Wong Kar-Wai, Way

The loose-sequal to Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai's "In the Mood for Love" is coming to L.A. August 5 and it is highly anticipated by me because, well, this guy's films are the best being made in the world right now. Period. There's an interview with the director in the LA Times with a good quote up at the top:

When asked, though, what he might do if he weren't making movies, he doesn't waste time. "I'd like to be a bartender," he said. "It would be very specific: It would have to be happy hour, or else very late at night. People go to bars to speak up — to tell you their stories." Happy-hour patrons would be full of boasting, flirting and good cheer. "And by the time it was late, they would be quite drunk," perhaps overcome by loneliness and despair. "They would tell you something quite deep — or else nonsense."

Lonliness and despair... Of course.

But honestly, Tony Leung (pictured above) is just so stunning. He was all repressed in "In the Mood for Love." I want to see him get some this time around. He's so gorgeous photographed by cinematographer Christopher Doyle who was interviewed recently in the Guardian. Doyle's choice quote goes thusly:

"In my world," he asserts, "talent is an insult. If you say, 'Where is the talent?' you mean 'Where is the stupid bitch?'" It's perhaps not surprising that when I ask Doyle to teach me a few words of Chinese, the number one most useful phrase he comes up with is: 'You stupid cunt.' He seems offended that I have no plans to use it. "It's a term of endearment," he insists.

No one said the man with the best images in world cinema was a pushover or even a nice guy or even comprehensible. But if you've ever seen his work, you might forgive his brashess because the images he captures reveal a rich, angular perfection that defies language.