Deconstruction of Wong Kar Wai by Tsz Lok TO

[ Deconstruction of Wong Kar Wai ] Tracking the rhythmic of void

Reconstructing the fragment

Final 12012017.indd 1

12/01/2017 09:20:50

Final 12012017.indd 2-3

iii

12/01/2017 09:20:50

This Design Research Dissertation is presented to the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University in part fulfilment of the regulations for the Master in Architectural Design. Statement of Originality This Design Research Dissertation is an original piece of work which is made available for copying with permission of the Head of the School of Architecture. Signed ________________ Tsz Lok TO - 16038311 Research-led Design Final Dissertation P30035 - Research-Led Design 16 Jan 2017 Supervisor - Mike Halliwell

Final 12012017.indd 4-5

12/01/2017 09:20:50

--------------------------------------------------

Abstract

[4.Framed Space]

5. Parc de La Villette

Introduction -------------------------------------------------1.Introduction of Wong Kar-wai

The Mise-en scĂ¨ne Esoterica of Close-up space Seeing

Architecture of Deconstruction Film La Viette Close-up Follies Fragment

handover

Visual Narrative

--------------------------------------------------

Improvisation

Pure experience of the face

6. Conclusion

Off screen

--------------------------------------------------

Framing the ambiguous space

Plan of work

2.Taste of Space Fullest scope Light and Pattern Repeating Space 3.Slow Motion Slow and Focus detail Slow View --------------------------------------------------

Hearing

--------------------------------------------------

Hunting

Bibliography

Pause as threshold

Illustrations

Reflecting Reflection

Filmography Website

Mirror Water --------------------------------------------------

Final 12012017.indd 6-7

vii

12/01/2017 09:20:50

[Abstract ]

Architecture and Film

Fig. 1 A typical Hong Kong style meat store on the street at night in Fallen Angels (Wong, 1994) 8

Final 12012017.indd 8-9

This research dissertation is to focus on how film can inspire the way of thinking about architecture by studying the Mise-en-scĂ¨ne and the making of movie with an architectural perspective. The cinema of Wong Kar-wai, an international recognized director from Hong Kong, gives a strong sense of intimacy, the beauty of ambiguity, culturally aesthetic and identity of localisation. Thus, his films

present a different Hong Kong through his unique point of view. This research dissertation studies the filmmaking process and hence dissect the selected movies by Wong to understand the conceptual and metaphor elements in his films in terms of architectural aspect.

12/01/2017 09:20:50

Fig. 2 Screenshot of Chungking Express(Wong,1994) “every day we brush past so many other people, people we may never meet or people who may become close friends.” quote from Chungking Express

[Introduction]

Architecture and Film

Filmmakers use the architecture in a scene to tell the audience everything they need to know about the plot in a flash. Space created acts as an abstract tool for viewers to connect themselves to the movie. It gives a brief of history and cultural background through the materials and patterns about the architecture style in a particular period. As time goes by, the captured scene in the form of fragments allows people to constructs whole space mentally, thus, to assimilate into the film. This dissertation focuses on how does the Mise-en-scène of Wong Kai-war’s cinema provides some clues to the audience. In the Mood for Love (2000), Wong’s most compelling work is chosen as the main picture for this dissertation. Wong once said in the interview this film is not about oral interpretation but visual expression. Wong uses a lot of visual trope and metaphor when shooting the change of details in spaces and characters to tell the story. For instance, these clues happens on the wall and the body movement of

Final 12012017.indd 10-11

the character. Wong enjoys using the camera position to inform the story by constructing a frame within a frame of a scene, which is also known as ‘off screen’. In the Mood for Love is a film that connects with many close-up and still shots. This approach encourages the audience focus on the actor’s details and their limited dialogues. Moreover, the interrelationship of the couples is told by the rhythmic cut of various features and music. Knowing that Wong is familiar with positioning the camera behind the objects, architecture elements and actors/actress, in a result, this kind of angle suggests a different way of experiencing the space like a spy. Wong is also good at using slow motion and music to enhance the atmosphere of a specific moment. The rhythm of both body and camera movement create a ripple of cue for the story. Likewise, Wong said that the mood in In the Mood for Love follows the Waltz rhythm which elaborates how everything comes slowly and bit by bit. By repeating the music throughout the film, people can see the changes. As a result, the story is told. 11

12/01/2017 09:20:50

Thus, follow with an analysis of how viewers perceive from the camera angle and the proportion of the screen in regards to architecture. This dissertation is divided into 5 sections, first to briefly discuss how Wongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal memories with his multi-identity as Shanghainese, Hong Kongese and partly western (as Hong Kong was a British colony in 1841-1997) inference his films. The later section focuses on the study of how Wong enhance the spatial quality within time through different elements, including lighting, pattern and also the repeating appearance of the same space. The third section of this dissertation discuss the editing techniques Wong uses in his work like slow motion and pausing to enhance a specific moment.

The last section brings upon to a study of the cinematic experience of space in relations to a real architecture project, the Parc de la Villette by Bernard Tschumi. Both Wong and Tschumi aim to create films and spaces in a series of frames, meanwhile, making linkage with layers of the void to enhance a moment visually. Therefore, this study is about to explore a new way of seeing Parc de la Villette by taking the follies as a protagonist in a film and using Wongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s filming techniques to show the architecture details through drawing storyboards and camera movement diagrams to understand how architects create a high quality cinematic experience.

The forth section of this paper focuses what is on/off screen, then investigates how do the selected scenes reflect Wongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s idea including an overall rhythmic flow, the mood setting in the main spaces, the use of material, light, colour and shadow to enhance the visual/mental experience. 12

Final 12012017.indd 12-13

12/01/2017 09:20:50

[1.1Handover]

[Introduction] Wong Kar-wai

Wong is a Hong Kong director born in Shanghai, and immigrate and raised in a British-ruled Hong Kong in his childhood. When he was starting his first movie, Hong Kong is in a time of about handover to China. At that point, most people are anxious about the future under the rule of the Communist Party of China. The uncertainty then influences most of Wong’s stories are about looking for options and hybrid of cultures where the characters’ setting is about escaped from the current stage. His works also overwhelmed with the 1960s Shanghai with nostalgia where he attempts to reconstruct the memory of that period. Another Wong’s style in constructing a film is where the story takes place. He enjoys using informal spaces that have exceptional visual quality like a narrow stair, bridge, corridor, a hole on the window, reflection on the mirror, etc.

Final 12012017.indd 14-15

All of these examples suggests spaces of exchanging while the characters give it a pause and move on. Wong’s approach is recognized as a self-reflection of the anxious handover moment for both himself and Hong Kong. Wong’s nostalgia about reminiscent the past is not difficult to notice in his cinema where he tries to depict and inspirited this particular moment of Hong Kong. The “doubling” nostalgic of Hong Kong and Shanghai under the era of colonial modernity. (Wang, 2015) Collaborate with his memories about the Shanghai, his film then reconstructs the beauty of that important time which is an aesthetic vision of history and also represents the pre-existing nostalgia. Wong is that Hong Kong has become too modern and post-industrialized to provide an appropriate space for evoking its past (Wang, 2015)

12/01/2017 09:20:50

Fig. 3 Screenshot from Blow Up (Antonioni 1966)

Wong’s background with the mixture of eastern and western culture undertakes a modern way for him to present his memories. Michelangelo Antonioni’s style is the easiest to identify in his cinema. Wong said, Blow up (1966) and L’Eclisse (1962) are most influential to his work. Another inspiration for Wong is Jean-Luc Godard. The way of how Godard presents neon signage, slogans and pop music dominates his film, either on or off screen.

Nevertheless, Wong’s films are full of a close-up of characters’ gesture and movement in the background and telling the story. This is inspired by Antonioni, and thus in In the Mood for Love (2000) is inspired from Vertigo(1958) by Alfred Hitchcock. “announces Wong Kar-Wai… as a filmmaker in the tradition of Jean-Luc Godard” For Ebert, this takes the form of little things like “signs, slogans, pop music” but also more substantial elements such as Wong’s concern “more with the materials of a story than with the story itself (Ebert, 1996)

Fig. 3 Smudge motion in (Fallen Angels 1997)

Final 12012017.indd 16-17

12/01/2017 09:20:50

[1.2 Improvisation]

“When I began directing, I always imagined myself as a director like Hitchcock, who was very well prepared and knew everything about his films...But after the first day, I realised that was the wrong idea because I would never be Hitchcock, since I changed [things] all the time” (Ciment, 2005) “If I want to explain to Chris Doyle the rhythm of the film, then I would play the CD...Instead of showing him the script” (Ciment, 2005).

Wong’s improvisation in filming is not about being random, but insist on creating the film with the actual space while shooting. According to Christopher Doyle, the cinematographer who works with Wong for most of the time, “We didn’t know what certain details or colours or actions meant at the time we filmed them. They anticipated where the film would take us. They were in a sense images from the future – from the time we’d only just reached” (Doyle, 1997). Wong believes it is ideal for the camera to deal with spaces, rather than planning every single detail on storyboard precisely. Therefore, there are no storyboards can be found during Wong’s production process, even the actors do not have a script before shooting on site. As a starting point, apart from the story itself, Wong introduces everything regarding the visual quality in his film along with a chosen music to his team.

Final 12012017.indd 18-19

`Moreover, according to Doyle, Wong’s production team never talks about the setting of light and camera angles, but consider the project like a jazz musician by knowing the rhythm and the colour of the film. “The colour is not the colour red or blue; it’s his feelings towards the film” (Ciment, 2005) Due to his improvisative shooting methodology, Wong commonly faces issues with the time setting for the story. Thus, his films turn out to be cleaved and so tell the story by connecting all the fragments. However, regarding the spatial qualities, as characters are designed to appear in the same space. The consistent then leads the film to a lot of voids and audience can understand it as a clue to another void through different objects or body movement. Therefore the mood set becomes a link from a single shot to the various scenes.

12/01/2017 09:20:50

“the fullest scope” to reveal the film’s “content, meaning, theme and idea” (Eisenstein, 2003)

Fig. 4 Screenshot from In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000) 20

Final 12012017.indd 20-21

“the Mise-en-scène of food and eating scenes often connotes a shared and dual experience” (Ingham & Fung, 2015)

[Taste of Space] Wong Kar-wai

[ 2.1 Fullest scope] According to Esisntein, filmmaker is able to tell a story through “the fullest scope”. As in many other films by Wong Kar-wai, the scripts itself is designed not to give all the answers, instead, he decides to open up the imagination to the audience. This chapter discuss how Wong uses the setting of mood by understanding how Wong’s develop the taste the space, narrative, music, mood like fragments, and then, come to all in once in the movie. In the Mood for Love (2000) is often considered as Wong’s masterpiece in international terms due to the dazzling array of visual and verbal metaphors evident in his earlier films. This approach is less prominent and more seamlessly integrated which brings out the understated atmospheric imagery in this movie which are deftly impressionistic. Regarding to the spatial quality in the film, the traditional meaning in architecture and how the surfaces do brings out the mood for the film from the detail on the wall and object. Yasujirô Ozu, a Japanese director introduces the idea of “cinematographic space”.

Ozu bases his spatial construction on the use of the fixed camera positioned at floor level. Given the lack of movement of camera, the actions of the protagonists also tend to restrict themselves to the limited space. As a result, individual shots in an Ozu film acquire a noticeably static feel. The use of architectural elements as subframes elicits a clear pictorial quality in each individual shots. When he unites these isolated and static images in sequences of modular cuts, his static spatial construction then become rhythmic and syncopated. Thus, he creates the “cinematographic space” is both still and fragmented. also, Wong Kar-wai’s cinema is obsessed in finding the motif of the ‘microseries’. It defines as a tiny set of frames which crystallise an emotion through a sublime modulation along the movie. “Fragmented through the workings of a thousand brushstrokes of sound and image and, through them.” (Bellour, 2015)

12/01/2017 09:20:50

[Corridor] Corridor in the house #1: Two couples share the corridor in the house. Although it is not design for social, it creates chances for people to encounter with the neighbours.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the Mood for Love offers easy-tospot cinematic moments, accentuated by high-contrast lighting, slow-motion photography, musical accompaniment, and the iteration of similar situation (such as brushing by on the stairway, eating across from each other at the restaurant, and writing together in the hotel room).â&#x20AC;? (Braester, 2015)

Wong often shot a lot of close-up from the corridor, where people wait and talk in front of the neighbour door. The other scene is taken from the stair going down to the back street for the wonton soup. The narrow and dark stair is similar to the corridor in the apartment. Both of them give a sense of intimacy as the setting creates a chance to meetas well as touching. Due to the narrowness of the space, it gives logic for the story to allow things happen. By time by time, the protagonists walk again and again along with the same camera angle. Finally, ambiguous happened in their relationship.

The diagram (Fig.5) explains the movement of actress (Route A and B) and the actor (Route C) entering and leaveing the framed space during the mahjong scene in In the Mood for Love (2000). The room functions as a social space for gambling within the house. In this scene, it is the first meeting and social events for the protagonists. The movement of both camera and actors followed the Walts rhythm at the background.

Final 12012017.indd 22-23

Corridor in the house #2: Another scene takes from the other angle of the same corridor. the camera track towards the kitchen lead to the dark internal space which conveys the loneliness feeling of the character.

Fig. 7 Corridor scene in In the Mood for Love.

Corridor in the hostel: The color of the corridor in the hostel gives a sense of importance. Red curtain and lighting express the emotion between the actors as the tone of red in that particular situation suggests sex and danger.

Fig. 5 Diagram of different movements of the Mahjong scene in In the Mood for Love. Fig. 6 movements of the corridor scene in In the Mood for Love.

Fig.8 Corridor scene in In the Mood for Love. 23

12/01/2017 09:20:52

Fig. 9 Screenshot from In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000) Image shown a mirror within a mirror.

“This serial spatial imaginary does not simply return to a definitive past, but rather recreates an appropriate space or setting where the past as remembered can be re-animated.” (Wang, 2015) “overwhelm other colors in darkness, asserting control over visibility itself” its potential “to eclipse the essential projected light of cinema” enabling “intense thematic deployment” (Gunning, 2013) “On most of the films I’ve done with Kar-wai and William, the lighting and colors emerge from an accumulation of elements, rather than an appropriated idea of what some would call a film’s style” (Bosley, 2001)

“Some directors are not interested in the feeling of the location. They pay more attention to the lines, colours, light and shadow.”

Ann Hui, an Hong Kong award-winning director (Pun, 2006)

Final 12012017.indd 24-25

Fig. 10 A diagram show the camera angle of a shot that a mirror within a mirror.

[2.2 Light and Pattern] Color of the pattern functions as a montage of the space enrich the visual pleasure and cultural background. In Wong’s cinema, lighting is an important tool to create atmosphere. The lighting pattern indicates in the film set like those internal space wallpaper, curtain, packing paper and the external wall at the street. In In the Mood for Love (2000), they gives a sense of harmony. Although the patterns appear in the setting are different, the scale and color work effectively on the screen.

Moreover, the dresses (cheongsum) on the actress express not only the spatial relationship, but also her emotion while the scale and tone of the pattern is layered by light and captured by the camera. “establish the place of colour on an equal footing with other elements of montage” (Eisenstein, 1991) Light is a tool Wong uses to highlight textures of the wall and the advertising papers on the wall. At the street scene, the wall erosion is revealed in the dark softly. Although the lighting style at the staircase to the street food shop is presented as a thrill movie, the lighting here also suggests a feeling sense of hunting the secret of the other lovers as well as creating an ambiguous space for encounters.

For interior scenes, Wong decides not to have lighting eliminates the whole space, instead, he highlights the pattern in different place within the camera frame. For instance, lighting sets in front of the wallpaper pattern to create tension of the space. 25

12/01/2017 09:20:53

Fig.11 Daily routines in In the Mood for Love screenshots captured in different moments at the same space.

[2.3 Repeating space] In terms of the repeating shooting of the same set, audiences are capable to witness the changes of everyday life. The daily ritual at those communal spaces allows the characters to encounter. The camera in In the Mood for Love (2000) uses to shot in the same angles at the space(see Fig.7). Hence, when most of the scenes are in the same space with the same actors, the space becomes the witness of the change of the person. For example, the shoot takes in the hostel corridor in In the Mood for Love, the red curtain set along the corridor is sometime still, while sometime floats. This shows this character’s movements as well as allowing light gets into the space through the gap in-between it.

Wong’s films “are made up of moments that [seem] to have been grabbed out of time” (Jones, 2001)

“Wong, like some of the French New Wave directors whose techniques he often borrows, turns such movements [of daily routines] into occasions for an alternative experience – that of defamiliarizing, and thus aestheticizing, the nature (repetitive, habitual) motion through a manipulation of its cinematic texture and of viewing time” (Chow, 2007)

Final 12012017.indd 26-27

Another important Wong’s filming skills is to capture different people doing different things in the same event. Wong believes this successfully shows the actual experience of people’s daily routine. Most of the scenes in In the Mood for Love take place at home and workplace in the evening. Viewers are able to presumes that the story between

the protagonists occurs during their offwork time, similar to how usual couple endures. Wong presents the cinematic reality by avoiding having the lovers be apart for more than a few minutes. At the end of the movie, when the actor is no longer appear, the actress appear in the same space and even in the same position in the frame like the previous scenes. “The camera shows the building at a distance; as an isolated object; it pans outside and inside; the figure of a woman appear; she walks up the ramp and seems fragmented. Framed by the camera, but also by the house, she goes outside, but the outside becomes an inside; a wall wraps around her revealing a framed view to the landscape. She walks alongside the wall. It turns. She turns too, and disappears. The camera keeps filming. The space is empty” (Colomina, 1996) Capturing a mental state of great anxiety and indeciveness through an aggressive method of framing, reframing and editing (McElhaney, 2015) 27

12/01/2017 09:20:56

this film is “always in motion” (Lalanne, 1997), therefore, these scenes created a “mediated space” (Penz, 2011) allows viewers for reveries. [3.1 Slow and Focus detail] [Slow motion of Wong Kar-Wai]

3 Fig.12 Screenshots from The Grandmaster (Wong, 2013)

The image above is an overlayed sceenshots which demonstrate the complexity of the scene due to a lot of fast body movements within a space. Therefore, Wong uses slow motion technique (show below) for audience to understand the actions clearly on the screen.

Final 12012017.indd 28-29

[Slow motion] Wong Kar-wai

“the actualization of style is also heightened through the anesthetization produced by slow pans, low speeds and close-ups” (Yue, 2008) Wong believes slowing down the time and pausing a precise moment is a common language to enhance a moment of time that able to draw audiences’ attention. Especially, when introducing characters’ entry in a scene. Frequently Wong uses a single angle that behind some object. Both slow motion and pause create an invisible tension to the audience. It is a force that suggests people look at the details of the body language, dialogues and the facial expression of the characters.

In relation to reaction to a film, eyes can perceive the pictured moment faster than the reality. Wongs movie are intended to show audience the nature of being a ‘real time’ observer, as well as being visually aesthetic on the screen. For example, the motion of rain, the reflection of water on the ground, the fire sparks, etc., Wong’s principle is to demonstrate to the audience for experiencing what happen on the screen. After all, when these footages captured by his camera, the ordinary became extraordinary because of the depths created in all of the artistic images.

As for the selected movie to study in this dissertation, In the Mood for Love(2000), 29

12/01/2017 09:21:01

Fig. 13 Model of Slow House, Diller and Scofidio(1990) the curved wall create a slow journey approach to the view. The space is formed various repeating architectureal elements including door, wall, window and partitions. Therefore, it creates certain rhythm while the view itself change slowly throughout the space. The way of changing and repeating, it recalled Wong’s film.

“The photography shifts to slow motion, stressing rhythmic movements that seem synchronized with the musical beat: the flask’s swaying,, the lights’ pendulum-like swinging, the man’s chewing, the woman’s undulating gait. The sequence is highly lyrical, befitting the film’s title.” (Braester, 2015)

Final 12012017.indd 30-31

Also, Wong has carefully positioned every angle and camera movement for his movie. The ‘magic’ in his film turns the architecture and landscape in the setting become spaces that give a clue to the story rather than acting as a background. As time goes by, the series of detail shots become an evidences of the story. Series of slow motion insert in the film like a fragments. In In the Mood for Love, the wonton scene has captured a lot of details through the use of slow motion. Firstly, the narrow stair, as a transition, it creates an anxious moment that elaborates the relationship of Mr Chow and Mrs Chan. Meanwhile, details like the wallpaper on the stair explain the settings of the movie, especially the influece of 1960s Hong Kong.

[3.2 Slow View] In an architecture example, slow motion has been conveyed into a project by Diller and Scofidio, The Slow House. The design features to the view, which is considered as the final stage of a journey from the city to the coast. It is created “…far more than a simple “room with a view”. As is typical of the desire of Diller and Scofidio to question the role of visioning technologies in contemporary societies, the direct view of the sea was to be accompanied by a film image of the same seascape.“ (Cairns, 2013) Summary, architecture is a piece of work that conceives slowly by the framed view. Thus, not only the visual experience is concerned, but the body movement is also pre-set by the organised space. In comparison, the body in the house is like a camera panning slowly.

12/01/2017 09:21:01

[Scene analysis of speed] The speed of audience seeing, camera and actors movement analysis in the fight scene in The Grandmaster (Wong, 2013).

I: Ip Man G: Gong Er A: Audience

Fig. 14 Screenshots from The Grandmaster (Wong, 2013) 32

Final 12012017.indd 32-33

Fig. 15 The analysis is to explore Wongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s filming sequence of the fight scene in The Grandmaster(Wong, 2013) 33

12/01/2017 09:21:11

Fig. 16 Screenshots from The Grandmaster (Wong, 2013)

[Scene analysis of Close-up] Figure 13 illustrates the camera movement and body movement of the fight scene in The Grandmaster (2013).

Fig. 17 Close-up analysis in The Grandmaster (Wong, 2013) 34

Final 12012017.indd 34-35

This diagram also explains how the camera movement and designed to express the eye contact, between the protagonist by using close-up on different parts of their bodies, meanwhile, the camera moves around the actor. 35

12/01/2017 09:21:14

[Framed motion] Wong Kar-wai

[Mise-en-scène]

[Esoterica of Close-up space ]

Show all in once. As in the mood for love, we can focus on how does the clue been found in the way of seeing and hearing.

Close up a shot has widely used in the movie industry, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow up (1966) is one of the best examples to understand how filmmakers demonstrate as a method to show the details, and the emotion expression. Antonioni uses the closeup scene in bits by bits to build up the curiosity as a storytelling skill in lots of his work.

In Wong’s filming methodology, the use of the frame in the film can enhance by a wide range of cinematographically techniques including fade in and out, slow motion and panning. Through the camera lens, the audience can see the actors from other spaces like a window, mirror and other architectural elements. Nevertheless, the characters can hear from the walls which show viewers that they are guessing what is going on outside his/her framed space.

The visual connection in between the close-up scenes is what the filmmakers proposed to build in audience’s mind. This sort of connection becomes an expression by shooting the close-up of gesture, eyes, walking, objects and spatial relationship between the actors and the surrounding from the repeating scene. Along with the use of editing like fetishist impulse, a layer of shots along the decor, mirrors and other reflective surfaces like windows, doorways, walls, a great close-up space is then created.

Fig. 18 Screenshot of In the Mood for Love(2000) 36

Final 12012017.indd 36-37

12/01/2017 09:21:14

Fig. 19 Screenshots of close-up shot in In the Mood for Love(2000).

enclosing public emptiness. [Visual narratives]

The screenshots clearly shows how the director capture the most important part of the protagonist, thus to create a sense of hunting.

“As the camera cuts and changes position to pass around the protagonists, a sequential on-screen collage is built up as the individual shots morph into a unified scene. The reveal an eye, not only versed in three-dimensional questions of spatial disposition but also a mind capable of imagining perception in movement and sequence” (Cairns, 2013)

“how the face or body is positioned within the frame, how the actor moves or gestures, and what expressive possibilities these assume, both about these particular films but also in terms of the cinema in general.” (McElhaney, 2015)

4.1 [Seeing]

When audiences watch a movie, what they see on the screen is created within a designed structure. A character enters the space from different side creates an idea of asymmetry. Also, having people walk into the living space creates a feeling of depth regarding space. Those visual narratives give a sense of the space to the audience. Moreover, Wong enjoys providing clues about the story throughout the movie in the actors’ body movement and their point of view. When reading Wong’s cinematography, it is easy to identify his asymmetrical layout of the scene. This approach delivers an impression of tension within the frame. Actors are designed to locate either extremely left or right and putting the camera right behind the protagonists or objects to create a blurry and mysterious atmosphere with multiple layers. Also the asymmetrical frame creates a sense of progression and exploring. In In the Mood for Love, most of the encounter spaces set in a narrow and

Final 12012017.indd 38-39

space

instead

This section is about understanding how Wong’s approach has been elaborated in In the Mood for Love by analysis the framed shot, from part of the body, to the whole body and space. Within the frame, Wong precisely shows and frames what he wants to show, like what actual the actor is doing. Apart from what have shown on the screen, it is also interesting to know how Wong’s frame creates the sense of ‘hunting’ and ‘approaching’. Through the use of frame within a frame, filmmakers not only capture the most important part, events and body movement of the movie, but also brings out suggestion and imagination to the audience by providing a number of hints on the screen. Furthermore, as characters are the focus of the film, they keep the screen busy and through their body like typing the keyboard, pressing the bell, writing. Framing also allows viewers to concentrate on the actors emotion with the object, like the telephone, and the rise of smoke.

12/01/2017 09:21:17

“the body left the memory of its passage through the air” (Hughes, 1991)

“Man is the individual, his hand is a portion devoid of personality. The cinema sees people differently: for it, a hand is often an individual more characterized than the man to whom we say it belongs” (Epstein, 1981)

Fig. 20 Screenshots of close-up shot in In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000). Wong captures the body language, as well as the background of the space to express the ambiguous relationship between the characters. 40

Final 12012017.indd 40-41

‘A hand is not simply part of the body, but the expression and continuation of a thought which must be captured and conveyed...” , says Andrei Tarkovsky

[‘Pure’ experience of the face]

[Off-screen]

In Wong’s In the Mood for Love, framing is the main visual technique he uses. He frames the protagonists emotion and other parts of the body in every beginning and the end shot throughout the movie. The gesture and body movements become an important communication ‘tool’ between the couples when their relationship is getting complicated.

Offscreen space is where Wong used to tell the story. “Important clues to characters’ actions and emotions can only be guessed, since they take place outside – often beyond – the visible frame.” (Braester, 2015)

Wong has frequently used camera’s gaze and slow motion to present actor’s facial expression through the spectator in order to elaborate the narrative and character’s thought. Also, the bold and unexpected shots composite a forceful atmosphere “in motion and never in action” (Lalanne, 1997). “Such a moment builds into the sequence a formal suspense, in which we find not so much a withholding of conventional pleasure or knowledge as a teasing delay in terms of access to the face and to the cues of spatial orientation that a face, and the glances and turns of a head, can supply.” (McElhaney, 2015)

In terms of visual qualities, on screen developments of a story is created according the spectator’s ideation as it defines the cinematic event. This form of film suggests the incidents as a random coincidences which invites the viewers to explore the possibilities. Therefore, watching In the Mood for Love is differentiated by satisfying in its cinephiliac moments. Firstly, in In the mood for love, there are number of scenes that capture only part of the protagonists’ bodies when they are interacting.(See Fig.16)From the camera perspective, apart from the wide angle, Wong also intersects various views from the floor which focus on their feet. Also lots of Wong’s scene are taken from a viewpoint like a spy by placing the camera behind the partition. 41

12/01/2017 09:21:17

Wong frames a lot of facial expression and body movements in his movie. It creates ambiguity but more about on intense moment along the movie. In In the Mood for Love (2000) the protagonists usually not talk and move, instead, they purely look at the camera and wait. Moreover, the dress and location of different spaces could recognise the storyline in audiences’ mind. Although it is difficult to tell what is going on if looking at one shot, a sense of possibility is created when associating different kind of shots. Therefore, in Wong’s frame, even though the scene captures part of actor’s body does not suggests the location, it can be read as events that happens as interactive an incidents which also gives a sense of “present” from the hints from their body movement.

Fig. 21 Screenshots of a close-up shot in In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000). 42

Final 12012017.indd 42-43

Wong also sees the actor’s body as an ‘off screen’ space, therefore, he elaborates the story through capturing from the protagonists’ hand then to their body. For example, the scene of the first meeting of the two couples in the Mahjong room, the space is framed by the door frame brings it the attention

to what the people touch like pressing the door bell and touching another lover. Coincidently, it is where the enigmatic atmosphere starts. Another off-screen example is the use of reflection as a reception of information. In In the Mood for Love, Wong uses a lot of mirror to present the spaces. For the narrative, it usually framed by the hole while the ellipses frames the working space. The scene in the hostel room is the best example. When Mr Chow and Mrs Chan creating their novel, the room is where they work for more than a week. The room is decorated with ovalshaped mirror where Wong captures as a main object. Thus, that particular scene brings upon the cosy working space while their relationship is getting anxious.

[Framing the ambiguous space] Wong uses a lot of architecture elements as a tool of framing for different scenes. In In the Mood for Love, window not only act as a boundary of room, but also an inner-open space for the characters to oversee each other. Nevertheless, the door frame suggests an enclosed space to occupy social activities, like talking. The door frame within the common corridor forms an internal boundary. When the characters stop in front of each other, it suggests a semi-public area in the house. Thence, a lot of Wong’s movies involves a lot of closeup scenes is not only because of the spatial condition, but also allowing him to reflect the distance between the characters is similar to the reality.

12/01/2017 09:21:17

“More specifically, the suspension of yearning for what is outside the frame leaves the characters to indulge in the present alone.” (Braester, 2015)

[Hunting]

“Significantly, this activity occurs entirely off-screen” (Khoo, 2006) “I might discover things that the rational explanation keeps out of our sight, outside the frame, off-screen” (Keathley, 2005)

“The importance of Wong’s disengagement of the on-and-off-screen lies in the absence of what may be called spatial desire.” (Braester, 2015)

Fig. 22 A close-up shot in In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000)

Final 12012017.indd 44-45

4.2 [Hearing]

In the Mood for Love, is a movie with double plot narrative, one is on-screen, and the other is off-screen. The off-screen technique that Wong used is powerful in telling the story. The story is created by a series of moments. The use of off-screen spaces create a sense of hunting and thus turns out as a ‘becoming space’ with reinforcement of events. It also gives a hint of ‘what next’. This section will discuss the function of using the off-screen, and hence how filmmakers construct the flow of the story. The house in In the Mood for Love is selected to be examined the power of off-screen arguing whether off-screen becomes the main story rather than on screen. At the beginning of the film, Wong offers a sense curiosity of what people are doing in the next door. In this circumstances, the institution is where the story develops and hence creates a coherent oscillation for the movie. In In the Mood for Love,

the corridor in the house and the door frame, act as internal boundaries to stop the visual connection and thus giving a clue a desire of the next door. The scenes present as illogical, abstract and irrelevant moments at the beginning of the film turns out to be making sense at the end when all of them connects. This connection is known as a ‘cause-and-effect relationship’. By capturing the moment precisely like the actor dialogues and gestures, Wong creates a story in audience mind which formulate the expected and unexpected incidents throughout the movie. Nevertheless, off-screen creates a buffer moment that allows the audience to imagine another option and thus look forward what happen next in the story. Wong believes the use of this technique brings the different way of showing viewer through a serial of the show and hidden. “Eventualities now precede the event, outpacing it, anticipating it. When the event eventually occurs, the result is always anticlimactic, disappointing, boring” (Abbas, 1997b) 45

12/01/2017 09:21:18

“the construction of off-screen space creates the temporal relation of ‘where next?’” (Cubbit, 2004) “the division of film space between the onscreen and the offscreen creates a tension between sight and blindness. Bonitzer, interested in the suspense at the foundation of thrillers, argues that what cannot be seen instills the viewer with horror. What the frame does not contain is not only a forbidden but also a forbidding space.” (Braester, 2015)

“Now you see it, now you don’t” (Nochimson, 2010)

Fig. 23 The Hand in Eros (Wong, 2004) Another Wong’s example of using architecture elements as a visual blockage while exposing the communication of the actors. Xiao Zhang can hear what is going on or guess by listening outside the room of Miss Hua while waiting. Once again, Wong turns the open space into formal space. Space defines with double meaning, the traditional use of architecture, like a corridor, represents a still moment rather than just pass by. Thus, the tension of sight and blindness marks the critical moment through the ears instead of the sight. In this scene, the off-screen space in this segment creates a series of setting starting with different noise.

Final 12012017.indd 46-47

[Pause as a threshold] As Cubbit indicated, off-screen can draw people’s attention. Traditionally, corridor only acts as a formal transitional space, in Wong’s movie, it becomes an informal social space. The in-between space defines not only the public and private use, but also a sharing space for users. Also, regarding the scale, a wider corridor establishes a stronger sense of enclosure and intimacy. In the opening scene of In the Mood for Love, the protagonists move into their rooms while the workers are handling different sizes of furnitures, people in this scene are encouraged to communicate in the narrow corridor, and no matter they want or not, that is how the story begin. Moreover, Wong used to film the architecture elements rather than actors itself in every start of scenes as he believes that the architectural elements give a

sense of the era for the story in a flash. Meanwhile, the noise from a different part of the house represents various activities in the home. The echoes generated by the actor and the surrounding deliver idea a sense of the dimension of the space for the viewers. Furthermore, the audience is not able to see the whole room or even the entire house, instead, it is possible for them to connect the space from all the traces that Wong provides in different on/off screen footage. For example, when Mrs Chan in Mr Chow’s room is waiting for other tenders to leave, the camera does not visually show what is going outside the room, instead, they judge the situation by hearing meanwhile, the director lets the viewers know what happens to the neighbours. Another perspective of hearing is the use of the telephone. Wong only allows viewers to hear part of the conversation. Hence, the viewers become spies who are overhearing the story. This is an alternative way for filmmakers encourage viewers to understand the story. 47

12/01/2017 09:21:18

“The actors in Wong are placed within shots that are layered regarding the décor: mirrors and other reflective surfaces, windows, doorways, walls that are covered in surface esoterica. At time, a shot will be framed in such a manner that the architecture or décor will cut off the top of an actor’s body.” (McElhaney, 2015)

[Reflection]

4.3 [Reflecting] “The camera is disengaged from the characters, probing their reactions from a safe distance that mirrors their partial knowledge and hesitant communication based on hints and innuendos. One shot takes this metaphor literally, showing the two on Mo-Wan’s doorstep through a mirror that obscures, duplicates, and fragments their figures.“ (Braester, 2015)

Fig. 24 Screenshots of Mirror in In the Mood for Love(Wong, 2000). 48

Final 12012017.indd 48-49

In Wong’s films, mirror is frequently used as a tool to present the relationship between the characters. Actors often speak to other’s reflections on the mirror rather than face to face. In Wong’s carefully staged scenes, characters stare off in different directions to aim their words into the thin air, even though their words reach them like daggers. Apart from understanding how Wong frames the actor’s body in movies as discussed in previous sections, he enjoys using the mirror’s reflection to create multi-focal points. Also, the mirror he decorates in the setting can find a feeling of Voyeur. Unlike his frequent use of close up to create a vague atmosphere, the mirror creates the depth for the scene, hence, it connects other spaces visually.

small mirror installed on the cabinet are the details that Wong used to amplify the spatial quality. He strategically designed the camera movement to interact with those elements. In the selected scene, Wong’s approach allows the audience to understand the internal space of the loft through the neonlighted windows. Also, the quietness of the loft can be experienced through the sense of contrast generated from the reflection of a moving train on the window. Therefore, through the sound, glass, mirror, light and patterned light appear in this scene,the isolated andlonely loft then connects to the city.

This tension also created in between the mirrors coexists in Wong’s film. In Fallen Angels (1995), another Wong’s early movie, the wall of the loft and the 49

12/01/2017 09:21:18

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A crystal image is formed from a circuit between an actual image and its virtual counterpartâ&#x20AC;? (Deleuze, 1989)

The mirror reflects the light from exterior, also, the window opening shows the train moving.

Screen Shots shown the relationship between the loft and the city.

Camera filmed the loft from the moving train.

Fig 25 Screenshots elaborate the mirror setting in Fallen Angels (Wong, 1994) 50

Final 12012017.indd 50-51

Fig 26 the Mirror setting diagram. 51

12/01/2017 09:21:19

“The camera is disengaged from the characters, probing their reactions from a safe distance that mirrors their partial knowledge and hesitant communication based on hints and innuendos. One shot takes this metaphor literally, showing the two on Mo-Wan’s doorstep through a mirror that obscures, duplicates, and fragments their figures. “ (Braester, 2015) “… the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct” (Liu, 2000) “The actors in Wong’ are placed within shots that are layered in terms of the décor: mirrors and other reflective surfaces, windows, doorways, walls that are covered in surface esoterica. At time, a shot will be framed in such a manner that the architecture or décor will cut off the top of an actor’s body” (McElhaney, 2015)

Fig. 27 Screenshots of the mirror setting in In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000) 52

Final 12012017.indd 52-53

[Mirror] Mirror dominates the screen in In the Mood for Love. The reflective objects, like mirror, glass, water as another is architecture and film elements that conveys many means. In Wong’s cinema, reflection cooperates with the camera very often. This approach not only enriches the scene as a language of what on screen, but also about focusing in another perspective. It allows layers of fragmented views doubling the space, even the pattern/ words are overlapped on the top of the mirror. The position of the mirror is precisely located by Wong during the production process. The double plot (i.e. on and off screen) as mentioned previously in this dissertation, thus, the mirror acts as another idea to convey the narrative. Edgeless mirror is often used in Wong’s films. Believing that this technique is not about the image of reflection, but

also how it blurs the broader as well as the boundary of the camera. His intention is to blur the border and hence become a game for the audience to guess whether it is real or fake. Also, this elaborates the rhythm of the space by organising seen and unseen on the screen. Mirror also frequency use to block and obstacles between the actor and the camera, thus, it stretch the space interestingly. The mirror is a device to define what people are, each reflection bring upon clues and questions. The observation highlights the area by another source of lighting, meanwhile, the mirror frame the important parts of the narrative. Therefore, the mirror images are coherent, like material in a slightly distort, scaled space. Taking the room in In the Mood for Love as an example, the mirror reflects the pattern of the wallpaper, the dress of the actress and the lamp. It gives the sense of space to the audience as those patterns emerge together on the mirror. These encourage the viewers to focus on the actor’s facial expression, especially when they were talking.

12/01/2017 09:21:20

Fig. 28 Study model and the sequence diagram of Tarkovsky in The Mirror (1975)

Final 12012017.indd 54-55

12/01/2017 09:21:24

[Fragment/obscure/doubling] Similarly, Sternberg and Ophuls’s movies also using mirrors act as a magnetic surface. Both directors believe that the actor, light and pattern can create a strong sense of space. Moreover, regarding the visual experiences, it shows the object on two different screens which provide another perspective for viewers effectively. On the other hand, doubling the image is another way to enhance the character within the space. Also, since space appears on the mirror is untouchable, therefore, it creates a multi-perspective cinematography.

Fig.29 3d model of Mirror scene Tarkovsky in The Mirror(1975) 56

Final 12012017.indd 56-57

The diagram shows the camera movement and framed space, as well as the reflection from the mirror.

Instead of duplicating the layers, the fragment and figures in the screen show the visual connection of filming behind an object that creates an overlooking scene. Nevertheless, the mirror also commonly associated with time, for instance, Andrei Tarkovsky, a Russian filmmaker, many scenes in his movie involve mirror in the setting.

Tarkovsky focuses on the mirror when the actor passes by. The reflective image becomes a transition to another scene. Also the fade in and out and jump-cut editing turns out as a timing device to elaborate the changes of the character’s life. The camera angle that Wong uses in In the Mood for Love suggests people experience the story through the mirror rather than the actual space. The mirror framed part of the actors and filled with minor distortion to the reality. Hence, it becomes an illusion of mixing the mirror space and the real space.

Reflection also demonstrates the most private moment in film language since it sets up a series of visual experience to space, after all, it successfully draws audience’s attention because of its unusual perspective. Wong captures the protagonists’ performance like smoking and thinking, these elaborate their complex characteristic regarding the narrative. Furthermore, audiences witness how do the actor spying each other. In this circumstance, the mirror reflects the complexity of time and incidents that enrich the mysterious atmosphere. In summary, to filmmakers, mirror is a partner of storytelling as it tell about the private object and the past by recalling the memories and strengthen the atmosphere of a film.

12/01/2017 09:21:24

[Water] In Wong’s films, he used to have natural elements like rain and water to perform the transition. They were reproduced for the movie precisely. This kind of transition conducts a function as a connection. It connects the scenes subtly and hence to becomes of memories or clues to link up the whole movie. The transitional elements do not have any meaning on it own, but most of them appear unconsciously throughout the film. Therefore, they become the connection for the past and future. Meanwhile, the fragmentation needs to be seen as a whole by the audience since Wong decides that there are no symbolic meaning to them, instead, there are hidden linkage in between them. [Water in In the Mood for Love] Fig.30 A close-up shot shows the reaction of water and the hidden forces in The Grandmaster fighting scene (2013)

Final 12012017.indd 58-59

In In the Mood for Love, water demonstrates a significant tool to enhance the mood of the setting. It is easy to understand by comparing the two wonton soup scenes while one of it is filmed with rain and one without.

The blurred and smudged scene filmed with a wetted floor, a humid wall and raindrops reflected by the street light enlighten the ambiguous relationship of Mr Chow and Mrs Chen as it is a lot more romantic and mysterious. Regarding the power of water, when the close-up footage of the rain hits the ground, and street lamp, it builds up a special moment for the audience to assimilate the atmosphere. Water has become one of Wong’s iconic feature in his cinema. Apart from In the Mood for Love, movie like the Ashes of Time (1994) and The Grandmaster (2013), water is more about being a transition which enhances the emotion of the character and the moment in-between scenes. As a visual device, water can be shown in different colours, and more important, it express the emotion of various events since water is a light source where patterns can be reflected another shadow of the actor, thus, provide another kind of visual pleasure. [ Water: Grandmaster opening scene ]

thoughts. In The Grandmaster(2013) opening fight scene, water has become a stroke brush on the screen. It brings upon another layer above the street light. The reflection of water is not regarding visual experience, but also to strengthen the force that that actor applied for the fight. Apart from the reflection, the rain also reflects the intensity of the actor’s body movement. Therefore, the rain helps Wong to emphasise the body movement and also expressed beautifully by it flux wave. Water is not only a reflection of the space but also a natural element. Regarding architecture, for example, Salk Institute, one of Louis Kahn’s the most iconic project, the channel filled with water enhances the sense of direction and monumentality in the open plaza. As well as Tadao Ando’s Church on the Water which has a large piece of water set along with a cross, water, in this case, it identifies as a spiritual perception, meanwhile, it creates a silent and peaceful atmosphere for the church.

The reflection of water is an abstract way to represent psychological 59

12/01/2017 09:21:24

[Parc de La Villette: ___________________ ] Wong Kar-wai + Jacques Derrida + Bernard Tschumi “Spacing is precisely not space but what Derrida describes as the ‘becoming space’” (Wigley, 1993)

Final 12012017.indd 60-61

12/01/2017 09:21:25

[5.1 Architecture of Deconstruction]

Fig.31 A diagram shows the ideas of ‘space’ between Wong Kar-wai, Derrida and Tschumi

[Parc de La Villette]

This section in the thesis is about the relation of Wong Kar-wai’s cinema, Derrida’s philosophy of Deconstruction and Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette [One stylistic note: to avoid repetition, the Par de la Villette will henceforth be referred to as ‘La Villette’(no italics)].

Final 12012017.indd 62-63

Wong Kar-wai’s cinema has been discussed in the previous sections. The following is to explore Derrida’s theory of Deconstruction. Regarding architecture, spacing is a place for hunting. It is a process of seeing and approaching instead of an accident. It allows people to create unexpecting events within it. Spacing also gives a sense of space when public starts using it as it becomes functional. Likewise, it purely provides the visual pleasure of emptiness. Also, the consecutive “spacing between desire and pleasure.” (Derrida, 1986, p. 73) creates a rhythm that enhances the spatial quality. The rhythm of spacing itself shares similarities throughout the project while having minor differences in the detail. The mixture of directions, functions and program-less space in La Villette given a same quality of spacing through Tschumi’s design principle of superimposition of three different layers, points, lines and surface which also represent as systems of the object, movement and space. Therefore, the system of surfaces as open space in the

park elaborates as a ‘becoming space’ which involves informal function like seeking. As Derrida puts it, “spacing is a concept which also, but not exclusively, carries the meaning of productive, positive, generative force…it carries along with it a genetic motif: it is not only the interval, space constituted between two things (which is the usual sense of spacing), but also spacing the operation, or in any event, the movement of setting aside.” (Derrida, 1978). ‘Spacing’ here is in the form of action and also a force in between spaces known as zooming, seeing and hence making abstract connections. Also, ‘becoming space’ defines the idea of ‘connection’ within the ‘spacing’, as it is associated with a start and end while the human activities identify its function. For example, by navigating a person within the open space, he or she can see the force in-between it. Then, the connection develops some alternatives, taking La Villette as an example, people can locate themselves through exploring the grid of the follies as it generates tension among the grid itself instead of providing a suggestion of routes 63

12/01/2017 09:21:26

[Diagram of Close-up]

[Diagrams of walk]

Fig.32 A diagram indicated the iconic part of the follies.

Fig.33 A diagrams shown the idea of appraching to the follies, camera angles and movement.

Final 12012017.indd 64-65

12/01/2017 09:21:29

[Diagram of the framing Technique] Fig.34 the diagram show the study of storyboard in La Villette.

Final 12012017.indd 66-67

12/01/2017 09:21:31

[5.2 Filmming La Villette] The scene in Angkor Wat is chosen in this section for exploring how Wong’s filming techniques can be used as a methodology for filming La Villette. Wong’s filming technique in this scene involves incessant tracking, shot by shot and slow movement. Wong also includes still shots with zoom in and panning as a circular shot (which the character remains at the same place but camera moving circular). Regarding the proportion of the scene, Wong put the actor in extremely left of the scene while shooting the object parallelly.

Final 12012017.indd 68-69

In this particular scene, Wong shoots it in different perspectives as well as close-up like the hole in the wall, and also from a distance. Thus, by rearranging the footages, the story of the protagonist journey is told. A close-up scene with a silent gaze from the monk watching the actor whisper to the wall can give a sense of material and texture. In the following section, it presents the methodology by applying Wong’s filming technique into the filming practice taken place in La Villette, Tuschmi’s masterplan in Paris that identify as a cinematic landscape corresponding to his study illustrated in Manhattan Transcript.

12/01/2017 09:21:33

In the Mood for Love

Screenshot

Fig.35

[Final Shot] This shot is filmed by circular panning around the ruined architecture in Angkor Wat from left to right slowly. The focal point in this scene is set as the column which also located in th extreme left of the screen ,therefore, the assmmytry here creates the tension which also emphsize the sptial quality and the complex feeling that the actor is suffering. 70

Final 12012017.indd 70-71

12/01/2017 09:21:38

Parc de la villette

Screenshot

Fig.36

[Follie P6] In this shot, the camera pans around the folie from left to right circularlly, this express the journey by slow motion that focusing the greenery in the middle and thus this footage is filmed behind the coloums which gives the sense of distance and sptial quality of this iconic pavilion. 72

Final 12012017.indd 72-73

12/01/2017 09:21:40

[5.3 Close-up]

Final 12012017.indd 74-75

12/01/2017 09:21:41

[Follies Fragment] The anaylsis on the left is about cautpuring the characteristic of those follies in La Villette. Thus, people is able to recongise the details through the close-up images

Fig.37 Original photographs of details in La Villette

Final 12012017.indd 76-77

12/01/2017 09:21:51

[Light] By the use of Wongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s filming technique, close-up, it allows people to experience through the highlighted details. Apart from the image of folly, the artificial lighting features the sturcture and the movement within the park including the stairs, ramps etc.

Fig.38 Original photographs of details in La Villette

Final 12012017.indd 78-79

12/01/2017 09:22:01

[Reflection] through using of Wongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Filming the reflection technique, it allows people to see from the mirror, glass and water reflecting the space into distorted, waving and blurred the reality.

Fig.39 Original video screenshots of the reflection in La Villette https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuvP79bC8lGnPsZI43qokMg 80

Final 12012017.indd 80-81

12/01/2017 09:22:05

Final 12012017.indd 82-83

[Conclusion]

Wong Kar-wai + Jacques Derrida + Bernard Tschumi

83 83

12/01/2017 09:22:05

[Conclusion]

Architecture and film are tenaciously connected in various aspects. The work of Wong Kar-wai, a Hong Kong filmmaker, has strongly manifested his interest in this connection through his way of filming, setting for filming and mood set, etc. The above writing explores these elements in detail through the Miseen-scène of his compelling works, In the Mood for Love. Following a brief introduction of Wong Kar-wai, Taste of Space is a section that analyses how Wong’s movie uses different architectural elements including lighting, pattern and the filming set that define the spatial quality.

Final 12012017.indd 84-85

In co-operating with his iconic filming techniques, slow motion and pausing moment, they both enrich the space for the audience to anticipate into the film. Following with a section that examines how Wong as the director uses the framed space to tell a story, it explores the use of different approaches through seeing, hearing and reflection on the screen. Furthermore, a study leads to the understanding of psychological meaning on using colour, visual tropes, visual tension within a frame. These approaches formulate a series of methods for either filmmakers or architects to construct meaningful spaces for people as they both relate their works to culture, reflect the social use by focusing on creating pure and harmonious visual style.

After an extensive study on Wong Karwai’s cinema, a real architecture project, Parc de la Villette, is chosen to indicate his techniques. As regards that Bernard Tschumi’s masterpiece in demonstrating the theory of deconstruction in architecture. Both Wong and Tschumi interest in presenting the flow within a disconnected space, which is known as ‘becoming space’ according to Jacques Derrida, a philosopher introduces the idea of deconstruction. Open spaces act as a form of transition in both Wong’s film and Tschumi’s park. Once the space is functioned or programmed, it becomes a significant area for people.

To examine the relationship between architecture and film, in this case, a series of videos has taken in La Villette. These videos aim to test whether Wong’s filming method work in the cinematic landscape created by Tschumi including the use of close up and slow motion etc. Also, Wong’s personal background is taken into his film which uses the idea of western and eastern when he found a culture relationship, which amplifies from the detail to the whole. Similarly, through the filming experiments in the park, using the close-up shooting can emphasise the characteristic of the follies.

Apart from close up, framed space is used a lot in Wong’s movies; it does not only used for creating meaning and beautiful image, but also to give a sense of space while having light bring from the outside, noises from the unseen space and the reflection from mirror and water. All of the above techniques that Wong uses to strengthen the spatial quality, meanwhile, the filming took place at La Villette has used the idea of using lighting and reflection to amplify the iconic character that the space in the park conserve. Therefore, the use of Wong’s filming style in La Villette bring upon of how the open spaces can gather in once, henceforth, it brings the interior into the city itself.

The study in Wong Kar-wai’s cinema and a series of practical experiments take place in a cinematic landscape, La Villette by Bernard Tschumi concludes the relationship between architecture and film is interrelated and influential. Both Wong and Tschumi create a narrative from fragments within a conceptual framework. Both of them aim to create high-quality space for people to experience physically, visually and mentally. This is because their works have reflected the city’s culture, rituals and daily life successfully by suggesting a meeting, commuting and moving space that capable of influencing people’s life.

12/01/2017 09:22:05

Final 12012017.indd 86-87

12/01/2017 09:22:05

[Plan of work] DEC 1 2

[Plan of work]

JAN 4 1 2 3 4 Research Architecture Reading Film watching Reading Others Production

Presentation Draft Drawing Finalise

Tutorial Travel

RLD Other Studio trip trip Hoilday Hand In other Hand In RLD

Final 12012017.indd 88-89

FEB OCT 11 22

MAR Nov 11 22

APR DEC 11 22

MAY JAN 11 22

FEB 1 2

WeekMAR 1 | 30 Jan 17 APR 4 Reflect 1 on feed 2 back 3 and organise 4 1 site 2

Week 6 |MAY 6 Mar 17

Week 12 |1 May 17 bank holiday

Profound 4 1 and refine 2 the 3 concept 4 how to deal

Finish the final model as well creating final

imformation

with the site.

sets of drawings and renders ready for

Week 2 | 6 Mar 17

Week 7 | 13 Mar 17

submission. Critical analysis of portfolio

8-13 Feb, Trip to Cario Document the

Explore the site, and conept with Models,

and finalisation of the theoretical writing to

architecture, jounery and attept to find out

drawings

accompany it

some forogtten space.

Week 8 | 20 Mar 17

Week 3 | 13 Feb 17

Finalise the concept., start with detail, models

Week 13 | 5 May 17 | 3pm

Document the information from Cario, and

in virtual, and larger space

Final portfolio submission

exlpore the site information.

Week 9 | 27 Mar 17

*Two hard copies, including any digitial work

Week 4 | 20 Feb 17

Perpare the persentation material.

on a usb handed into office and uploaded to

Explore the concept how to deal with the site.

Week 10 | 3 Apr 17

moodle

Week 5 | 27 Feb 17

Studio design reviews

Week 14 | 15 May 17 Easter Break 2 WEEK

Build Exhibition

Week 11 | 24 Apr 17

Week 15 | 22 May 17

Alterations to design based on reflection,

Build Exhibition, some RLDers to participate,

final major adjustments to design based on

opening for end of year Exhibition

feedback

Week 16 | 31 May 17 Return of Feedback froms for FINAL RESEARCH LED DESIGN STUDIO PROJECT PORTFOLIO

12/01/2017 09:22:05

[Bibliography]

Final 12012017.indd 90-91

12/01/2017 09:22:05

[Bibliography]

Final 12012017.indd 92-93

12/01/2017 09:22:06

Final 12012017.indd 94-95

12/01/2017 09:22:07

[Online Article]

[Filmography]

2046. 2004. [Film] Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong, China: Jet Tone Films Ltd, Shanghai Film Group Corporation, Orly Films, Paradis Films, Classic, Precious Yield, Arte France Cinema, France 3 Cinema, and ZDF/Arte.

Ashes of Time. 1994. [Film] Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Production, Block 2 Pictures, Scholar Films Company, Beijing Film Studio, Pony Canyon and Tsui Siu Ming Productions.

Blow up. 1966. [Film] Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. United Kingdom, Italy, United States: Bridge Films.

Eros(segment "The Hand," 2004). 2004. [Film] Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong, United States, Italy: Jet Tone Films.

[Website]

Fallen Angels. 1994. [Film] Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong: Chan Ye-Cheung and Jet Tone Production.

http://www.living-architectures.com/

In The Mood For Love. 2000. [Film] Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong: Block 2 Pictures, Jet Tone Production, and Pardis Films.

http://www.tschumi.com/ www.dsrny.com/

Final 12012017.indd 96-97

The Grandmaster. 2013. [Film] Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong, China: Jet Tone Films, Sil-Metropole Organisation, Bona International Film Group.

12/01/2017 09:22:07

[Illustrations] Fig.1

Wong (1994). Fallen Angels. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.21

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.2

Wong (1994). Chungking Express. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.22

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.3

Antonioni (1966). Blow up. Italy: Bridge Films [Film Still Photo]

Fig.23

Wong (2004). Eros: the Hand. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.4

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.24

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.5

Fig.25

Wong (1994). Fallen Angels. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.6

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.26

Fig.7

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.27

Wong (2004). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.8

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.28

Fig.9

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.29

Fig.10

Fig.30

Wong (2013). The Grandmaster. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.11

Wong (2013). The Grandmaster. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.31

Fig.12

Model image of Slow House, Diller and Scofidio(1990)

Fig.32

Fig.13

Fig.33

Fig.14

Wong (2013). The Grandmaster. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.34

Fig.15

Fig.35

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.16

Wong (2013). The Grandmaster. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.36

Fig.17

Fig.37

Fig.18

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.38

Fig.19

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Fig.39

Fig.20

Wong (2000). In the Mood for Love. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Porduction [Film Still Photo]

Final 12012017.indd 98-99

12/01/2017 09:22:07

[Appendix]

100

Final 12012017.indd 100-101

101

12/01/2017 09:22:07

Improvsation Idea

102

Final 12012017.indd 102-103

103

12/01/2017 09:22:12

Improvsation Idea

104

Final 12012017.indd 104-105

105

12/01/2017 09:22:16

106

Final 12012017.indd 106-107

107

12/01/2017 09:22:16