Research and Scholarship (Research Paper Sample)

Research and Scholarship
Name:
Date:
Institution:
Course:
Tutor:
 
Trajectories of Identification: Travel and global culture in the films of Wong Kar-Wai
Form the deep history of Hong Kong, Wong Kar-wai is well known of his ability to direct films all over the west countries. He is currently associated by the best director’s prize awarded to him during the Cannes Film festivals said to take place back in the year 1997. As if that’s not enough, he has been supported financially by the European in producing the film by the name In the Mood for Love. His ride is primarily hidden in his films that portray the tendency to bring out cultural referents of the foreign countries. Wong has created an environment full of cultural translation questions. The main riddle standing out to be what primarily happens to Hong Kong’s articulation of identity within the current intertextual approach as well as the international reception.[Chong, Ethel. "Urban Alienation in Wong Kar Wai's Films." Kinema. Accessed November 6,2014. /article.php?id=130&feature.] [Huang, Tsung-yi. "Chungking Express: Walking with a Map of Desire in the Mirage of theGlobal City." Quarterly Review of Film and Video (2001): 129-142.]
For the research paper to meet the qualifications of answering the question it gives a clear contextualization of one of the Wong Kar-wai films known as Chungking Express. However, grounding the argument on Chungking Express alone may not be in a position to efficiently show how cultural translation and travel is brought out by Wong Kar-wai. Therefore, need arises to make use of his other related films like Happy Together (1997) and In the Mood of Love (2000). Arguably, the paper may in one way or the other incorporate Wong’s earlier recordings, which tend to have the concept of trans-cultural references with them. These films include the Days of Being Wild (1990) that illustrates one of the character’s journeys to Philippines in search of her biological mother.
Basing this argument on the library exercise conducted recently on the film Chungking Express, the paper shall put more emphasis on Wong’s most recent films supported by other scholarly articles. The reason behind this selection is the ability of the films and peer reviewed journals to tackle the contextualization purpose. Chungking Express by Wong is in a better position to illustrate the existing relationship between travel and culture in the foreign countries in a more complex manner. Therefore, every film used in making up the context of the paper can be said to have an effective background on the context of trajectories of identification. The paper covers a broad range of thoughts as it puts Chungking Express film it its context form. Supportive ideas that are helpful in the general understanding of the film are put across in a more comprehensive manner to boost the argumentative characteristic of the essay.[James Clifford, "Traveling Cultures," in Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula A. Treichler, eds., Cultural Studies (New York and London: Routledge, 1992), 103.]
Among the credible resources used in contextualization of Chungking Express includes a book entitled Studying "Chungking Express" by Redmond (2008). It promptly portrays its attempt to show how Wong maps out the cinematic and literary context in his films. Redmond in his efforts of criticizing Wong’s work, he brings out the aesthetic value idea of Wong’s oeuvre. Each and every scholarly resource used in the paper aims at orchestrating the intertextual function related to the global movement inhibited by the characters. By so doing, recent Wong films and the supportive stories prove the possibilities as well as the barriers of trans-cultural identification as brought out by the context of Chungking Express.[Redmond, Sean. Studying Chungking Express. Columbia University Press, 2008.]
The films by Wong make the theme firm by the fact that they happen to have emerged during the Hong Kong handover to China back in the year 1997. The territorial status during this period (neocolonial and postcolonial), are well illustrated in the films through imagery and symbolism. To put the idea on the mirror, Wong in his films uses a backdrop that frames out the global culture as well as territorial identification in the name travel. That absolutely creates a feeling of doubt regarding the critical approaches grounded on the notions of cultural resistance or even cultural hegemony.
Chungking Express is in a position to address the romantic comedy genre and its corresponding film noir in a pair of tales. The first tale is distinguished as the following of an undercover cop given the title number "Cop 223" (Takeshi Kaneshiro). According to the play, the cop seems to have been left by a girl whom she claims to be her girlfriend. Digging deeper into the cop 223’s melancholy, it seems to be interrupted by a mysterious woman (Brigitte Lin) during his spending of a platonic evening. The other tale is associated with yet another cop, but this time round, a non-uniform officer. The film entitles the cop as "Cop 663" (Tony Leung). The cop in this tale is well known for his habit to inanimate objects more so the from a house hold. Illustrating his habit better, he fails to notice the drama behind Midnight express Takeaway bar. In that scene, Faye who is spotted as the cashier is seen to have fallen for cop 663. Afterwards, the film is concerned in availing information on their date agreement at California bar. Their dating terms are then preceded by Fay’s departing to California and later on bringing back with him a boarding pass that constitutes of paper napkin.[Wong, Nicholas Y B. "Film as Text: 1931-2009: Loving You by Not Falling in Love: The Postmodern Representation of Love in "Chungking Express" and "Lost in Translation”." Screen Education 53 (2009): 131-137Marchetti, "Buying American, Consuming Hong Kong," 306.] [Cheung, Ruby. "Books: "Wong Kar-wai"; "Wong Kar-wai”." Film Criticism 30, no. 3 (2006):75-78.]
Like any other film by Wong, Chungking Express brings out the idea of international traveling. As illustrated in the previous paragraph, acting characters are seen be moving in and out of the country or even having the plans to travel. Wong makes that movement evident by the use of often appearing images of toy jets, airports, airplanes as well as citizen passports. In correspondence with the movement behavior, the films have an indication of virtual trans-cultural mobility. Identification theme is established by the cultural investment materials, which Wong uses as an investment in his play. That in a way elaborates the context of identification in regard to the contextualizing process of the Chungking Express film.["Interview with Wong Kar-wai (Toronto International Film Festival, 1995)," interview with Peter Brunette, in Peter Brunette, Wong Kar-wai, 115.]
Grounding its roots deeper in the Hong Kong mainstream context, Chungking Express shows some specifications of cultural references within the foreign countries. Strengthening the argument on the foreign cultural context, the film’s tone is said to have its origins as Japan and other European modern art cinemas. To be precise, the plot structure disregarded by the breezy and musical background marks the trans-cultural context in the film. The music and plot structure resembles that of French films like Godard and Truffaut. Still focusing at the cultural context of Wong’s film, research proves that the piecemeal structures have an affinity to those used by South American writers. A good example of writers associated with the use of such piecemeal structures include Gabriel Marquez and Manuel Puig "from whom, he says, he learnt to build a plot out of fragment”.[David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 270.]
Putting into comparison Japanese literature by Haruki Murakami and the pop culture references from Wong’s film, a trend of similarity is traced. As if that is not enough, contextualization of Chungking Express film views cop 233 who is obsessed with eating of pineapples as a credible example of pop culture. Further research conducted by Curtis Tsui proves the use of emotional expressive visuals in the Chungking Express film that resembles those used by Taoist art of Midland China. Last but not least, Wong in his film incorporates USA traditions and customs of film noir. That is made evident by some characteristics of caters in the film which include femme fatal persona, undefined woman’s raincoat as well as the two confused cops with deadpan voiceovers. In regard to that, the lightness presentation of tone in the conversation between the cop663 and Faye is a copy of the USA romantic voice used in the acting of romantic comedies.[Curtis K. Tsui, "Subjective Culture and History: The Ethnographic Cinema of Wong Kar-wai," Asian Cinema 7, no. 2 (1995): 94.]
If the US culture is to be identified in the film Chungking Express, one can term it as omnipresent. The reason behind this argument is the hidden riddle behind use of US fashion, music as well as commercial products in Wong’s film. According to Gina Marchetti, the US culture is used by Wong to put more emphasis on commodification of characters in the play. It goes to an extent of characters acting as commodities. A prompt example is that of cop 223 in the film whose relationship with her girlfriend got terminated and as a result, he became embodied in Del Monte pineapple’s cans. A similar situations of comodification can be traced within the reception of "California Dreamin" where Faye’s desire to travel to Hong Kong is catered for and in addition a so...