On June 29, distributor The Jokers will release As Tears Go By, Wong Kar Wai’s first film. Focus on this founding work of the world of the famous director.
Legendary Chinese filmmaker Won Kar Wai gained international popularity in 2001 for his film “In the Mood of Love”, after Cesar won Best Foreign Language Film.
The 65-year-old filmmaker is now very rare; His latest film, The Grandmaster, dates back to 2013. However, he is soon expected to be on the small screen with the Blossoms Shanghai project.
Meanwhile, distributor The Jokers had a good idea to make a small return home with the release of the Chinese master’s first two films: As Tears Go By (1989) and Our Wild Years (1990).
These two parts of Asian cinema enjoy an elevated 4K restoration. As a reminder, As Tears Go By introduces us to a little gangster from Hong Kong, Wah, played by Andy Lau. The latter is divided into his usual job, debt collection and the need to protect the pilot (Jackie Chung) by his side by carrying him in trouble.
He is constantly borrowing money he can never repay. But this life, already quite disrupted, turns upside down when Wah is confronted by his beautiful cousin, Ngor (Maggie Chung), who lives far from the city, on the island of Lantau.
Wai then begins a tiring back and forth with his love for Ngoris, the mirage of a peaceful life, and his devotion to his gang’s “brother,” Fly, who has repeatedly been beaten by other gangster thugs. Tony. Wahs will have to choose his fate.
Directed by Regret and Impossible Love, Von Carr Wei is already shaping his world in this first feature film, imposing a style that will follow him throughout his career.
Medium street impact
As Tears Go By has a strong influence on Martin Scorsese Mean Streets, with whom he has much in common.
Released in 1973, this New York-based director’s feature film also tells the story of a friendship between a lonely little gangster and an uncontrollably mad dog next to him.
At the center of these stories is this duo of criminals, one of whom (Charlie / Harvey Keitel, W / Andy Lowe) obeys his boss, and the other (Johnny Boy / Robert De Niro, Fly / Jackie Chung) is in the free wheel. Gives way to his violent impulses, in no way respecting the customs of the local underworld.
With two small blows, the wise man set himself the mission: to protect this troubled “brother” from being sacrificed. On Scorsese, Harvey Keitel acts primarily in the name of spiritual and religious impulse.
In Wong Kar Wai, on the other hand, Wahi defends Flash as a big brother protects his little brother. Another aspect that connects As Tears Go By Mean Streets is Wei’s relationship with his cousin Ngor, which reminds us of Charlie’s relationship with Teresa.
The latter suffers from epilepsy when Ngori visits Vahs for a consultation with a doctor due to a lung problem. At first, the union is quite dry; Slowly they will fall in love.
Impossible love bordering on tragedy will obviously be one of the main themes of Wong Kar Wai cinema in the future. Therefore, all his obsessions are already presented As Tears Go By, everything is permeated with dark and melancholy poetry.
However, is the film under the undoubted influence of Mean Streets? “I only borrowed a character played by Robert De Niro”Said Wong Kar Wai years later. “But I think Italians have a lot in common with the Chinese: their values, their sense of friendship, their mafia, their pasta, their mother.”He clarified.
Selected for Critics’ Week at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, the film was a huge international success. He also began a career as a film director, who later became a major figure in authorial cinema.
Recall, our Wild Years also comes out on June 29th. Released in 1990, it is also starring Maggie Chung and Jackie Chung, who have already collaborated with Von Kar Wei on As Tears Go By.
The feature film introduces us to Judd, played by Leslie Chung, who tragically died in 2003 at the age of 46. The latter accumulates conquests and can quickly no longer bear these young women, who are hardly tempted to already imagine living together, marrying, monogamy. Not his business.
Exit Su, a very blue flower, here she now meets Leung, a little more liberated – she dances in nightclubs. Suddenly Su waits downstairs from her ex-boyfriend’s apartment, uneasy, when a local policeman appears, returning to Hong Kong in the 1960s, ready to help him.
Our Wild Years Trailer
Source: allocine
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