Directed by Wong Kar Wai

Directed by Wong Kar Wai

11 Episodes

As his unmissable television epic BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI comes to the Criterion Channel, immerse yourself in the woozy world of Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai, whose lush visuals, swooning soundtracks, and wistful romanticism have made him one of contemporary cinema’s defining artists. Working with key collaborators like actors Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, celebrated cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and virtuoso editor and production and costume designer William Chang Suk Ping, Wong has created some of cinema’s most rapturous, stylistically daring explorations of alienation, memory, and longing. From the soulful science-fiction romance 2046 to the dazzlingly stylized kung fu epic THE GRANDMASTER, the films collected here are an invitation to the sublime cinematic cosmos of a true visionary.

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Directed by Wong Kar Wai

11 Episodes

  • 2046
    2:08:36
    2046
    Episode 1

    2046

    Episode 1

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2004 • Hong Kong
    Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Gong Li, Faye Wong

    Wong Kar Wai’s loose sequel to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE combines that film’s languorous air of romantic longing with a dizzying time-hopping structure and avant-sci-fi twist. Tony Leung Chiu Wai reprises his...

  • The Grandmaster
    1:48:31
    The Grandmaster
    Episode 2

    The Grandmaster

    Episode 2

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2013 • Hong Kong
    Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen

    Wong Kar Wai brings his intoxicating visual lyricism and swooningly romantic sensibility to the martial-arts genre with this sumptuously stylized, ten-years-in-the-making action epic. Tony Leung star...

  • My Blueberry Nights
    1:30:14
    My Blueberry Nights
    Episode 3

    My Blueberry Nights

    Episode 3

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2007 • China, France, Hong Kong
    Starring Norah Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz

    For his oft-overlooked first English-language feature, legendary director Wong Kar Wai brought his dreamily elliptical sense of time and intoxicating, color-saturated romanticism to America, f...

  • In the Mood for Love
    1:39:06
    In the Mood for Love
    Episode 4

    In the Mood for Love

    Episode 4

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2000 • Hong Kong
    Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung Man-yuk

    Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery abo...

  • Chungking Express
    1:42:57
    Chungking Express
    Episode 5

    Chungking Express

    Episode 5

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1994 • Hong Kong
    Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro

    The whiplash, double-pronged CHUNGKING EXPRESS is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro ...

  • Happy Together
    1:36:22
    Happy Together
    Episode 6

    Happy Together

    Episode 6

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1997 • Hong Kong
    Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing

    One of the most searing romances of the 1990s, Wong Kar Wai’s emotionally raw, lushly stylized portrait of a relationship in breakdown casts Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Leslie Cheun...

  • As Tears Go By
    1:39:29
    As Tears Go By
    Episode 7

    As Tears Go By

    Episode 7

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1988 • Hong Kong
    Starring Andy Lau Tak Wah, Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Jacky Cheung Hok Yau

    Wong Kar Wai’s scintillating debut feature is a kinetic, hypercool crime thriller graced with flashes of the impressionistic, daydream visual style for which he would become renowne...

  • Days of Being Wild
    1:35:12
    Days of Being Wild
    Episode 8

    Days of Being Wild

    Episode 8

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1990 • Hong Kong
    Starring Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing, Andy Lau Tak Wah, Maggie Cheung Man Yuk

    The breakthrough sophomore feature by Wong Kar Wai represents the first full flowering of his swooning signature style. The initial entry in a loosely connected, ongoing cycle th...

  • The Hand
    56:30
    The Hand
    Episode 9

    The Hand

    Episode 9

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2004 • Hong Kong
    Starring Gong Li, Chang Chen, Feng Tien

    Like IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, THE HAND is set in the hazy Hong Kong of the 1960s, but its characters couldn’t be more different from the earlier film’s restrained, haunted lovers. Originally conceived for the omnibu...

  • Fallen Angels
    1:39:18
    Fallen Angels
    Episode 10

    Fallen Angels

    Episode 10

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1995 • Hong Kong
    Starring Michelle Reis, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Leon Lai Ming

    Lost souls reach out for human connection amid a glimmering Hong Kong in Wong Kar Wai’s hallucinatory, neon-soaked nocturne. Originally conceived as a segment of CHUNGKING EXPRESS only to spin of...

  • Hua yang de nian hua
    02:35
    Hua yang de nian hua
    Episode 11

    Hua yang de nian hua

    Episode 11

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2000 • Hong Kong

    This 2000 short film by Wong Kar Wai was made entirely out of print elements discovered in a California warehouse. It is set to Zhou Xuan’s song “Hua yang de nian hua.”

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