AC Team's Wendy
Chan was invited to interview the stars of "In the Mood for Love,"
at a round table discussion at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles.
Wong Kar-wai
is one of the most innovative filmmakers working in cinema today.
In 1997, his films Happy Together and Fallen Angels were shown at
the New York Film Festival.
more on
Wong Kar-wai
Q: What happened
in the end of the movie? Did you intentionally leave it up in the
air?
Wong
Kar-wai: Yeah, I think so, because we have deleted the
love scenes between them, at the last minute we sent the film to
Cannes, because as an audience, I don't think I want to see that
happen in front of my eyes. I prefer the space for me to imagine.
I will guess, because I always think the audience should be one
of the neighbors, because neighbors always keep spying on these
two persons. And there are some things that shouldn't be seen, you
can guess. And also I think this makes the whole thing more ambiguous.
And I think it's up to the audience to decide about the kid, about
the affairs, and actually I think it's more appropriate in that
way.
Q:
But you tend to have open ended endings in some of your other films
too, is it your goal to make people think about what's going on
because it has to do with relationships and things are not black
and white in relationships?
Wong:
I always think it's all right for the audience to ask questions,
because you should make a film??or we provide the questions and
you give the answers by yourself. And the films have very simple
stories, and we are not creating something very, very difficult
or complicated, and there are some things that I think through asking
a question it's fun, because you have to be involved in the film.
Like the kid, because that means you have to imagine the whole relationship
in certain directions, and I think that makes the films more interactive
in a way.
Q:
Your other films, they haven't been black and white or show that
"this is what happened," or "this is how this person feels" in the
end.
Wong: Normally, I think for me, the
ending, because the film is about a period that has been lost, and
I think we have to show the end of the chapters and not only what
happens to these two persons and also about other things that are
happening in that period.
We go through
all this history and events happening in Cambodia in 1966. The biggest
thing is De Gaulle visiting Cambodia, and what he said in Cambodia
is outrageous, it is extremely colonial. Nobody will take that now,
so I think that belongs to that part of history. And for me it's
not an open ending...it's a very positive ending because people
said it's a sad story, but to me it's not so sad because I don't
think [the characters] would be very happy if they left together.
For me I think the two characters in the film actually have become
more independent and more complete and they can do something that
they like.
Like [Tony's
character], he becomes a journalist, and he works outside Hong Kong
and he does something that he thinks is very important to him. And
also for Maggie, she lives by herself with her kid, and she has
a job, and I think these are very positive things, and they might
meet each other but that is another story.
Q:
(Laughter) Most of your movies are very romantic. Are you deeply
romantic? Do you think of yourself as a romanticist?
Wong:
I don't think I'm very romantic, because to me I just do everything
by instinct. I think, well, this is the way to see things, then
I just do it like that.
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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
Official Site
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