1. Scene analysis:
Story 1: The
strange dress of the killer Brigitte Lin and the panning shots of the narrow and crowded lanes first appeared. The vigilant expressions of many Indians and the weird soundtrack created an atmosphere of restlessness and restlessness.
The camera switched to a deep blue sky with an image of the city, and the static shot of the fixed scene contrasted with the previous shaking shot, forming a sense of human indifference in the city. Then began the monologue self-introduction of the police officer Takeshi Kaneshiro. The same shaky chase scene introduced Brigitte Lin and Takeshi Kaneshiro's encounter.
Afterwards, the camera switched to the mid-range shot of Takeshi Kaneshiro making a call at the entrance of a fast food restaurant, expressing his pain and resistance to broken relationships through Takeshi Kaneshiro's phone monologue. Then there is the scene of Brigitte Lin and a group of Indians preparing to transport drugs, crowded, messy, and dirty. The rapid editing and panning of the camera, the effect processing in the post-production, and the Indian-style quick phrases in the soundtrack create a sense of tension and anxiety. Afterwards, the pictures continued to switch between Takeshi Kaneshiro and Lin Qingxia, on the one hand there were tense smuggling and swaying pictures, and on the other there were relatively quiet monologues and long-shot close-ups and close-ups. The story develops as the characters switch several times, and the final result is that Brigitte Lin’s plan to commit the crime failed, and Takeshi Kaneshiro did not wait for his girlfriend to change his mind.
The camera turns to Takeshi Kaneshiro, expressing his emotions through canned food in a convenience store. The large monologues and fetishes on canned food allow the director to express his frustration in a unique way. Especially in a fast-food restaurant, I used three methods of shooting, including a long lens, a change in depth of field, and an oblique lens, to express the protagonist’s depression step by step. In the Kaneshiro Takeshi’s close-up shots and close-ups of him eating canned food, the lens shows his loneliness by taking fixed shots under the cool blue tones. On the other hand, Brigitte Lin, exhausted after chasing and killing her enemy, hid in the bar, where the two protagonists finally met.
Two frustrated people met in the bar. The close-up shot talked to the two of them. Behind the chatting are two tired hearts. The distance between them is obvious. The shooting of the fragmented figures in the mirror of the bar also expresses. A kind of barrier. The last two left each after a brief encounter, leaving only a happy birthday and a pair of clean high heels.
Story 2:
In a California dream, Faye Wong, a fast-food restaurant migrant girl, appears in freeze frame, while another protagonist, Tow Wai, the policeman, appears in front of Faye Wong from far and near with a fixed lens. The long shot was aimed at Faye Wong dancing to the music in the fast food restaurant, and quickly portrayed the image of an eccentric and lively girl. At the same time, the director portrays Tony Leung as a slow man with hindsight through the conversation between Tony Leung and the shop owner. Here, the director deliberately added Faye Wong's faint or clear back when filming the conversation between the two, which was meant to imply that Faye Wong was subjectively paying attention to the conversation between the two.
As the plane took off on the tarmac, suggesting that Tony Leung and the flight attendant's relationship began, the camera switched to Tony Leung’s memories, and the sweet scene with his ex-girlfriend appeared lazy and happy in the jazz music of shallow singing. The model airplane was in Too Wai Leung’s hands as a clue Flying slowly. But when the illusion of memory returns to reality, the scene returns to the fast food restaurant but it is Tony Leung’s helpless conversation with the owner of the restaurant. Later, Tony Leung's girlfriend sent the break-up letter to the fast food restaurant, and changes also occurred. Faye Wong changed into a T-shirt with a heart-shaped pattern on her chest, suggesting a change in her emotions; while Tony Leung just stayed at home and talked to things at home. The cold-toned fixed close-up lens highlighted her sadness and loneliness. To a certain extent, the unsynchronized emotions of the two also reflect the feeling of separation between the hearts of the people. Then in the market, I followed the shots of the two of them. The real sense of shaking and the casual chat between the two created the sweetness of the market.
Afterwards, the film devoted most of its time to depicting the various childlike "destroy" of Faye Wong in Tony Leung's house. On the one hand, this part portrays the image of a clever and cute girl, and on the other hand, it also shows Faye Wong’s infatuation with Tony Leung. The quicker camera editing and the cheerful and elegant music here add to Faye Wong’s childlike vivacity. Colors. But even if Faye Wong made a huge transformation in Tony Leung's home, Tony Leung's certain dullness did not make him unaware of these changes, or his obsession with his ex made him tired of observation. When Tony Leung finally ran into the troublemaker Faye Wong at home, he also showed a slow and unusual calmness.
The camera again switched to a black humorous monologue dialogue between Tony Leung and his family's belongings. The result of the dialogue finally allowed him to slowly walk out of the shadows. When Tow-Wei Leung, who realized later, made up his mind to ask Faye Wong to meet at a nearby California bar, Faye Wong went to another California, leaving only a hand-painted plane ticket.
2. Character analysis:
Story 1:
Killer (Decorated by Brigitte Lin): Sunglasses, wigs, and raincoats are her defensive lines from the outside world. She is a ruthless killer who is afraid of self-exposure. She conducts sinful transactions at the bottom of the city but maintains her own self. Grace. A woman living in uneasy panic still has a soul eager for warm communication under her indifference.
Police 223 (Kanejo Takeshi): The man who was self-anaesthetized after being broken in love was so passionate that he used canned food to dispel the anxiety in his heart. After bidding farewell to the memories in a masochistic manner, he immediately plunged into a new love affair, his heart was full of loneliness and helplessness.
Story 2:
Fast Food Clerk (Faye Wong): a lively girl with a quirky spirit, one of the highlights of the film. Behaving like a child is her love for police 663. She treats the future casually. She has no plans but is obsessed with her California dream. Under the indifferent appearance, she still has a desire for warmth.
Police 663 (played by Tony Leung): hesitates in choice and escape, sensitive but slow, passionate but later aware, still hesitating after hesitating again and again.
3. Thematic ideas and narrative features:
The two stories seem to have no connection, but the inner connection is carefully set by the director. Wong Kar-wai used the intersecting details in the film to create a synchronicity between the stories, and also to create an effect full of randomness in disorder, which is also the characteristic of urban life that the whole film hopes to express. In the first story, the director deliberately arranged three short stories for the three protagonists in the second story: the shot, although it is swept away, expresses the feeling of alienation between people in the city and the steel forest to interpersonal The barriers brought about by communication may be close to each other in time and space, but the distance between hearts is far away. "Every day you have the opportunity to pass by everyone. You may not know anything about them, but they may become your confidantes or friends in the future." This is a sentence said by Takeshi Kaneshiro in the opening of the film, which is also the attempt of this film. An opinion expressed.
In the film, the director sets the small people in the city as a symbol. There is no name but a code. The ambiguous identity reflects the smallness of the city people in the steel forest, and also refers to the entire group through the characters in the play. Therefore, the characters shown in the film are also the portrayal of all the characters in urban life. The deep anxiety, loneliness, and displacement are the common characteristics of this group. The professions of police officers, flight attendants, killers, and shop assistants all reflect a kind of mobility and instability. These insecure roles cause a kind of natural fear and displacement.
The locations carefully set by the director are also frequent places for urbanites: fast food restaurants, bars, convenience stores. Fast-paced life expects fast-paced love, so the emotional experience in fast-food restaurants and bars is just like the urban fast-food culture, which is only a flash in the pan, and then falls into self-anaesthetic sadness. On the one hand, the director tried to express his sigh for fast food-style love, and at the same time expressed his yearning for beautiful love.
In terms of narrative methods, the two stories account for roughly the same proportion of time, and the plot is not compact, but the plot is continued through the actors’ massive inner monologues, which is rare in general narrative films. The director used a large number of shaking shots and video post-processing to present a dazzling and tranced visual effect; the bizarre colors and unique lighting, the overall gorgeous but indifferent tone, and the irregular composition of the lens, created a post-modern cool Hyun sensory experience.
In terms of movie vocabulary, the director makes extensive use of close-up, close-up, and mid-range to carry out private subjective narration. The ingenuity in the use of the lens is also due to the distinctive personal characteristics of the photographer Du Kefeng. In the film, there are two fast and slow shots in the same picture, both of which are the fast-moving crowd and the protagonist of a slow toasting, which makes time contradict itself and creates a sense of chaos and confusion of time.
In the soundtrack, the chase phrases in the first story and the jazz in the bar, the repeating California dreams and the brisk dream catcher in the second story appropriately establish the close connection between the picture and the music, and realize The combination of pictures and music has led many viewers to talk about the soundtrack after watching the movie.
It’s also worth noting that the director’s special meaning to certain objects and numbers makes the film very personal. From Brigitte Lin’s red-framed sunglasses, wig, and raincoat to Kaneshiro Takeshi’s pineapple, and from Faye Wong’s round sunglasses to Tony Leung’s chef’s salad, everything that has been endowed with movie characters’ emotions is connected by a series of close-up shots of Arabic numerals. A unique post-modern lens language also imposes on the audience the unique personal style of Director Wong Kar Wai.
Generally speaking, Chongqing Forest is a movie with very personal style preferences. Some people may complain about its boringness and lack of words, but it is undeniable that the director's ingenuity through the stylization and detail processing of the film images has created the confusing melancholy and ambiguity of the modern city, expressing the alienation and hesitation of the people. Appropriately aroused the audience's sympathy from the senses. The post-modern style, unique artistry and innovative lens expression made this film a representative of the personal style of Director Wong Kar Wai, and won the praise of the majority of moviegoers.
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