A Companion to Wong Kar–wai

With 25 essays that embrace a wide spectrum of topics and perspectives including intertextuality, transnationality, gender representation, repetition, the use of music, color, and sound, depiction of time and space in human affairs, and Wong s highly original portrayal of violence, A Companion to Wong Kar–Wai is a singular examination of the prestigious filmmaker known around the world for the innovation, beauty, and passion he brings to filmmaking. This collection, under the editorship of Martha P. Nochimson, brings together the most cutting edge and interesting scholarship on arguably the greatest living Asian filmmaker. The essays are written by a multinational group of established and rising film scholars and critics. Covering a huge breadth of topics, including the tradition of the jianghu in Wong′s films; queering Wong′s films not in terms of gender but through the artist′s liminality; the phenomenological Wong; Wong′s intertextuality; America through Wong′s eyes; the optics of intensities, thresholds, and transfers of energy in Wong′s cinema; and the diasporic presence of some ladies from Shanghai in Wong′s Hong Kong, the essays examine the political, historical, and sociological influence of Wong and his work, and discuss his work from a variety of perspectives including modern, post–modern, postcolonial, and queer theory. Also included are two appendices, which discuss his work in Hong Kong television and commercials. This collection marks the most comprehensive in–depth scholarly study to date of this award winning director and serves as an essential resource for film scholars, critics, and devoted moviegoers looking for a deeper understanding of Wong s fascinating body of work.

Martha P. Nochimson has taught in the Department of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and at Mercy College, where she developed and chaired a program in Film Studies. She is the author of several books, including most recently An Introduction to Film Genres (2013), David Lynch Swerves: Uncertainty from Lost Highway to Inland Empire (2013), World on Film: An Introduction (Wiley Blackwell, 2010), and  Dying to Belong: Gangster Movies in Hollywood and Hong Kong (Wiley–Blackwell, 2007) . She has been invited to appear on television in her capacity as a film and media critic in the United States, Canada, and France, and she has covered international film festivals in New York, Montreal, and Istanbul for over a decade. Her numerous articles about world film and interviews of major directors have appeared in  Cineaste,  Film Quarterly, and  The New Review of Film and Television Studies. Further information is available at her website: www.marthapnochimson.com.