Wong Kar-wai Quotes

China, Film Maker
July 17, 1958

Wong Kar-wai, BBS is a Hong Kong filmmaker. Internationally renowned as an auteur of the Hong Kong Second Wave, his visually unique and highly stylized work includes As Tears Go By (1988), Days of Being Wild (1990), Ashes of Time (1994), Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), 2046 (2004), and The Grandmaster (2013). His film In the Mood for Love (2000), starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, notably garnered widespread critical acclaim.

Also known as Screenwriter, Director, Producer

My films are never about what Hong Kong is like, or anything approaching a realistic portrait, but what I think about Hong Kong and what I want it to be.

Wong Kar-wai
- Thinking
- Film
- Realistic
I'm not coming from film school, I learned cinema in the cinema watching films.

Wong Kar-wai
- School
- Film
- Cinema

Normally, filmmakers would just write a script and cast people to act as certain characters in the story. But in my way of doing things, I have the actors in my mind already, so I'm trying to borrow something that's unique to them. The characters have a very natural connection to the actors themselves.

Wong Kar-wai
- People
- Writing
- Character
I never had a problem with genre because a genre actually is like a uniform - you put yourself into a certain uniform. But if you dress up in a police officer's uniform, it doesn't mean that you are an officer; it can mean something else. But this is the starting point, and the best way is to not to fit into this uniform but to make this uniform a part of yourself.

Wong Kar-wai
- Problem
- Police
- Starting
Love is all a matter of timing. It's no good meeting the right person too soon or too late.

Wong Kar-wai
- Time
- Dream
- Person
Most of my films deal with people who are stuck in certain routines and habits that don't make them happy. They want to change, but they need something to push them. I think it's mostly love that causes them to break their routines and move on.

Wong Kar-wai
- People
- Moving
- Certain
What makes international cinema so interesting is that each territory has its own sensibility. When you look at an Indian or French film, there's a certain flavor. And even though the language is different, if the film is successful, it has something very common and understandable.

Wong Kar-wai
We love what we can't have, and we can't have what we love.

Wong Kar-wai
- Love

We're all unlucky in love sometimes. When I am, I go jogging. The body loses water when you jog, so you have none left for tears.

Wong Kar-wai
- Water
- Sometimes
- Body
I never had a problem with genre because a genre actually is like a uniform - you put yourself into a certain uniform.

Wong Kar-wai
- Problem
- Certain
- Uniforms