivots on a handdrawn boarding. Capitalism, violence, and sexuality american psycho by. Applying the theory of visual narrative grammar 5 b. Narrative researchers point out that much attention has been given to the various issues of.
Watch the above excerpt for an introduction to wong. This is a survey course designed to introduce you to the broad range of theoretical, formal, and historiographic issues specific to cinema. Chungking express study guide contains a biography of wong karwai, literature. Usen, 20 are actually the main focal point in his visual narrative structure. The story centres on a small takeaway stall, the midnight express, which is. As tears go by 1989, days of being wild 1990, ashes of time 1994, chungking express 1994, fallen angels 1995, happy together 1997, in the mood for love 2000 backside. It follows the aftermath of chow mowans unconsummated affair with su lizhen in 1960s hong kong but also includes some science fiction elements and makes frequent references to the date of december 24 or christmas. Chungking express essays are academic essays for citation. Download chilean filmmaker raoul ruiz is the author of some 100 featurelength films, along with numerous plays and multimedia installations. Chungking express analysis of cinematography posted. In her liner notes for the criterion collection dvd and bluray release of the film, amy taubin calls chungking express a turning point in wongs career, pointing to this moment as a shift in direction thats actually signaled within the film, when the desultory underworldrevenge narrative fades away and is replaced by a love story. O ne of the most beloved films of the nineties, wong karwais chungking express captures the whiplash rhythms and tenuous connections of urban life through two divergent storylines, each centered on a heartsick cop and a mysterious woman with whom he becomes romantically entangled.
Atom egoyans exotica 1994, wong karwais chungking express 1994, paul thomas andersons magnolia 1999. Explore the narrative function of his editing, camera movement, and other visual factors. You cannot even begin to count the characters played by pacino, beatty, nicholson, penn, who are directly descended from jeanpaul belmondos insouciant killer michel. It is intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal, made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit, and contains unconventional or highly symbolic content.
The first of chungking express twin stories involves a countdown. Chungking express established wongs reputation as a major auteur, the most glamorous and enigmatic since godard. Scene analysis of chungking express nicholas lance. Being wild 1990, chungking express 1994, fallen angels 1995, in the mood for love. Grammatical patterns another way to hypoth esize about constituents is to look at the sequencing patterns that are left by your analysis of narrative categories. Story elements under scrutiny include setting, dialogue, character relationships, character identities, thematic motifs, musical references, numerology, and genre manipulation. Narrative neither assumes nor demands objectivity instead, it privileges subjectivity and agency. Midwifery practices in hospital, birth center, and home settings. Narrative discourse pdf hansen, early cinema, late cinema pdf february 9 a trip to the moon, melies, 1898. Wong karwai born 1956 is an awardwinning hong kong filmmaker and producer.
At ucla last summer, quentin tarantino introduced a screening of chungking express and confessed that while watching it on video, i just started crying. An art film is typically a serious, independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. Christopher doyle transformed hong kong into a woozy array of sublime neons and. The movies buoyant mood, created with the help of charismatic performances from a cast of hong kong. The most romantic relationship between hong konger and. Huang 2002 have analyzed wongs manipulation of time, space, and chance in chungking express via narrative and visual analysis.
Pdf wkw the cinema of wong kar wai download full pdf. In chungking express, wong ignores the usual representational approaches that underpin classical narrative cinema. Mar 26, 2018 in the latest episode of observations on film art, now streaming on the criterion channel on filmstruck, scholar david bordwell isolates the recurring motifs in chungking express, illustrating how the director uses small details to unite two sections that never intersect on a narrative level. Film education resources film library chungking express.
Directors influenced by wong include quentin tarantino, sofia coppola, tsui hark and barry jenkins. The 1994 film was the first foray onto the big screen for faye wong, already established as a pop goddess, and won her the best actress award at the stockholm film festival and a nomination at the. Oct 14, 20 in her liner notes for the criterion collection dvd and bluray release of the film, amy taubin calls chungking express a turning point in wongs career, pointing to this moment as a shift in direction thats actually signaled within the film, when the desultory underworldrevenge narrative fades away and is replaced by a love story. Narrative symmetry in chungking express the current the.
The most romantic relationship between hong konger and their. Chungking express is nearly twentyfive years old, and it remains as jittery and sparkling as it was in 1994. Two heartsick hong kong cops takeshi kaneshiro and tony leung, both jilted by exlovers, cross paths at the midnight express takeout restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress faye. Chungking express features wong karwais unique visual style. Narrative analysis is an analytical method that accommodates a variety of approaches. Research cinema history pdf gunning, theory and history. The first section provides an overview of narrative analysis and its use in social research. David bordwell on the narrative symmetry of chungking express. In poetics of cinema, ruiz takes a fresh approach to the major themes haunting our audiovisual civilization. Snapshots from happy together and chungking express pag. The opening sequence employs an unusual stutterstep effect, most. A narrative of the lords wonderful dealings with john marrant a black 1 a new england nun 1 a pale view of hills 4 a passage to india 12 a philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful 3 a prayer for owen meany 7 a psalm of life 1 a queer mother for the nation 1 a raisin in the sun 30.
As nations and governments construct preferred narratives about history, so do social. From the very beginning of chungking express, wong and his cinematographersandrew lau and christopher doyle, the latter of whom has collaborated with wong many times, and here, primarily worked on the films second storyfind ways to visually represent temporal distortion. Oct 15, 2014 chungking express analysis of cinematography posted. Purposive sample of 14 midwives drawn from a large national delphi panel on exemplary midwifery practice. The two central male characters are policemen who have recently split up with their longterm girlfriends, and now find themselves alone in hong kong.
The movie was a crucial influence during hollywoods 19671974 golden age. How wong karwai turned 22 seconds into an eternity the. I didnt have to take out my handkerchief a single time during the film, and i didnt love it nearly as much as he did, but i. Chungking express 1994 was on its release an intoxicating experience with its moody visuals, fastpaced editing, cheerful pop songs, and charming if sometimes a little too ingratiating voiceover, but i could never quite rid myself of the feeling that underneath it all there was something a little hollow about it, and about the followup. There is a direct line through breathless to bonnie and clyde, badlands and the youth upheaval of the late 1960s. Chungking express utilizes the widespread images of crime, love and routine to comment upon the deeper purpose of existence and fear of running out of time. The city as a space of multiple, infinite, relational possibilities in chungking express. Narrative analysis may focus, for example, on text, media text, picture, film, music and an environment, which. Cult hong kong filmmaker wong kar wais chungking express is a stylish combination of romance, deadpan comedy and film noir set in and around hong kongs notorious chunking mansions, a complex of shabby hostels, bars and clubs teaming with illegal immigrants. Stripped to its barest plot synopsis, chungking express tells the story of.
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