Wong Kar Wai Hits the Road

Hong Kong's Great Visual Stylist is in the U.S. for My Blueberry Nights

He's not exactly a household name, but movie buffs know Wong Kar Wai as one of the most distinctive stylists working in film today. Born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong, Wong worked as a screenwriter during the 1980s, making his directorial debut with the 1988 crime melodrama As Tears Go By. By 1994, when his epic martial-arts film Ashes of Time blew way past its original shooting schedule and budget — Wong made an entire feature film, Chungking Express, during a break in post-production — he had earned a reputation as a technically skilled, highly unconventional director who works largely in improvisational mode rather than adhering to a screenplay. His genre films defied genre conventions, and he eventually started specializing in melancholy love stories that swipe motifs from sources as disparate as gangster movies and science-fiction epics. His biggest hit in the U.S. to date was 2000's In the Mood for Love, a straightforward but haunting tale of unrequited love set in Hong Kong in 1962.

For My Blueberry Nights, shot on location in New York, Memphis, and Las Vegas, Wong made some big changes. After a run of seven straight films made with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Wong worked this time out with Darius Khondji. Instead of working with actors from his stable of frequent collaborators, he cast singer Norah Jones in the lead role, and surrounded her with British and American co-stars including Jude Law, Natalie Portman, David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz. And, of course, it's his first film in English — he hired a co-screenwriter, American crime-fiction author Lawrence Block, for the sake of authenticity. Next up for Wong is a restoration, re-edit and re-release of Ashes of Time, and then one of two new projects: a long-gestating remake of the 1947 Orson Welles film The Lady From Shanghai or The Grand Master, about the teacher of martial artist and wildly popular movie star Bruce Lee. F&V asked him about his first time working in the U.S., why digital cinema is "too perfect," and the future of film-watching.

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