Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" I have an image of Shanghai, which is quite different from other directors, I think. The story of Shanghai should happen in back alleys. "
Wong Kar-wai
Story
Image
Different
Related Quotes:
" Somehow, we fall in love with the films and don't want to let go, but financially and physically, we cannot afford it. "
Wong Kar-wai
Let Go
Love
Go
" I'm a big fan of martial arts films, novels and radio programs. "
Wong Kar-wai
Radio
Arts
Big
" In much the same way Ip Man embodied the struggles of the Chinese people, I wanted Gong Er to represent the changing role of women. "
Wong Kar-wai
People
Struggles
Way
" After the Revolution in '49, all the films were propaganda. They serviced the government and carried the message that the government wants to relay to the people. But I think, in the last 10 years, because the film market is opening and there's an expansion of all the cinemas in China, it's now a lot like Hollywood productions. "
Wong Kar-wai
Government
Revolution
People
" 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. "
Wong Kar-wai
You
Dress
Police
" The Chinese government promised Hong Kong '50 years, and change.' And 50 years later, after 1997, will be 2046; I think, 'Well, that's a very interesting promise.' So I want to make a film about promise. "
Wong Kar-wai
Change
Think
Interesting
" I came to Hong Kong when I was five, but we didn't have any relatives in Hong Kong. My mom is a big movie fan, and she watched all kinds of movies, so when I was a kid, basically, we went to watch a movie every day. "
Wong Kar-wai
Mom
Watch
Day
" I started out my career as a screenwriter and quickly discovered that adhering to a script isn't always the best way to make a film. You have to take into consideration the nuances of the characters and what the actors bring to their roles. "
Wong Kar-wai
Film
Always
Best
" I'm not very aware of styles. We never talk about styles before we start shooting, or even during shooting, because I think the film will bring you there. "
Wong Kar-wai
Start
Never
Film
" I don't want to be a grumpy old man or too pessimistic, because if I have a chance, I would prefer to watch a film in the cinema with an audience on a big screen instead of watching it on a cell phone. It's a very different experience, but somehow I think this form will have its own future and life. "
Wong Kar-wai
Experience
Think
Future
" The industry and support in China has really matured because there are so many productions there. At the same time, there's been a lot of changes in the market, which I think also has enabled productions like 'The Grandmaster' to happen and to be possible to shoot in China. "
Wong Kar-wai
Support
Possible
Think
" Ip Man was an extraordinary man who lived during extraordinary times. He was born to a rich family when the country was still a monarchy and lived through various civil wars, revolutions, the Japanese invasion, and the establishment of the Republic. "
Wong Kar-wai
Rich
Born
Country
" I think one day I can make a book about coffee shops in Hong Kong. I spent almost most of my time in coffee shops, in different coffee shops. "
Wong Kar-wai
Coffee
Day
I Can
" 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
Look
You
Cinema
" It is always good to work with a very regular group of people because we know how high we can fly and what are the parameters, and it becomes very enjoyable. "
Wong Kar-wai
Good
Fly
Group
" The laboratory where we stored all our negatives went bankrupt overnight following the Asian economic crisis in 1997. So, on short notice, we had to retrieve all the materials in the middle of the night before the debtor-receiver took over the laboratory the next morning. "
Wong Kar-wai
Night
Morning
Crisis
" I was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong the year I was five. "
Wong Kar-wai
Hong Kong
Five
Year
" I never studied film formally at school, but as a kid, I spent most of my time in cinemas. "
Wong Kar-wai
Film
Most
School
" In our case, we have no script. So the only people we can work with are people who have been working with us in the past, and they know we are going to do something; it's kind of a trust. "
Wong Kar-wai
Trust
People
Past
" In my first film, we always tried to have a script and work in a normal way, but I was constantly changing things during shooting. Because I worked as a scriptwriter for 10 years, I understood that directors always wanted to change what was originally written, to improve on it. "
Wong Kar-wai
Normal
Film
Change
" 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
Never
Think
Want
" I think of action as a dance. It's a riddle; it should have emotion in it. "
Wong Kar-wai
Dance
Action
Riddle
" I don't do rehearsal. Some directors prefer to do rehearsal - readings before the actual shooting - but I don't like this process because I think there are certain things that are so spontaneous, and they cannot happen twice. "
Wong Kar-wai
Like
Twice
Think
" 1936 is a very important year: a golden time for martial arts, right before the Japanese invasion. "
Wong Kar-wai
Time
Right
Arts
" To make films, it always begins with two words: what and how. First of all, you have to find a story, or what are you going to tell? And you have to find a way to tell it visually. "
Wong Kar-wai
Way
You
Words
" My mother has a very big family in Shanghai, so I have, like, almost 40 cousins, so we stayed together all the time. So by the time I get to Hong Kong, I become the only child and the only one surrounded by adults, you know. "
Wong Kar-wai
Family
Child
Time
" To make a film like 'The Grandmaster,' I know I'm not going to make just a standard kung-fu film; it's not going to be just tricks or like wire works. So I spent seven years on the road interviewing different schools and a lot of real grandmasters from Chinese martial arts. "
Wong Kar-wai
Arts
Know
Like
" The original title for 'In the Mood for Love' was called 'A Story About Food.' The idea was to tell a love story through different courses. "
Wong Kar-wai
Love
Mood
Original
" The reason it takes me so long to make a film, the reason it gets so difficult, is that I'm trying to think of every film as the last one I will ever make so it can be the best it can possibly be. I don't want to have regrets or excuses or think, 'I can do better next time.' "
Wong Kar-wai
Think
Best
Better
" Heritage is something martial-arts films don't often talk about. "
Wong Kar-wai
About
Heritage
Often