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| Cover of Days of Being Wild |
The
Plot of Days of Being Wild
Days of Being Wild is a 1990 film starring
Leslie Cheung as Yuddy, Maggie Cheung as Su Li Zhen, Andy Lau as Tide, and
Carina Lau as Mimi. Yuddy is the son of a wealthy adoptive mother who refuses
to reveal the identity of his true Filipino parents. His mother is a
controlling former call girl who often engages in frivolous relationships with
much younger men who take advantage of her wealth. Yuddy has a tumultuous
love-hate relationship with her, condemning her partners and demanding that she
reveal the identity of his parents.
Yuddy
seems to have many unstable relationships with women and takes advantage of
them emotionally. This is presumably due to the lack of control he currently
faces in his relationship with his adoptive mother. We first see Yuddy
encounter Su Li Zhen at the shop where he works. She rejects him initially, but
he eventually seduces her, and though they seem to get along for some time he
eventually rejects her. Heartbroken, she leaves and begins to confide in a cop
named Tide. She is depressed and cannot sleep, constantly longing for Yuddy.
Yuddy comes across a dramatic showgirl named Mimi trying to steal his mother’s
earrings. He uses the earrings to lure her back to his apartment. Mimi seems
mistrusting at first and says she wants to leave, but then gives in and falls
just as hard for Yuddy as Su Li did. Meanwhile Tide has fallen in love with Su
Li. When she decides to go home and stop waiting around for Yuddy, he tells her
to call him one night if she is lonely.
Yuddy
eventually finds out the identity of his mother and leaves a heartbroken Mimi
behind without a word. He goes to the Philippines in an attempt to find her.
Meanwhile Tide gives up his job as a police officer to become a sailor and ends
up in the Philippines as well. Mimi, furious and heartbroken, confronts Su Li
and Yuddy’s adoptive mother in a failed attempt to find him. Yuddy’s birth
mother refuses to see him. He finds himself in the same hotel as Tide. After
refusing to pay gang members for an American passport, Yuddy narrowly escapes
being shot with Tide and the two catch a train together. Tide reveals that he
knew Su Li and how Yuddy hurt her. A gang member suddenly and fatally shoots
Yuddy and he reflects pensively on life and the process of dying to Tide as the
train slowly rolls on.
The
Passage of Time
Wong Kar-wai, in
conjunction with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, develops visual themes to
denote the impact of time and memory on central relationships. One of these
visuals is the use of cigarettes. Overtly apparent in Fallen Angels, they were also a clear visual theme in Days of Being Wild. While seemingly
insignificant, cigarettes present the passage of time in the absence of
dialogue. The smoke also transports the viewer into a dream like state and
alludes to absent thoughts or memories through its misty appearance (Teo, 87).
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| Cigarette in Days of Being Wild |
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| Cigarettes in Fallen Angels |
Time
and memory are quite blatantly presented as themes both visually and through
dialogue in Days of Being Wild. The
first lines in the movie introduce them.
Yuddy: What
day's today?
Su Li-zhen:
16th.
Yuddy: 16th...
April the 16th. At one minute before 3pm on April the 16th, 1960, you're
together with me. Because of you, I'll remember that one minute. From now on,
we're friends for one minute. This is a fact, you can't deny. It's done.
An image of a clock is one of the
first and last images seen and reappears throughout the film. There is even a shot of a woman cleaning the clock partway through the film. A ticking
sound occasionally accompanies the image. It often indicates time passing
between a couple or silent connections being forged. It is used in particular
to develop or allude to the relationship between Yuddy and Su Li, invoking memories of how
they met. After Yuddy abandons Su Li, clock imagery appears when Su Li is
thinking of Yuddy. She asks Tide not to mention the word “minute”. Time becomes
a painful concept for her.
Su
Li:
I always thought one minute flies by. But sometimes it really lingers on. Once,
a person pointed at his watch and said to me, that because of that minute, he'd
always remember me. It was so charming listening to that. But now I look at my
watch and tell myself that I have to forget this man starting this very minute.
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| An image with a clock in Fallen Angels |
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This clock is repeatedly shown throughout Days of Being Wild
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Although
clocks are not as prominently seen visually in Fallen Angels, the mention of time is very important (Brunette, 63). Characters
often expect to meet at a specific time before being stood up. He is
stood up at the soccer game and the partner is stood up by Wong at the
bar. Charlie asks He what time it is on several occasions. Timing is also
very important when it comes to the murder operations set up and run by Wong and his partner. The jukebox song becomes a painful reminder and representation of the past to them the way the mention of "clocks" or "minutes" becomes painful for Su Li in Days of Being Wild. Time is also captured by He through his video camera.
Once his father dies, he uses the tape as a capsule to relive memories he knows
he can never experience again. Time is also essential to the setting as the
majority of the story takes place at night when members of traditional society
are at home or sleeping.
The movement of
vehicles symbolizes the passage of time in both films. In Fallen Angels, the movement of cars, motorcycles, and particularly
trains is recurrent. When characters seem to be stuck or standing still,
vehicles can be seen passing or trains can be heard. The title sequence of the
film includes the sound of a train going over tracks. The film ends with the
partner and He on a motorcycle, symbolically moving towards a new phase
of life together.
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| Cover of Fallen Angels |
Trains
are also used in Days of Being Wild
to indicate the passage of time. This is more obvious towards the end of the
film, although vehicles are occasionally shot passing characters on the street.
Towards the end of the film, Yuddy is dying on a train a reflecting on the
process of becoming nothing. The shot slowly pans out and shows a long wide angle view of the train moving in a dark and serene environment.
The
Desire for Impact
Wong
Kar-wai’s plots are character driven and their actions, thoughts, and emotions
tend to draw the viewer in. Each individual is arguably pathological (Teo, 89) yet their wants and desires reflect a universal human
need for connection. Particularly notable is their desire to be remembered or
the way they are presumed to feel when they are forgotten.
As
previously noted, Days of Being Wild
opens with a dialogue concerning time and memory.
Yuddy: What
day's today?
Su Li-zhen:
16th.
Yuddy: 16th...
April the 16th. At one minute before 3pm on April the 16th, 1960, you're
together with me. Because of you, I'll remember that one minute. From now on,
we're friends for one minute. This is a fact, you can't deny. It's done.
Su Li-zhen: Would he remember that minute
because of me? I don’t know. But I remembered him.
Throughout
the film it is clear that Su Li thinks of Yuddy long after he leaves her. It is
not until the end of the film that Yuddy makes it clear that he remembers her.
On the train as Yuddy is dying, Tide asks him if he remembers where he was on
April 16th, 1960 at 3 PM.
Yuddy: When you see her, tell
her I remember nothing. It’s better for all of us.
Tide: I don’t know that I’ll
ever see her again. Even if I do, she may not recognize me.
Yuddy’s mother admits that she does
not want to reveal the identity of his birth mother because she is afraid he
will leave her. Her tendency to further the strange love/hate relationship
between the two of them stems from her desire to be important and remain
remembered.
Yuddy’s Mother: I want you to
hate me. That way you won’t forget me.
In Fallen Angels, dejection resulting from the desire to be remembered
is also apparent. Like Yuddy’s mother, Blondie is terrified of being forgotten.
When Wong tells her that he has to leave her, she reacts by biting him
and although the impact seems relatively negligible it is clear that she is
trying to inflict pain.
Blondie: I’ve left my mark,
okay? You may forget my face, but you won’t forget my bite.
He seems to feel rejection and
loneliness the same way Tide does when he sees Charlie years later in one of the
shops he has commandeered. He tries to get her attention and realizes that she
no longer remembers him.
Control,
Apathy, and Infatuation
Throughout
his films, Wong Kar-wai establishes recurring personality traits in his male
and female characters. These traits result in dysfunction and turmoil between
characters and ultimately contribute to the demise of their relationships and
occasionally to the demise of the characters themselves.
Control
is a damaging part of many of the relationships in Days of Being Wild. Desperate
for love, attention, and purpose, Yuddy’s mother holds control over her grown
son by refusing to reveal the identity of his birth mother. This creates
tension between the two. She tells him to leave her if he wants to during moments
of tension and drama, always knowing that he will return to try to get the answer from her.
She also exerts control financially, continually pointing out that she raised
him and is currently supporting him financially despite the fact that he is a grown man who
should be capable of supporting himself.
In response
to his mother, Yuddy manipulates and controls women. Both Su Li and Mimi
attempt to resist Yuddy’s advances initially, but Yuddy is charismatic and
quickly draws them in. He spends a great deal of time with them until they
become attached. He then becomes cold and apathetic, leaving them without
remorse although it is clear that they have become dependent emotionally.
Both
Su Li and Mimi become emotionally distraught and infatuated characters. Su Li resists
Yuddy’s advances in the beginning, remaining cautious and reluctant to answer
his questions. Once she begins to trust him, she quickly wants to move in with
him and marry him. When he leaves her she becomes a depressed insomniac. Unable
to go home, she spends her nights outside wandering around and waiting for time
to pass. Time triggers painful memories for her. She is blinded by infatuation,
unable to recognize Tide’s interest in her.
Mimi
attempts to resist Yanny’s advances as well, although somewhat feebly since she
follows him home. She becomes obsessive and almost crazed rather quickly,
demanding that he call her when she leaves and becoming jealous of Su Li even though
she is no longer with Yanny. She even presumably follows Yanny to the
Philippines when she finds out that he has gone there and makes it her mission
to find him.
In Fallen Angels, Wong mirrors Yanny
in both apathy and control. His desire for control however is much less. It is
something that he takes advantage of, but does not necessarily desire. He
states that he likes having things set up for him, yet his status as a killer
and his decision to ignore meetings set up with his partner give him control
regardless. His apathy is clear when he leaves his partner, leaves Blondie, and
kills without any apparent emotion. It is arguable that he is masking an
emotional reaction since he ultimately decides to leave his career as a killer,
but his apathetic appearance is undeniable.
Female
characters in Fallen Angels
experience similar emotions of desperation and infatuation. Charlie obsesses
over Blondie, a girl who apparently stole her lover, furiously making phone
calls and convincing a man she never met to help her seek vengeance. Blondie
obsesses over Wong, telling him to promise he will never leave her
although they only recently met. The partner is quietly infatuated with Wong. She roots through his trash, masturbates in his bed, and sits in his
seat at a bar he frequents. She eventually has him killed for his rejection of
her.
This clip shows Yanny seducing a resistant Su Li in Days of Being Wild.
This trailer includes several clips of Yanny
seducing both women who initially resist him in Days of Being Wild.
The first few minutes of this clip show several
scenes of the partner’s obsessive behavior regarding the killer in Fallen Angels.
Conclusion
Wong Kar-wai uses recurring themes and extensive characterization to drive the plots of his movies. These techniques are utilized in both Fallen Angels and Days of Being Wild. His characters appeal to universal human experiences such as love, loss, rejection, and desire. He accentuates them to a pathological level in order to derive more apparent meaning and elevate the tension in dysfunctional relationships. As a result, his films compose unique, almost dream like backdrops for his audiences that are filled with unpredictably strange occurrences and layers of personal applicability.
Links to Images:
- Cover of Days of Being Wild
http://cdn.dramadownload.net/images/2011/07/HK-Movie-Days-of-Being-Wild-1990.jpg
- Cover of Fallen Angels
http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/aqCpkOvZ7hNdTT70sSnGSRxmYxv.jpgg
- Cigarette in Days of Being Wild
http://pichostingsite.com/user24/2009/11/26/dikie-dni-days-of-being-wild-ah-feis-story-a-fei-jing-juen/dikie-dni-days-of-being-wild-ah-feis-story-a-fei-jing-juen3.jpg
- Cigarettes in Fallen Angels
http://www.imaginacionatrapada.com.ar/Imagenes/FallenAngels03.jpg
- Days of Being Wild Poster
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a2/Days-of-being-wild-poster.jpg/220px-Days-of-being-wild-poster.jpg
- Clock image in Fallen Angels
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRrFOpy9T4x7gyW8sommwBK_tdIJR22NW9TnX7kJ3VYn7dk3FWfAl20B2QGL8k31hcjOSwKqrbmXDO55qMJlEdLCy56ii0BalwFlWBZ2v34kcdKhVwzReMNZP0tvZ5NaGKQNuYIoj88WdO/s1600/fallen.jpg
- Clock Image in Days of Being Wild
http://cinemafanatic.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/daysofbeingwild.jpg
General References:
- Brunette, Peter. "Fallen Angels." Wong Kar-wai. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2005. Print.
- "Days of Being Wild." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
- "Days of Being Wild." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
- "Fallen Angels (film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 June 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
- "Fallen Angels." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
- Teo, Stephen. "Pathos Angelical: Fallen Angels (1995)." Wong Kar-Wai. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
- Cover of Days of Being Wild
http://cdn.dramadownload.net/images/2011/07/HK-Movie-Days-of-Being-Wild-1990.jpg
- Cover of Fallen Angels
http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/aqCpkOvZ7hNdTT70sSnGSRxmYxv.jpgg
- Cigarette in Days of Being Wild
http://pichostingsite.com/user24/2009/11/26/dikie-dni-days-of-being-wild-ah-feis-story-a-fei-jing-juen/dikie-dni-days-of-being-wild-ah-feis-story-a-fei-jing-juen3.jpg
- Cigarettes in Fallen Angels
http://www.imaginacionatrapada.com.ar/Imagenes/FallenAngels03.jpg
- Days of Being Wild Poster
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a2/Days-of-being-wild-poster.jpg/220px-Days-of-being-wild-poster.jpg
- Clock image in Fallen Angels
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRrFOpy9T4x7gyW8sommwBK_tdIJR22NW9TnX7kJ3VYn7dk3FWfAl20B2QGL8k31hcjOSwKqrbmXDO55qMJlEdLCy56ii0BalwFlWBZ2v34kcdKhVwzReMNZP0tvZ5NaGKQNuYIoj88WdO/s1600/fallen.jpg
- Clock Image in Days of Being Wild
http://cinemafanatic.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/daysofbeingwild.jpg
General References:
- Brunette, Peter. "Fallen Angels." Wong Kar-wai. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2005. Print.
- "Days of Being Wild." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
- "Days of Being Wild." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
- "Fallen Angels (film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 June 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
- "Fallen Angels." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
- Teo, Stephen. "Pathos Angelical: Fallen Angels (1995)." Wong Kar-Wai. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
