WONG KAR-WAI TRILOGY

Maggie Cheung

Years ago when my life was carried away on an unyielding wave of melancholy, I sometimes abandoned myself into the ethereal world of Mr. Wong's cinematography. I watched some of his movies multiple times alone and with different people, but I always pretended that it was my first time with each viewing experience. As time progresses, specific details of each movie blur away, and only vague remnants of feelings associated with certain scenes follow me until this day. By chance, I discovered a collection of dialogues that I wrote down for Days of Being Wild (1990), In The Mood For Love (2000), and 2046 (2004). I tried to remember why I took these notes, but the past is something I could barely see and completely out of my touch. As I reviewed the notes and struggled to find the reasons, fragments of scenes from each movie and the mood they induced within my psyche came rushing back as if promptly awakened from soporific oblivion.

Lady Vengeance - A Sociological Interpretation

Lee Young-ae as Lady V

Lady Vengeance is the third installment of Park Chan Wook’s Vengeance Trilogy. With the tagline “Lee Geum-Ja, have mercy on us,” the movie followed Ms. Lee’s journey of redemption after nearly fourteen years of incarceration for a monstrous crime she did not commit. The original poster for the movie during the Venice Film Festival in 2005 stated that “all she wanted was a peaceful life.” Based on the law of retaliation, the macabre nature by which Ms. Lee achieved her goal could be more easily understood and sympathized under the sociological interpretation.

As a tradition in Korea, newly released prisoner is expected to eat a square of hard tofu to symbolize a new beginning. A pastor who helped Geum-ja spiritually during her incarceration was completely shocked when Geum-ja flipped the tofu plate to the ground and told him to “screw off.” Her norm violation drastically dragged viewers to the shocking crime she confessed to when she was only nineteen: she kidnapped and murdered a five year old boy. As a result, Geum-ja ostracized herself completely and received the most negative sanctions to her act. There was a riot when she was forced to re-enact the crime scene. The whole nation was dumbfounded by “her youth, her ruthless methods, her unabashed naivety… but what shocked [us] more were her beautiful looks.” This quotation indicated that her stigmatized identity as a child killer greatly complicated her impression management. She had no knowledge of the murdered child Won-mo’s favorite orange marble or which pillow the actual murderer used to suffocate the boy. Geum-ja’s failure to adhere to her role performance as a cold-blooded murder strongly supported that she indeed wasn’t a “wicked witch.” At this point, viewers had no knowledge of why she had to confess to such a heinous crime.

...so that you'll live white and never sin again.

Geum-ja’s lengthy jail time and her interactions with the cellmates proved essential to her redemption. Consider that the prison was the ultimate example of total institution, the blue uniform that Geum-ja’s cellmates had to wear was a part of a degradation ceremony that served to strip off their old identity and enforce conformity. However, Geum-ja’s greenish-yellow uniform, her status symbol of being a well-mannered prisoner, separated her from the rest of her cellmates. Indeed, through her constant act of praying, meditating, and helping others, Geum-ja’s managed to project a saint-like impression. Despite her physical confinement, she achieved two statuses: “the kind-hearted Geumja” – “the Angel,” and a more subtle “the Witch,” each of which she had the freedom to alternate accordingly within the complex subculture of prison.

The Ultimate Music for Studying

Well, instead of studying, ironically I've been compiling music to help me study. I can't study if I make music, and I can't study either if I don't have music. Whatever, my procrastination has reached a higher level. My test is coming on the second of September, yay! I even turn down my sister's invitation to go to the beach so I can study. Ugh, that means I'll be really pale. My friend Lauren told me that I look sick and pasty last time, what a tramp!

Many of the songs here come from my favorite movies. Classical music has this tendency to make a scene become more classy, probably because of its timeless quality. Even though many songs in this particular mix are neo-classical, the same effect is achieved. 

Oh yeah, I assume you are here 'cause you've been stumbling instead of studying eh? This music mix may help, trust me, after I'm done posting this, I'm gonna listen to this and study like a boss and ace it like a Brain god! 

Track List

I'm smokin 'cause the music is so good

1. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - Yeong-wook Jo
2. Dark Chariot - Peer Raben
3. Yumeji's theme - Shigeru Umebayashi
4. Bolero - Zbigniew Preisner
5. Rachmaninoff's Vocalise - Itzhak Perlman 
6. Adagio from 2046 - Rolf Lovland
7. And Just Like That - Abel Korzeniowski
8. To Zanarkand - Nobuo Uematsu
9. Sposa Son Disprezzata - Cecilia Bartoli
10. Les Marionnettes - Zbigniew Preisner
11. Georges Watlz (Take 2) - Shigeru Umebayashi
12. Ombra Mai Fu - Philippe Jaroussky
13. Meditation from Thais - Sarah Chang
14. Ruhe Sanft - Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
15. Song to the Moon - Stjepan Hauser
16. Lascia Ch'io Pianga - Philippe Jaroussky
17. Meeting - Roman Rewakowicz
18. Song for the Unification of Europe - Teresa Salgueiro

Three Colors Trilogy: Blue

Juliet Binoche

It's the time to talk about Kieslowski's Blue. The first installment of the trilogy aims to celebrate the concept of freedom through the life of Julie Vignon, beautifully portrayed by Juliet Binoche. It is a journey of self-redemption and forgiveness following the death of both her husband and daughter. The color blue serves as a medium for contemplation, of memory and of getting in touch with the nature and magnitude of suffering. The soundtrack, composed by Zbigniew Priesner, also plays an important role in the movie as a spiritual and emotional guideline.

Complete detachment from the past is the way Julie chooses to liberate herself from pain and suffering. She adopts an indifferent facade as if she merely carries her corpse around since her soul has died the day she loses her family. She withdraws herself from the world and completely shuts off everything that reminds her of the tragedy. She even throws away the music script for the concert her husband supposedly was working on. It is not the music but her own guilt that darts out and petrifies her:

She also tries to disconnect herself from human interactions. She seems to obtain certain degrees of relief from such practice yet her suffering is still there. It is an ignored wound that she neglects to take care of. Her failed effort to numb her feeling manifests itself in many ways. Her false sense of redemption is best described below:

As Julie relishes her brief freedom from suffering, an old woman struggles to get by her life. It is acceptable to spend some time to nurture yourself after a crisis, but remember that the world is still revolving around you. There are many other struggles, there are miseries greater than the one you experience. Reposition yourself in life in order to live again. My friend Batya introduces me to a great saying of Hillel the Elder:

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?

Julie certainly has the answers to these questions. She wouldn't want to live in a perpetual state of numbness, of spiritual death symbolically equivalent to her mother's Alzheimer disease. When she reaches out to others who are also affected by the death of her husband and daughter, not only does she redeem herself but also touch their lives profoundly. She finally comes to term with her loss, accepts the reality, and lives again through her act of forgiveness to her husband's mistress and ultimately herself. Isn't it a coincidental irony that the song she finally completes is for the Unification of Europe? It is true that no man is an island. I believe that there are bridges connecting each man's island. For Julie, two of the most important bridges of her life have collapsed but isolating herself from the rest of mankind is not the solution.

It is also important to emphasize that the act of reaching out to others must occur at the same time of taking care for one's self. Whatever change must come from within first. We see Julie's effort to come to term with her loss is highlighted every time she swims. The blue water represents her emotional flow. The swimming pool is Julie's meditative haven. Every time she arises from the water, she reaches certain realization critical to her recovery process. In the following scene, notice two important elements. First, the recurring music keeps on haunting her. Secondly, she recoils into a fetal pose as if begging for a new beginning:

There's a bit of a religious undertone in the movie. There is similarity between Julie's rising up from the swimming pool and baptism. Even more prevalent, which religious figure do you think of from these elements: the blue color and the sorrowful mother figure? But I don't want to get there. I will save it when I talk about the Mr. K's Decalogue. Anyway, the old woman disposing the empty bottle is seen throughout the trilogy and also in The Double Life of Veronique. Mr. K's film is so packed with symbolism that you can make a meaning out of almost every details of his films. For Blue, I particularly enjoy the aspect of rebirth and forgiveness. I find so much hope and peace at the film concludes. In the last glorious scene, a tearful Julie is shown looking outside her window. Those are not her tears of anguish but of peaceful acceptance as she moves on with her life.

Life is more meaningful in suffering, only if you survive and live on, of course.

The Double Life of Veronique

Technical details of this Kieslowski movie can be found at the IMDB website. Every frame is a picturesque feast to the eyes with an ethereal score composed by Preisner. This is one of those movies that stay in your mind long after that speechless awe you experience the first time you watch it. I watched it twice and each time I gain some refreshing perspective not only about the movie itself but also about life. What would you do if you are to have a second chance in your life?

How about a bit of that glorious opening sequence to get you in the mood?

I particularly love the green color filter used throughout the film. You can crack out many meanings associated with such a color choice, of which Kieslowski was the master. Check out his The Three Colors: Trilogy, also my favorite, and I'm thinking about writing about them sometimes in the future. At the mean time, I'm watching his Decalogue and it is a religious experience for me.

Well, enough rambling about Mr. K's other gems, now I can go on and on about how much I love Irene Jacob, ever since I first saw her in Red. The camera simply loves her and she did quite a good job portraying the Polish Weronika and the French Veronique, two similar yet profoundly different human experiences that one can live. Having heart problem, Weronika drops dead pursuing her dream while Veronique sacrifices her career to preserve her life. Weronika lives more fiercely while Veronique appears more reserved and contemplative. Having an allegedly better Veronique-self, the Weronika confirms to her father that she is not alone in this world. Mysteriously affected by Weronika's death, Veronique suddenly cries during her love-making as dirt is thrown upon Weronika's coffin.

When I was younger, I had this irrational fear upon knowing about the "antimatter." Supposedly, the antimatter is to nullify the existence of matter. To elaborate, if you happen to see yourself walking from the opposite direction toward you, it is certain that you are to vanish from the Earth. I smile uncomfortably as Weronika sees her Veronique self on the bus during the demonstration. Which one survives, we all know by now. The difference is that there is no complete disappearance, the better entity persists. The encounter can be seen below:

While Weronika collapses on stage and dies, Veronique quits her singing career to work as a modest music instructor and takes care of her health. In real life, you don't get to have a second chance to start all over again very often. You don't simply drop dead in order to live again, restarting a new self full of knowledge and appreciation of your life. All you get is this one chance, so the least you could do is to be conscious of your choice and take responsibility for all the decisions you make. If you could do so, you would feel a sense of powerful self-control that hopefully gives you enough strength to resurrect on your own if you happen to die in any aspect of your life. Talking about control, the movie proposes quite depressing and hopeless a viewpoint on the extent that one can control his life. The following scene proposes the most important philosophy behind every gorgeous frame of the movie:

That's right, y'all. There is no free will. You can do what you want, thinking you have the control over what you do and such but hell no, you are all but mindless marionettes controlled by invisible strings of an ever-powerful yet secretive puppeteer knowing all of your actions, thoughts, and consequences. Indeed, Weronika is orchestrated by the old conductor during her hauntingly fatal performance. Veronique runs around looking for her lover - the puppeteer/writer who plots her every single move. She never realizes how much she is being controlled till the moment her lover carves out her two wooden marionettes and tells her about the storyline of his book:

"...November 23, 1966 was the most important day of their lives. That day, at three in the morning, they were both born in two different cities, on two different continents. They both had dark hair and brownish-green eyes. When they were both two years old and already knew how to walk, one of them burned her hand on a stove. A few days later,the other one reached out to touch the stove but pulled away just in time. And yet, she could not have known that she was about to burn herself..."

I will leave Veronique's reaction upon such realization for you to find out. I've spoiled quite a good deal of the movie to you, my apology. Now what you have to do is to experience the magic for your self. Your watching or not has already been decided already. Whatever you do has already been planned out. However, you can still retrieve a meaning to your own existence and living in this world: just by knowing how uncontrolled you are have already given you so much power already. It doesn't mean that you will let things slide under the table and hide under your blanket withdrawing from everything; your action is also what the puppeteer wants. The consequence of your action, the outcome of whatever plan is in your hand despite the plan itself being established by the puppeteer. Give it a try, don't be afraid. 

Even if you have to drop dead like Veronika, your responsible choice will give you strength and knowledge to resurrect. Don't you feel like you've become a better, stronger, and wiser person every time you recover from certain life's downfall? If you do, count me in.

There are certain aspects of the movie that reminds me of Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World. Take a look!

The next time you drop dead, remember, it's not the end. Just like this: