first thoughts on Wong Kar Wai's seventh film

thirteen months have passed since i watched 2046, and today we screened Wong Kar Wai's exquisite, approximate prequel In the Mood For Love. much as last September, the experience has left me muddled and quaking, and i find myself unable to shackle the image with the words at my command. a demonstration:

leitmotifs in celebration of Sino-cinema

dreaming of hallways in rack focus
i gazed through

(the blinds of memory, half-drawn)

a patchwork predicated on

the
present's
projection
of the presence
of past

predilection and perception.

beginning

pulling time into focus

(slippage)

(dilation)

pulling time into focus

end

repetition and mirrors,
hallways and telephones,
the rehearsed departure of
wedding bands and restraint,

(not my own)

curtains and mirrors,
light bulbs and longing,
the textured punctuality of
clocks casting shadows down the hall.