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AC
Team Wendy Chan (left) interviews
Director Wong Kar-wai (right)
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Q:
Can you talk about the use of music - when you're shooting do you
know what music you want to use? Are you thinking about music, or
is that all in the editing process when put that back in, because
this movie is almost like a whole music piece?
Wong:
To me the film is like a chain of music. When we started to make
this film, I had the music in my mind, and the music is waltz music
that has been repeated in the film all the time.
The music is composed
by a Japanese composer in 1972 for a Japanese film directed by Suzuki
Saiju. The composer is a friend of mine, and he keeps on sending me
tapes of his work, and somehow the music just clicks and I think the
relationship of these two persons actually is like a dance. It's like
a waltz, moving back and forth, it's testing and it's tempting.
So we decided
to use that music and I play that music to my cameraman and said,
okay, that will be the tempo of the film. The rhythm should be like
this. And the rest of the music, because we wanted to recreate that
period, so it's not only the look of the dress but also the sound.
And in 1962
because Hong Kong is a British colony with a lot of Chinese living
there, we have Western music, we have Japanese music, we have Cantonese
music, Mandarin operas and pop songs. So to me it's like a radio
program, and they are the radio days of Hong Kong. At one point
we invited all these radio people, there were 70 something, back
the studio to record all these radio programs, weather, news, and
so it's fun. We created the radio programs again.
Q:
Do you have this as a technique where you use the same songs over
and over again in your films, which works really politically. For
example in "Chungking Express," did you scheme the movie visually
based on California Dreaming?
Wong:
Because we want to create the routine for these two persons, and
most of our stories are about people who try to break away from
the routine or a certain orbit in their life, because we always
have our habits and we always follow our habits, and some days we
feel something's wrong and we are not happy with our lives and we
want to do something.
But we need
something to push us out of these things, and mostly in my films
it is because of love or because of being out of love. And we want
to see the changes through the unchanged, because we keep seeing
these two persons walking the same corridors, working in the same
space, and we have the music always repeating itself. But actually
we can see the changes because we can see during the films that
these two persons are actually changing.
Q:
Why did you choose Nat King Cole?
Wong:
Nat King Cole is extremely popular in Hong Kong. And we have the
Spanish song because in those days the musicians in Hong Kong are
mostly from the Philippines, so the Spanish influence is very strong.
And also Nat King Cole is my mother's favorite.
Q:
I think also the elements play a big part as well. I mean, there
is just so much rain in this movie. I was just wondering if that
was some sort of emotion or some sort of mood that you wanted to
project as well, particularly because most of the time when it's
raining it's like they are not aware of that. They get a little
wet, but that it. Was there some purpose of that as well?
Wong:
You have to understand Hong Kong is a tropical city, it rains all
the time. Hong Kong is a small city, and it's not like Los Angeles,
if it's raining you will die, you have to find a way to hide. But
actually I like rain. It is like smoke. Sometimes it just create
the mood, and it is an extension of something.
Q:
I read somewhere that you and Christopher Doyle had some sort of
falling out during the middle of the production. Was that at all
true?
Wong:
No, I don't think so. The reason Chris had to leave production was
because at first we thought that the film should be done in a few
months but actually it takes 15 months, and he has committed to
make a film in the States, and the agency is so tough, so he has
to go. So we have to work with another cameraman. Actually at the
beginning of the shooting of this film, we decided the film should
be more classical in a way, so he could not dance with his camera,
so in fact it is very hard for him to keep quiet behind the camera.
But he is doing a very good job in the film.
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Related:
AC
Interviews Actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai
AC
Interviews Actress Maggie Cheung Man-yuk
AC Interviews Director Wong Kar-wai
In
the Mood for Love (Movie Review by AC Team's Solange Castro Belcher)
About
In the Mood for Love
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