After losing face in "The Ferryman", Wong Kar-wai picked it up with "Flowers". This work proved his ability to grasp commercial themes. Wong Kar-Wai has always rejected the label of literary films: there has always been only the art of cinema, not art films. Although Wong Kar-wai's works always reflect on the past, he, like Po, has caught another oncoming express train.

author| ChenDan

In his 36-year director career, Wong Kar-Wai experienced for the first time the feeling of being chased by traffic.

From actors, screenwriters, artists to the original author, everyone related to "Flowers" is happy to tell the details related to him in interviews. "Wong Kar-Wai style" has become a prominent subject on the Internet, with imitation videos and photos emerging one after another. Even the name that netizens call him has changed from "King of Sunglasses" to "Our Family Guard".

This is not an accidental image reversal, but a "long-planned" two-way rush between famous directors and traffic.

During the preparation for the filming of "Flowers" in 2019, Wong Kar-wai said when meeting with the producers of Tencent Video that he had watched all the popular dramas on the market. During the broadcast of "Flowers", Wong Kar-wai would ask the platform, is 30,000 hits good? Can it get higher? Just recently, the news that Wong Kar-Wai "intensively read" the barrage until two or three o'clock in the night became a hot search.

Wong Kar-wai, who has been surrounded by controversy for more than 30 years, has stepped on the tail end of 2023 and created another major event in his director career. The face I lost in "The Ferryman" was regained with "Flowers".


"Flowers" stills

01

tug of war

The pull between creator and audience is like a tug-of-war. Wong Kar-Wai, who is labeled as "artistic", is often at a disadvantage in this tug-of-war.

He has talked about the audience's reaction to "Days of Wild" in many interviews.

At the premiere in Hong Kong, he could feel the anxious atmosphere. "The audience was a little restless." After the show, the lights came on and the whole theater was very quiet. Wong Kar-wai immediately realized that "something was wrong" and "the surroundings were dead silent. Everyone wanted to avoid me." His good friend Liu Zhenwei did not even dare to admit that he knew Wong Kar-wai at the entrance of the theater.

He went to a restaurant to eat, and "everyone around him was talking about how much they hated the movie," and he left before finishing his meal. When the film was released in South Korea, the audience was so angry that they threw cans at the screen and left, cursing.

In sharp contrast, he watched the premiere of "Star Wars" in a theater in Los Angeles.

"I've never seen anything like that in a Chinese cinema. Lots of people, parents - fans of the old series, with their kids. When the music started and the Lucasfilm logo appeared, it was like a party. They were screaming, clapping, and for the first ten minutes there was no sound from the movie at all."

Even for Wong Kar-Wai, who has long been famous, the question is still relevant: How to get more viewers?

In the past, Wong Kar-Wai insisted on self-expression and tried to pull the audience over. Now, he spends time figuring out what the audience wants.


"Flowers" Yellow River Road stills

Someone once met Wong Kar-wai and the original author Jin Yucheng at the Shanghai-language version of "Flowers". Wong Kar-wai was present at almost every performance in those days. He was not watching the show, but observing the reaction of the audience in the northern region. Later, Wong Kar-wai decided to film the TV series version first, "just in Shanghainese".

During the filming, some people speculated that due to lack of funds, Wong Kar-wai went to shoot commercials to make money for the crew. After the broadcast of "Flowers", the chief producer Li Eryun revealed in an interview with the media that "the director is responsible for the overrun and overrun."

The actors of "Flowers" revealed that during the broadcast, Wong Kar-wai was still editing, hoping to polish a more perfect version of the series for second- and third-time viewers.

Although it continues the previous image style, the narrative of the drama version of "Flowers" is completely different. Different from the ambiguous and vague expressions in previous Wong Kar-wai films, "Flowers" has a complete story and ups and downs, and even every character in the play has a complete story line.

Gao Xiaosong said that in the past, watching Wong Kar-Wai's movies was emptying out, but now it is filling up. Li Dan was shocked that Wong Kar-wai could become so humorous. A user on station B called it "live and see you for a long time". In the past, Wong Kar-wai's works required a lot of effort, but "Flowers" can be discussed with parents about the plot. "This itself is outrageous."

In Wong Kar-wai's words, "Every time you try, you will know how far away you are from the audience. If you have any problems, try again until you are closer to the audience."

Of course, the main premise is, "Don't lose what you want to do."

02

bipolar

The controversy surrounding Wong Kar-wai began in 1990 with "Days of Being Wild."

Before that, he was a high-profile rising star in the film industry. The first film "Carmen" achieved great success at the box office and word of mouth, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director.

After that, he was the "King of Sunglasses" who was maverick and had two extreme reputations.

At the 1991 Golden Horse Awards, "Days of Being Wild" defeated Ang Lee's "Pushing Hands", Edward Yang's "The Murders on Guling Street" and Guan Jinpeng's "Ruan Lingyu" to win the best film. "Chungking Express" in 1994 won the FIPRESCI International Film Critics Award at the Stockholm International Film Festival. In 1997, Wong Kar-wai became the first Chinese director to win the Best Director Award at the Cannes International Film Festival with "Happy Together". In the Mood for Love, released in 2000, his influence reached its peak.

Until now, Sofia Coppola, the director of "Lost in Translation", Damian Chazelle, the director of "La La Land", Barry Jenkins, the director of "Moonlight", Kwan Ka-young and Daniel Schnatter, the directors of "The Universe" - these directors who have won the Oscar for Best Director or Best Picture, all claim to be Wong Kar-wai's fans.

But he is also the "bad boy" of Hong Kong movies in the eyes of film critics.

The box office of "Days of Being Wild" was only HK$9 million, and Wong Kar-wai's boss at the time, Deng Guangrong, went bankrupt. After "Days of Being Wild", no one was willing to invest in Wong Kar-wai's movies anymore, so he could only embark on the road of independent production.

Even after becoming famous, many of his films still face financing difficulties. "In the Mood for Love" has experienced the withdrawal of all investors. Jiang Zhiqiang, the producer of "The Grandmaster", revealed in an interview with the media that in order to make the film, Wong Kar-wai mortgaged his house to the bank.

Famous film critic John Powers commented on "Days of Wild" this way: It is a career-shattering work for Wong Kar-wai and an artistic lifeboat. Director Ang Lee commented on him, "I don't know any director who can attract so much interest, controversy, admiration and imitation."

Those who love Wong Kar-wai regard him as a model for art film directors. Wong Kar-wai's Douban group has over 40,000 members, which is much higher than other directors. His fans are keen on collecting peripherals and organizing movie watching parties. To this day, Wong Kar-wai's films are still being re-screened in art theaters around the world, with good attendance.

The reason why I don’t love Wong Kar-Wai is often as simple as three words: I can’t understand it.

For a long time, Wong Kar-wai was labeled as a literary artist. Some critics even labeled him as "pretentious", thinking that his content was artificial and unwarranted.

"The Grandmaster", which was released in 2013 and has a cumulative domestic box office of 289 million yuan, is Wong Kar-wai's best-selling film and is also regarded as a dividing line in his artistic creation. Scholar Zhang Jiande believes that "The Grandmaster" reflects Wong Kar-wai's creative shift - investing more energy in popular films and genre films.


Stills from "The Grandmaster"

In 2016, "The Ferryman", another attempt by Wong Kar-Wai to get closer to the audience, failed. Although this movie took in 482 million yuan at the box office, its Douban score was only 4.1. There are even extreme movie fans who classify him as a director who makes movies just to make money.

For directors like Wong Kar-Wai, who are known for their unique styles, "going down to earth" to embrace popular art will inevitably be accompanied by a judgment on whether their artistic standards have fallen from the altar.

"Flowers" is no exception.

03

No sound

In the comments section of every video or article that attempts to dissect "Flowers", there are indispensable arguments and debates.

In the short comment section of Douban, some people criticized Wong Kar-wai for "wanting to be down-to-earth while also trying to be stylish, but in the end he failed to paint a tiger as an anti-dog". Some people also believe that ""Flowers" is as boring, bright and empty as a candy wrapper. It is a high imitation of the director's own past." Some fans questioned his technical regression and compromise with the market in this drama.

Well-known film critic Dai Jinhua re-released a video of Wong Kar-wai's evaluation many years ago and reiterated his point of view - "I look forward to the "Flowers" movie and maintain a certain cautious attitude towards TV series."

Psychologist Li Meijin criticized "Flowers" for "the plot is messy, the actors use too much force, and a group of abnormal people lead a chaotic life." As expected, netizens started arguing again in the comment area.


"Flowers" stills

Some people believe that the core of Wong Kar-wai's creation is "romance", but TV dramas are about trivial daily life and do not have the ability to make romantic films. The director's creative style and story form compete with each other and lose both sides.

But what is certain is that Wong Kar-Wai, who may have disappointed die-hard fans, has embraced a larger audience and unprecedented traffic as he wished.

Before Wong Kar-Wai, many film directors who were good at commercial films had trouble making dramas.

Although the popularity of the suspense drama "Echo" directed by Feng Xiaogang is approaching 9,000 on iQiyi, its Douban score is only 5.9. Earlier, his urban female group portrait drama "North and South" had a Douban score of only 5 points and a maximum popularity of 7827.

Although Lu Yang's "The Wind Rises in Longxi" scored a high 8.1 on Douban, it was excluded from the show because of its low ratings. Another costume fantasy-themed drama "Apocalypse" directed by him has a maximum popularity of only 7504.

"Flowers", which was controversial at the beginning of its launch, has landed safely. The Douban score has risen from 8.1 to 8.5, and the number of effective views and market share after the end of the week still ranks first (Yunhe Data).

This has even allowed Wong Kar-Wai's frequently "attacked" films in the past to be delayed and expensive, and become anecdotes and good stories again, proving his legend as a perfectionist film master.

Jin Yucheng said that Wong Kar-wai did enough field research before filming. Ma Yili said that Wong Kar-wai has watched almost all of her film and television works. Actor Dong Yong observed that Wong Kar-wai's lunch box contained cucumbers, carrot sticks and melon seeds. He ate melon seeds while working and slept less than three hours a day. Writer Li Shu, who has been with the crew of "Flowers" for seven years, said that the pile of materials about Yellow River Road alone in Wong Kar-wai's office is as high as one person.

Hong Kong producer Kong Chi-keung once often warned young directors: The most important thing for a new director to do is to make money. When reporters cited Wong Kar-wai as a counterexample, he blurted out—Wong Kar-wai is different.

A director once showed an investor a script that he had worked hard to write for several years and was full of self-expression. The other party rejected the script and said, "It's a pity that you are not Wong Kar-wai."

In this case, Wong Kar-wai does not make a sound.