Wong Kar-wai () (born July 17, 1958) is a Hong Kong film director.
Born in Shanghai, China, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of five and graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic College in graphic design in 1980. After graduation, he enrolled in the Production Training Course organized by Hong Kong Television Broadcasts Limited and became a full-time scriptwriter. Between 1982 and 1987, he wrote about ten scripts, covering an array of genres from romantic comedy to action drama. Of these, he considered Final Victory (最後勝利; 1986 Patrick Tam) his best script.
Since 1989, Wong Kar-wai has directed eight feature films and won numerous awards, including the best director's prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for Happy Together. He was also one of the first film-makers in Hong Kong to establish his own independent production company, called Jet Tone Films Ltd. in English.
Despite being a former scriptwriter, one of his trademarks as a director is that he works largely through improvisation and experimentation involving the actors and crew rather than adhering to a fixed script. This has caused him some trouble when the filming of In the Mood for Love had to be shifted from Beijing to Macau after Chinese authorities demanded to see the completed script. The time-consuming method can also be credited for Wong's films taking so long to complete, as well as his unique style. A running joke amongst the crew has been that he would finish his film 2046 in the year 2046.
In 2001 Wong Kar-wai directed the short-film The Hire: The Follow as part of the BMW films initiative.
Wong Kar-wai's latest film is 2046, released in 2004.
Filmography
Feature films
Short films
Awards
See also
External links
Official
Fansites
Articles
Interviews
Other
Further Reading
- Wong Kar Wai by Jean-Marc Lalanne et al.
- Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time by Wimal Dissanayake & Dorothy Wong
- Wong Kar Wai's Happy Together by Jeremy Tambling
- Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance by M. A. Abbas
