Sunday, January 25, 2009

There is Only One Sun: Sci-Fi by Wong Kar Wai

I'm very happy and also very ornery about what I'm about to say. Firstly, Wong Kar Wai is one of my favorite directors. He's the Hong Kong filmmaker who's made Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, and 2046, among others. His films are fantastic swirls of color and he totally loves to film womens' feet. I don't know if it's the feet or the shoes he's in love with, but I think whatever he chooses to photograph ends up looking like he went shopping on another planet and came back with an entire film. He's incredible and he is a light-artist.

Well, he's gone off and made what might turn out to be my favorite science fiction film of the past five years. It's a ten-minute short called There is Only One Sun. But he shot it as a commercial for Phillips televisions. That's really too damned bad. A fucking commercial. I guess he took the money and was fascinated with the television company's fixation on bright vivid colors and crystalline picture quality. Whatever. Phillips can go take a dump. Pioneer makes much better television screens anyway. Wong Kar Wai wins the exchange and leaves us another masterpiece. I'm sure he ripped Phillips off in some clever way. I would. A gigantic multinational corporation asks me to make them a big juicy commercial. Well, I'm damn sure going to bamboozle them right on down the road and slip a little artistic time-bomb right under their nose. That's what this film is.

Look at these beautiful images from the film then go watch it here on NoFatClips. By the way, I found this film via an excellent short film blog called Short of the Week.




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