Show, don’t tell, or so the old adage goes. Embracing this like no other filmmaker, Wong Kar Wai is among cinema’s greatest masters of visualizing longing, nostalgia, and loss. In his films, the gorgeous visual style speaks volumes in between the oft-improvised lines of his reliably excellent actors, including Asian cinema titans like Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. Born in Shanghai, Wong relocated with his family to Hong Kong in the wake of China’s “Cultural Revolution.” This experience demonstrated to Wong both the poignancy of exile and the creative inspiration it sometimes affords; hence Wong’s abiding interest in how one can be alienated from a place or community, but also from one’s own deepest desires.  

We will explore four of Wong’s films over a uniquely productive decade. We begin with Days of Being Wild (1990), a study in youthful restlessness and mismatched desires. We then turn to Chungking Express (1994), the spiritedly melancholy film that brought Wong international attention. With Happy Together (1997), we’re thrown into the crucible of a gay Hong Kong couple’s relationship as they travel to Argentina. We close with Wong’s masterpiece, In the Mood for Love (2000), which the instructor would call the most romantic film ever made. It is also a subtle meditation on the same expatriate Shanghai community in Hong Kong from which Wong arose to become an icon of world cinema.