Teréz Vincze: Anamnesia

Time, memory and oblivion in Wong Kar-wai’s films

 

Teréz Vincze analyzes the importance of the concepts of time, memory and oblivion in Wong Kar-wai’s films and points out that these concepts are the cornerstones for the way the director represents the social and cultural milieu of contemporary Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s recent political changes, especially its return to mainland China has a strong impact on the island’s art and culture. Wong Kar-wai’s films do not (or rarely) address these political issues directly, but he does reflect on these social changes and he does so mainly with the help of the concepts of time, memory and oblivion. Time is perhaps the most salient symbol in his films: the recurring images of clocks and watches occurs in all of his films, his characters are obsessed with dates and deadlines and have a special attitude towards memory. Some of them are obsessive compulsive when it comes to remembering, others, however, are almost pathologically oblivious. The author goes through Wong Kar-wai’s films to highlight the ways in which the concept of time occurs thematically and/or in the narrative structure of these works. Wong’s films vary significantly in this respect, because although time is always an important thematic element of the narrative, these films very rarely depart from a linear, chronological narrative structure. The reason why it is still a challenge to analyze the narrative structure of these films can be traced back to the fact that their restless rhythm and the special effects are intricately connected with, and even determined by, the psychology of the remembering/oblivious characters. Vincze points out that the recurrence of the symbols of time and memory serves primarily the formation of identity and does so on at least three different levels: with regards to the identity of his character, the identity of the structure of his films and, most importantly, the identity of Wong Kar-wai’s oeuvre as a whole. Through the repetition and reoccurrence of names, places and characters the director forms a web that serves as a frame of reference for all of his films - a typically Wong Kar-waian framework and identity that replaces the more and more problematic Hong Kong cultural and national framework and identity.