1. Exploring Images and their Relationship to Sociopolitical & Temporal Realities in
Contemporary Chinese-language Cinema
75054
BA (Hons) in Film Studies
The University of Sussex

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As tomorrow’s future becomes today’s present and yesterday falls behind seemingly
faster than the day before, people are searching for new, more secure ways to come to
terms with the past, cope with the present and prepare for the future. Film, through its
capacity to depict various realities that are both realistic and untrue becomes an
important site for comment on time, reality and coping with modernity. Because of
the cultural and political uncertainties that have plagued mainland China and Hong
Kong for so long, Chinese-language film is being utilised and scrutinised all the more.
My dissertation investigates images and their relationship to sociopolitical and
temporal realities in Chinese-language cinema. The aim is to better understand how
aesthetics interact with a viewer’s perception of reality, especially within the context
of mainland China and Hong Kong. I focus particularly on how aesthetics may have
embedded within them meaning that encourages a viewer to consider or reconsider
established perceptions of history and realities. Exploring these issues in relation to
Hero (Zhang, 2002, CH) and In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000, HK) illustrate that
both films have the capacity to shape reality on both a macro level for a collective
audience and on a more personal level for an individual. In this way, the potential of
images to alter and also help one come to terms with reality is demonstrated.

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Contents
Introduction: Images and Reality……………...……………………………….. 4 - 5
Chapter 1: Sociopolitical Realities in Hero…………….…………………….... 5 - 15
Chapter 2: In the Mood for Love, Temporality and the Unreal..…….………... 16 - 25
Conclusion: Past Realities, Present Solutions and Future Desires…………….. 25 - 26
Filmography & Bibliography.…………………………………………………. 27 – 34

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“Feelings can creep up just like that. I thought I was in control”
Images and Reality
Film has embedded within it the power to project realities that are both recognisable
and jarringly temporally rebellious, objectively false yet subjectively true. It is this
uniquely contradictory nature of film that makes it such an influential medium and as
“the visual art of our time… the visual language of cinematic style needs to be
considered in its own right” (Silbergeld, 2012, p.413). Placing these concerns in the
context of contemporary Chinese-language cinema illustrates how truly effective
images can be in shaping perceptions of reality. My investigation into images is
rooted in an appreciation of Gunning’s concept of the “cinema of attractions” which
he defines as “a cinema that bases itself on… its ability to show something… an
exhibitionist cinema” (Gunning, 1986, p.64) as well as Hansen’s notion of
“vernacular modernism” in which she writes “how the perspective of modernist
aesthetics may help us to elucidate and reframe the history and theory of cinema”
(Hansen, 1999, p. 59). Both of these ideas serve as a foundation to my enquiry into
the aesthetics of Chinese-language as they emphasise film’s potential for powerful
imagery and its ability as a mode of modernism to help cope with modernity and
changing realities. I acknowledge the term ‘Chinese Cinema’ as problematic and am
aware of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, political and territorial factors that
problematize simple notions of ‘Chineseness’ or ‘Chinese cinema’. I choose to group
the two films of study; Hero (Zhang, 2002, CH) and In the Mood for Love (Wong,
2000, HK) together under the title of ‘Chinese-language cinema’ in recognition of
their cultural and historical similarities yet urge readers to remain aware of the
convoluted nature of strict definitions of ‘Chineseness’. Accordingly I will define
Chinese-language films as ones that use Chinese dialects and are made in mainland

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China and Hong Kong. My investigation will be conducted in relation to Hero
(Zhang, 2002, CH) and In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000, HK) so as to provide
original discussion surrounding these concerns. My chief queries include analysing
how the aesthetics of Chinese-language film are received by various audiences and
the affect this has on perceptions of China’s past and present reality as well as the
capacity of images to displace time and alter one’s consciousness of reality. These
questions will be explored through a study of an image’s capacity for sociopolitical
comment and how through a more personal engagement they may alter one’s
understanding of temporality. These issues will be divided into two chapters with
each focusing on an individual film and the discussions subsequently presented by
them. The first chapter focuses on Hero and is concerned with how it makes comment
on sociopolitical realities through its aesthetics and genre. The second chapter
evaluates the potential of Mood’s aesthetics to displace time, alter perceptions of
reality and comment on Hong Kong’s position as a cultural disappearance.
Sociopolitical Realities in Hero
Chinese-language film along with the other Chinese visual arts share “a body of
cultural reference, of content and context, both historical and contemporary”
(Silbergeld, 2012, p.413) and so a historical perspective of aesthetics in China is
crucial to understanding the make up of contemporary visuals. The director of Hero,
Zhang Yimou, was born in 1951 in northwest China, studied at the Beijing Film
Academy and emerged as part of the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers who
represent “the most successful artistic event of China’s turbulent twentieth century”
(Silbergeld, 1999, p.7). Its stylistic origins can be traced to traditional Chinese

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aesthetics and culture (Udde, 2012, p.277) and it is through a founding in this history
that “modern Chinese movie directors are thus successfully combining the worlds of
imagination and reality, or the artist’s vision and the camera’s lens” (Choo Woo,
1991, p.28). Though Fifth Generation cinema has never been positively embraced in
China (Zhen, 2002, p. 198) it has been recognised that, starting with Yellow Earth
(Kaige, 1984, CH), in which Zhang was the cinematographer, it is responsible for the
“most significant stylistic breakthrough in new Chinese cinema” (Yau, 1991, p.62).
Yellow Earth signalled the beginning of a more conscious appreciation of film form,
an “internalizing awareness of film technology” (Xu, 2012, p.464) and so aesthetics
quickly became a major point of focus in Chinese-language cinema. The Fifth
Generation “had the advantage of a striking visual language that would easily
transcend cultural barriers” (Zhang, 2012, p.65) and “insisted on ‘showing’ their films
rather than ‘telling’ what had happened” (Zhang, 2004, p.236). In this way, a new
visually minded film era was born in China. Along with Yellow Earth, Zhang’s first
film Red Sorghum released in 1987, helped push visuality to the forefront of Chinese-
language cinema. Red Sorghum is well noted for its aesthetic choices, with its
“sophisticated cinematic techniques and lavish ethnographic elements” (Zhang, 2004,
p.238) it is regarded as a “milestone of Chinese cinema that marks an end to avant-
gardism and a beginning of commercialism (Zhang, 2004, p.238). Over two decades
later visual attractiveness has proven its long lasting appeal and has remained a
prominent feature in Zhang’s work particularly through his rich use of colour. Zhang
remains aware of the criticisms of superficiality that often accompany distinctive
visuals and that have plagued his more recent works. His response to those that
criticise his visual style is rooted in ideas he learnt from his early studies of painting
and photography (Silbergeld, 2012, p.406) and introduces the concept of combining

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striking visuals with sociopolitical comment. He makes clear his intentions and states
that in “traditional Chinese aesthetics, a painting’s value lies in its idea and this idea
precedes the brush” (Silbergeld, 2012, p.406). This mixture of concept and visual has
allowed Chinese-language cinema to finally join the “chromatic viewfinder of visual
reading” (Hillenbrand, 2012, p.208). As shall be examined, Hero, though it boasts
highly fantastical, high concept aesthetics, still manages to provide sociopolitical
comment on both China’s past and present realities. The Fifth Generation emerged
during political unrest and set their “narratives in the past as a secure means of
commenting on the politically insecure present” (Silbergeld, 2012, p.406) and Hero
will be approached similarly with the intention of unpacking its visuals to explore
how these are commenting on realities both past and present.
A rich use of colour is a consistent feature among the works of the Fifth Generation
and therefore “colour-coded, quasi-essentializing Fifth Generation cinema is probably
the most predictable place to study ‘the Colour of Chinese cinemas’” (Hillenbrand,
2012, p.208). Hero takes place in the Warring States period (475 BC) and is the story
of how an unknown warrior called Nameless (Jet Li) tells the King of Qin (Chen
Daoming) how he has slain the three most feared assassins in the land. Response in
the West repeatedly singled out the eye-catching colour scheme as a highlight (Smith,
2004) (Turan, 2004) and so it is this aspect that will act as the beginning of my
investigation. Condemnation of Hero’s aesthetics addressed the championing of
spectacle over coherent narrative or accurate representation (Coates, 2010, p.5)
(Medley, 2004). I sympathise with Hillenbrand’s assertions that in Hero, “colour
challenges the long-standing idea that the cinema-as-spectacle exists in a dichotomous
relationship with the cinema-as-storytelling” (Hillenbrand, 2012, p.212). An attractive

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image should not instinctively invite expectations of an empty spectacle that houses
no further impact beyond its immediate visual impression. Hillenbrand argues that
“the visual image has no inherent obligations to representation, let alone narrative”
(Hillenbrand, 2012, p. 217) and that “the idea that the purpose of early film was to
‘show’ much more than it was to ‘narrate’” (Hillenbrand, 2012, 218). In this way
Hero’s perceived lack of attention to narrative cohesion or accurate historical
representation is rendered irrelevant and has no bearing on the films capacity to make
important observations on the realities faced by mainland China. The use of the
colour ‘red’ encapsulates this thought. It is used in a highly stylized manner but also
carries additional historical, social and political value. Historically ‘red’ has always
been closely associated with communism and left-wing politics and during the period
of the Cultural Revolution in China it was widely agreed to have been used in films to
signify this (Berry, 2012, p.233). I suggest applying this same perspective to the use
of ‘red’ in Hero. Berry observes how it is the loyal apprentice character, often female,
who frequently “dress in red, carrying pre-revolutionary significations of bridal red
into their roles as brides of the revolution” (Berry, 2012, p.233). This is personified
by Moon (Zhang Ziyi), the devoted apprentice of Broken Sword (Tony Leung), who
is frequently dressed in red. In her quest to avenge her slain master, she shows a
fierce, blind determination for revenge that is reminiscent of the ‘Red Guards’
mobilized by the Chinese Communist revolutionary Mao in the late 60s. It is Flying
Snow (Maggie Cheung) however that is shown to be the most determined to
assassinate the King. Like Moon, Snow is also regularly draped in red, however what
is striking about both Moon and Snow is that they are also the two characters most
connected to love and passion. Their love for Broken Sword is shown to be all
consuming and even violent just like their desire for revolution. In this way, the

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individual and society are made one through the bonding of passion and revolution.
Another example of the symbolic combination between the personal and the
collective can be viewed in the duel between these two women. The trance-like fight
that has both women swathed in a deep red illustrates how “brushwork is equated
with swordsmanship (as it has been since ancient times)” (Silbergeld, 2012, p.408).
The martial arts choreography performed share a strong visual resemblance to the
movements seen in the scenes of calligraphy. This visual fusion of art and violence
stands as another metaphor for the overarching theme present of merging the people
and the nation, the individual and the revolution, the cinematic fictional with external
reality. In these ways colour illustrates its ability to harbour comment on external
reality.
Moon seeks revenge for the death of her master but is outmatched by Flying Snow
Hero falls under the fictional Chinese martial arts genre known as wuxia. Wuxia
started off being “a low genre inasmuch as it was popular among the illiterate masses”
(Teo, 2012, p.292) but is now “perhaps the best known” and has “become the
representative genre of the Chinese national cinema” (Teo, 2012, p.288). Following
the Cultural Revolution, Fourth Generation Chinese filmmakers focused on socially
conscious films but by the late 80s the public yearned for a more entertaining cinema.

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This allowed for a comeback of previously considered trivial types of entertainment
and “no other genre represents this comeback better than martial arts films” (Zhang,
2012, p.71). However, though wuxia may be less overt in showing so, it still
possesses an aesthetic with a capacity for making sociopolitical comment. One way in
which it does this is through the historically political nature of its images. The
beginnings of modern wuxia featured heroes that “reflected a collective dream of
wish-fulfilment at a time when wars and massacres frequently immersed the nation in
utter horror” (Zhang, 2004, p.41). What the genre showed onscreen then has always
had “a certain historicist-political slant stressing the need to rebel against despots or
the oppressor” (Teo, 2012, p.288) and when placed within the context of a politically
unstable Communist ruled China, this makes it both a unique genre for social
comment as well as suspect for government censoring. The visual attractiveness of
martial arts have been seen as “a means to disguise the film’s serious intent” and “are
somehow the mere entertainment portion of the film, used either to disguise (or
possibly subvert) the political allegory” (Desser, 2011, p. 16). Government scrutiny is
to be expected then considering wuxia’s popularity with the most likely to be
impressionable group, young people. However, the government approved Hero,
which lead to accusations of a pro-government message hidden in its images (Beach,
2004). Hero is generally understood as a response to the politically volatile condition
in mainland China and its reimagining of the story of Qin Shi Huang is used as a
means of confronting the present reality by looking to the past. The controversial first
Qin Emperor is famed for his “dreams of unification [which] are typically thought to
be the origins of Chinese nationhood” (Desser, 2011, p.3) and thus “exemplifies the
inherent paradox between “the nation” and “the people” in modern times (Qian, 2009,
p. 42). This idea is still very relevant for those living in a communist ruled China.

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Historically, wuxia has helped those living in a politically unstable China to cope with
reality since it “presented alternative routes of escape from existential crises” (Zhang,
2004, p.41) which could explain the recent increase in its popularity. Though Zhang
has consistently declared that Hero has no political intent (Macnab, 2004), I argue due
to wuxia’s famed political subtext and Zhang’s previous films that presented
narratives with a more overt social consciousness, it is unlikely that Hero was created
entirely absent of sociopolitical thought. Nevertheless, the film’s unambiguously
temporally defiant aesthetic lead to accusations of being superficial in nature and that
“spectacle, rather than storytelling, teaches Hero’s philosophy” (Kraicer, 2003). On
the contrary, I suggest the commercially appealing style that is utilized supports any
ideological intentions. Film’s visual capacity enables it to simplify complicated or
traumatic experiences into a cinematic form that may prove more digestible to a
broader audience and thus have its effect felt more widely. A concentration on “visual
images push affective experiences, which are not mainly visual, into the symbolic”
(Marks, 2011, p. 354) and wuxia emphasises visual rather than textual assertions. In
these ways, the historically political nature of wuxia’s aesthetic enables it to reflect on
China’s past and present reality.
The visual extravagance associated with the wuxia genre has a transnational aspect to
it that proves revealing in the varying perspectives surrounding visually focused
aesthetics and their ability to influence thoughts on reality. As film theorist André
Bazin noted, through the image “the cinema has at its disposal a whole arsenal of
means whereby to impose its interpretation of an event on the spectator” (Bazin,
1968, p. 26) and I suggest the multinational interest in wuxia film is a key one for
Chinese-language cinema. It has both national and international roots since it “had the

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ability to imitate the swashbuckling quality of Western adventure” and so “grew out
of other genres, both indigenous and foreign” (Teo, 2012, p.290). On the other hand,
it is argued that the increase in production of Chinese wuxia films is an attempt to
reclaim “the martial arts genre from Hollywood and the forces of globalization as a
unique brand for Chinese cinema” (Desser, 2011, p.2). The martial arts genre has
embedded within it an “inherent element of cultural nationalism that Chinese
filmmakers could turn to in order to explore immediate, pressing, and contentious
issues” (Desser, 2011, p. 17) and so has proven its appeal both abroad and at home.
Its aesthetic distinctiveness as a genre that is both “fantastic and idealistic in essence
but often regarded at the same time as nationalistic” (Teo, 2012, p.288) is epitomized
in Hero. This previous sentence may in fact be split into two to represent the domestic
and foreign reception to the film. The formerly mentioned fantastical concerns
represented the main focus of Western responses while the latter half regarding the
political associations of nationalism made up much of the domestic reception. The
Western reception is revealing in determining the particular visual appeal that
Chinese-language cinema exudes for non-domestic audiences. This attraction had
already become apparent with the release of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Lee,
2000) two years previously. The unprecedented success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon proved that the wuxia genre was ready to compete on a global scale. Like
Hero, it was set against the backdrop of an ancient war and its visual aesthetics were
singled out as exceptional (Callagher, 2000). With an American-Chinese-Hong Kong-
Taiwanese co-production and an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, it held
global appeal, achieved global success and cemented associations of elaborate
imagery with Chinese-language cinema. Propelled by this success, the 2000’s saw a
successful string of wuxia films that all took an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’

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approach. Zhang’s follow up, House of Flying Daggers (CH, HK) released just two
years after Hero, featured similarly elaborate visuals scenes set in the context of a
long ago war and was highly commended for its sumptuous aesthetics (Roten, 2005).
As Roger Ebert tellingly wrote in his review, “Forget about the plot, the characters,
the intrigue, which are all splendid in "House of Flying Daggers," and focus just on
the visuals” (Ebert, 2004). Like Hero, the film combines the individual with the
national through the depiction of love as a political act, however discussions
surrounding any potential sociopolitical themes were near absent from the Western
reception. In other words, the transnational interest that accompany the imagery of
wuxia films have propelled it onto a global stage while simultaneously squandering
any reflections these images may make on past and present realities in China.
The aesthetic similarities shared by,
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Hero
and House of Flying Daggers.

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Having observed how the visuals rather than the political comment embedded within
them are more intriguing to a Western audience, it is necessary next to consider what
reality of China is as a result being presented to the West. It is argued that Hero is
presenting a reality of mainland China that is inaccurate, misleading and aimed to
pander to traditional Western perceptions of China. This critique has been held
against Zhang since the start of his career when his earliest films were said to
“resonate with a longstanding Orientalist view of a backward rural China” that
displayed “aggressive female sexuality, cruel patriarchal repression, traditional
architectural confinement, and picturesque wild landscape” (Zhang, 2012, p.65).
Significantly on the other hand, they were also successful on an international level.
Xu regards the “recent Chinese blockbusters as slavish imitations of Hollywood” and
singles out their visual presentation as flawed, addressing the problematic nature of
the “lavish scenery, glossy picture, rich colors… and smooth and multi-perspective
camerawork” (Xu, 2012, p.465). It is the imagery here that is being attacked in
particular. Additionally Desser shows concern for how martial arts have been seen as
“mere window dressing for Western consumption (Desser, 2011, p. 16) and how it
attempts to “replicate a vision of Chineseness that could appeal to local audiences and
win over Western ones” (Desser, 2011, p.2). This desire for international recognition
and to present a China that is both accessible and appealing to foreign audiences may
be seen as justification for Zhang’s aesthetic choices. As Yu observes, “Catering to an
international market that is curious of China, and to a Chinese market that is equally
ignorant of its own culture, a certain degree of exaggeration is understandable”, yet as
has been remarked on, this has been criticized to come at the expense of depicting an
accurate reality of China. A disregard for verisimilitude and a preference for an
““innovative” heritage that is visually charming but may historically be inaccurate

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and practically impossible” (Yu, 2011, p. 37) is embodied unashamedly by Hero.
However, looking at cinema as an artistic medium illustrates the intrinsic
transnational ‘sacrifices’ that must always be made. The cinema is a Western art form
and any non-western product of it is inevitably then a transnational effort. At first the
cinema was said to be “incompatible with traditional Chinese art… [and] created in
tune with the values of Western culture” (Cho Woo, 1991, p.21) yet a look to the
earliest Chinese filmmakers like Hou Yao illustrates an early “use of iris shots [that]
integrates Western cinematic art and Chinese landscape painting” (Zhang, 2004, p40).
This cross-cultural appreciation for similar film techniques has carried into the present
day with “the belief in parallel development between cinema and technology: the
more sophisticated technology, the better the film” (Xu, 2012, p.450) being an
example of the increased ‘Hollywoodization’ of non-western cinema. Chinese-
language cinema is inherently interconnected with Western cinema and has always
relied on a mutually reciprocal relationship. Notwithstanding, depicting an inaccurate
reality for the sake of appealing to the West may still be considered problematic. Cho
Woo addresses this issue and notes how the Chinese arts themselves have “no
adherence to realism” (Cho Woo, 1991, p.21) and so from this viewpoint, though
Hero consciously betrays historical and temporal reality in order to visually excite
and appeal to an international audience, it is simply keeping in tradition with the
Chinese arts’ disregard for reality. Having discussed the multitude of means by which
the aesthetics may alter perceptions of historical, social and political realities both
past and present, the next chapter will demonstrate the image’s potential for a more
intimate interaction with reality. In contrast to this chapter’s macro approach to
reality, the next chapter will shift the focus onto the more personal interaction with
reality that a viewer may experience through images in Chinese-language film.

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In the Mood for Love, Temporality and the Unreal
Wong Kar-wai was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong when he was five
where he became a leading figure of the Second Wave of Hong Kong film directors.
In contrast to Hero’s politically laden visuals “appreciating Wong’s films demand
lesser cultural or linguistic context than works of Zhang Yimou” (Hu, 2007, p.3) and
rely more strongly on the power of its visuals to stimulate viewers. In the Mood for
Love tells the story of an unconsummated love affair between Chow Mo-wan (Tony
Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) in 1960’s Hong Kong and how they
discover their spouses’ are having an affair with one another. Unlike Hero’s capacity
to shape perceptions of reality through sociopolitical comment, Mood with its
distinctively fantasy tinged aesthetic plays with ideas of temporality and cinematic
visual tradition. It is able to engage with the viewer on a more individual basis in
addition to making comment on the culturally uncertain status that Hong Kong
continues to face. Through its aesthetics it questions and plays with conventional
perceptions of temporal reality in film and contributes to “to a new cinematic
rendering of time by complicating the materiality, or the visuality, of time” (Tong,
2008, p.64). Wong’s relationship with temporality has become his artistic trademark
and is exemplified in Mood, which is described as a “temporal labyrinth where the
boundaries between the past and present, the actual and virtual, the real and imagined,
memories and dreams are blurred,” (Front, 2011, p. 144). Like many other Hong
Kong films, Wong’s have been read as representing a nature of uncertainty and have
frequently referenced “that family move and the uncertainty of living in Hong Kong
with its mixture of the traditional and the modern, looking back to the mainland and
forward to a global future (Stafford, 2007, p.1). Wong’s use of Hong Kong is

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fundamental to his explorations of uncertain past, present and future realities and “the
city as a machine for possibility” (Wark, 2001). Mood’s interest in exploring themes
of nostalgia and the past is shared by cinema itself since both have the capacity to
allow viewers to experience, albeit indirectly, both bygone realities and those are yet
to pass. As Lee observes then, “History, therefore is situated within the fissure of
“remembering” and “forgetting,” or exists in a “void” that annihilates all effort to
locate time” (Lee, 2006, p.73). It is Mood’s aesthetic style that serves to displace
established notions of chronological time and reality. Mood’s chromatic allegiance as
opposed to any narrative reliance serves to evoke feeling through a stimulation of a
variety of senses. It is this more emotional involvement that shall be evaluated. Mood
will be considered for its shaping of reality through the way its aesthetics displace
time and how they make comment on past, present and future realities.
My investigation will begin with an analysis of the use of repetition and its bearing on
a conscious awareness of the materiality and therefore the reality of film. Wong
explained his use of repetition as a way “to show nothing changes, except the
emotions of these two persons” (Kaufman, 2009). I suggest a repetition of images
makes the viewer conscious of film form and therefore conscious of film as a fictional
reality. Conventionally, cinema’s objective is to immerse the viewer and engage them
in a suspension of disbelief but images in Mood “acknowledge their own creation and
thus destabilize the diegetic illusion” (Payne, 2001, p.1). Wong’s aesthetic style
“opens up the vicissitudes of spatial/temporal perception” (Payne, 2001. p.6) and so
invite competing and untraditional perceptions of cinematic reality. His visual choices
such as his use of “extreme close-ups, “empty” shots, tilted camera angles, and
violations of the conventional short-reverse shot composition” (Lee, 2011, p.58) have

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a self-reflexive element to them and so emphasise the fantastical nature of the image.
The use of clocks is an example of a repeated image in the film. Clocks as the bearers
of time and indicators of reality appear “as if to emphasise the cinematic dimensions
of time and space in which the characters are caught” (Stafford, 2007, p.1-2). Teo
connects the symbolism of this motif with Dali’s painting “The Persistence of
Memory” where the clocks symbolized time lost (Teo, 2001). In agreement with Teo,
I suggest the repeated images of clocks are symbolic of the relativity of time in Mood
and “creates the effect of déja vu and entrapment in time… [and] illustrates the
process of remembering and the mechanisms governing the psyche” (Front, 2011, p.
150). So, repetition of an image leads to a state of consciousness and consciousness
redirects attention towards extra-textual realities and in the case of Mood, “Thanks to
repetition the past is regained in memory” (Front, 2011, p. 153). The act of going to
the cinema and the cinema itself are acts of repetition that viewers learn a ritual
response to. Ritual permits “people to be not quite conscious, yet not quite embodied
either; to be out of body or ecstatic” (Marks, 2011, p. 355) and such a space in time
holds a curious position between reality and fantasy. Massumi explores this particular
paradox of time and argues that the incredibly short time during which our body
reacts to stimulation is not as we would like to think a period governed by volition but
in fact one “being performed by autonomic, bodily reactions occurring in the brain
but outside consciousness, and between brain and finger but prior to action and
expression” (Massumi, 2002, p.29). Here, Massumi illustrates time’s complex
relationship to the conscious and the unconscious. Therefore, just as a repetition of
images encourages a conscious perspective of film as a false reality, the repetition of a
ritual response associated with film viewing itself can be seen to take place outside of
consciousness and therefore outside of reality.

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Clocks act as a motif that emphasise the film’s toying with time and its displacement
Maggie Cheung as Su li-Zhen is an aesthetic asset, her beauty often the focus of the
camera but it is what she wears that acts as both visual attraction and a site of
nostalgia. Throughout the film Su dons an array of body hugging one-piece dresses
known as cheongsam. A “tight-laced cheongsam seems to suggest a body politics
about desire and its denial simultaneously. It exudes sensuality and demure” (Luk,
2007, p.213) and is symbolized through the unconsummated affair between Su and
Chow. Cheongsam is a traditional type of formal dress yet she wears them constantly
which accentuates her unreal presence and makes her seems out of touch with reality.
Mulvey notes of women in cinema that they “are simultaneously looked at and
displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they
can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey, 1988, p.62). The cheongsam
enables this since she goes through so many that it seems as if she has become a
mannequin whose role is to simply highlight the beauty of the dress. In this way,
Cheung as an actress and Su as a character both disappear at the expense of focusing
on the cheongsam and its connotations of the past. The mise en scène further enables
this through its complimentary colours that seek to form around her dress rather than
disturb it and thus create a homogeneous pallet of colour. Additionally, colour’s
ability to “bridge cinematic space and cinematic time” (Hillenbrand, 2012, p. 228) is
exemplified through Su’s constant changing of cheongsam. The eye-catching material
and colour of each cheongsam serves to move time forward. In other words, with each

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new cheongsam, the viewer becomes aware of the passing of time since each one is so
noticeably different in colour to the last. The colour of the cheongsam, notably the red
one has particular connotations for viewers. In terms of sheer aesthetic attraction, “red
draws the eye in a way that darker colours do not” (Berry, 2012, p. 240). Western
opinion “codes red as the primary signifier of emotion, even emotionality” (Coates,
2002, p.56) whereas Chinese viewers see it as “an important positive color… for
important rituals and ceremonies” (Kwok, 1992, p.141). In a similar fashion to the
responses to Hero, Western audiences are not engaged with any sociopolitical aspects
that an aesthetic may infer whereas Chinese audiences may read additional comment.
In this case a Chinese viewer can see the red cheongsam as another feature that links
Su to a more traditional past reality. The consistent adorning of cheongsam is “surely
every Chinese person’s idea of the eternal Chinese woman in the modern age,
evoking memories of elegant Chinese mothers in the ’50s and ’60” (Teo, 2001) and so
Su acts as a link between the past and the present. Her associations with a more
traditional past symbolically tie her attempts to reclaim memory with Wong’s. The
cheongsam as a metaphor for the past that elevates “the tension between the
characters desire to hold on to their memories and their subconscious fear/anxiety
about “remembering” (Lee, 2006, p.73) is similar to Wong’s relationship to Hong
Kong. Su’s use of the cheongsam and Wong’s use of an earlier Hong Kong are both
examples of an nostalgic longing for the past. Marchetti notes of women in Second
Wave Hong Kong films that they “symbolize Hong Kong as a city or, more generally,
the postmodern dilemma that Hong Kong represents for the world” (Marchetti, 2012,
p.106). Su symbolises Hong Kong’s dilemma through her permanent adorning of the
traditional cheongsam, which signifies a longing for the past and a difficulty in
dealing with the present.

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Su and “the primal, unadulterated red of Maggie Cheung’s cheongsam, a swathe of pure hue”
(Hillenbrand, 2012, p. 219).
Su’s cheongsam works seamlessly with the mise en scène
The visuals encourage the viewer to perceive the narrative as fantasy but regardless of
how successful the images are in displacing time and altering our perception of
reality, the narrative does take place in a recognizably temporal world. Hart writes,
“the realism of the real is permeated by magic just as the world of the magical is
underpinned by the real” (Hart, 2005, p. 4). From this perspective, Mood’s
combination of reality and fantasy is seamless, a feat earning it the label of ‘magical
realism’ where “the extraordinary has to be regarded as an ordinary occurrence”
(Bertozzi, 2012, p.156). The task then of any temporal exegesis is rendered
unnecessary and irrelevant. Mood’s disturbance of conventional cinematic expectation
is disorientating to an audience and forces them to reassess the very way they receive
images and the subsequent presumed promise of verisimilitude. This blend of the real

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and the unreal is further emphasised through the use of haptic imagery that
demonstrates film’s ability as “a means to expand the way the senses absorb and
comprehend the world around us” (Payne, 2001, p.6). Mood is filled with haptic
imagery, which are visuals that act as a link between visual stimulation and bodily
reaction and so challenge traditional understandings of reality. Haptic images in the
cinema by their very nature test traditional perceptions of reality as they allow
viewers to ‘feel’ what they see and so alter their connection to the fictional reality on
screen. I suggest such imagery is exemplified by Mood’s decision to focus on a
personal identification with just two characters and the subsequent intimate close
shots of body parts often shot in slow motion. Haptic images through their focus on
bodily stimulation actually “invite the viewer to dissolve his or her subjectivity in the
close and bodily contact with the image” (Marks, 2002, p. 13) and therefore become
more immersed in the visuals. For example, a scene as simple as Su walking through
an alleyway becomes a powerfully haptic sequence that modifies the viewers’
perception of reality. This is achieved through the cinematography, mise en scène and
use of slow motion. As Marks writes “The ideal relationship between viewer and
haptic image is one of mutuality, in which the viewer is more likely to lose
her/himself in the image, to lose her or his sense of proportion” (Marks, 1998, p.341)
and the shadowy, hazy alleyways that surround Su appear to seamlessly merge with
everything else on screen. The reality consequently rendered has a dreamlike quality
to it that encourages a blurring of proportion both within the film as well as in the
connection between the individual and the image. The cinematography created by
Wong and long time collaborator Christopher Doyle, “unhinges our perception of
time” (Tong, 2008, p.65) through the use of colour. Josef Albers’ hypothesis
that colour is constantly in motion proves useful when analysing Mood where “the

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rhythm of each succeeding image becomes bathed in a glorious hue of temporal
indeterminacy” (Totaro, 2001). His theory contends that colour is “paling and
darkening, expanding and contracting, incapable of holding fast to a single chromatic
identity because it is always conversing dynamically with its fellows” (Hillenbrand,
2012, p. 221) and so illustrates that colour as movement may govern time. This can be
seen in the ethereal quality possessed by both the mise en scene and Su that manages
to displace time through the seducing and lulling of an audience. By drowning Su in
shadow, our recognisable protagonist is replaced by an otherworldly like figure.
Emerging from the shadow, Su’s face may be solely lit while the background remains
dark and hazy, again working to reinforce a magic realist world that appears to
occupy a bizarre space in time, a unique position between reality and fantasy.
Through lighting, shadow and framing, Su takes on an otherworldly disposition
These elements work to create a powerful embodied response among viewers. The
embodied response “makes a viewer vulnerable to ideological messages” (Marks,
2011, p. 355) and in this way, the haptic imagery may also package comment on the
complex reality of present day Hong Kong as a cultural disappearance. Comment on
the relationship between nostalgia, reality and the identity crisis of Hong Kong during
and following the years of political transition can be explored through the aesthetics

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in Mood. An example of this is the employment of slow motion, which literally slows
down reality and displaces time. On its use, Wong stated, “We tried to create the film
from our memories. And in our memories, everything moves much slower” (Tobias,
2001). The slow lingering of Wong’s vision of 60’s Hong Kong is encompassed by
feelings of nostalgia. Time and by consequence reality is slowed down so as to resist
the future, freeze the present and remember more clearly and for longer, memories of
the past. As Front writes, “The labyrinth quality of time is illustrative of the processes
governing memory” (Front, 2011, p. 145) and the use of slow motion demonstrates
this interconnected relationship between memory, time and reality. Hong Kong as a
site of memory is a recurring theme in Wong’s work, stemming or at least
exacerbated by the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that “served as the catalyst for
a crisis of identity in Hong Kong” (Lee, 2006, p. 97). Hong Kong’s status as a
transnational space that has been considered both British, Chinese and never fully
either, blurs the lines between cultural histories and national identity. Mood was
released just three years after the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from
the United Kingdom to China at a time following great “nostalgia, political anxiety
and a deeply disturbing sense of impermanence, or disappearance” (Lee, 2006, p.69).
Therefore, both Mood and Hong Kong occupy an unclear place in reality. Wong’s
post nostalgic “cinematic reinvention of urban space as an act of remembering…
more than preserving past memories through visual imagining” also uses the past to
come to terms with the present (Lee, 2006, p.71). On this point, Wong stated, “I
wanted to make a film about those days, and I wanted to go back to that period,
because at that time, we still knew all our neighbours. And nowadays, we don’t even
know who lives next-door to us” (Tobias, 2001). His recollection of 1960’s Hong
Kong “as an age of innocence, idealism, romance” (Lee, 2011, p. 66) is the result of

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his “individualistic vision of the past and critical engagement with nostalgia to reflect
on the city’s present predicaments” (Lee, 2011, p. 57). Mood’s themes of longing,
uncertainty and displacement of time reflect Wong’s nostalgic desires. Wong has
made clear that the Hong Kong that he reminisces about is just his version of the city
and is “quite different than Hong Kong in reality… [and] are never about what Hong
Kong is like, or anything approaching a realistic portrait, but what I think about Hong
Kong and what I want it to be” (Tobias, 2001). Though Mood is undoubtedly a
product of Wong’s personal vision, Hong Kong’s uniquely complex status allows it to
act as a mnemonic site of collective memory where viewers who share a similar
heritage may form a “collective identity through…shared memories and experiences
of commemoration and remembering” (Smith, 2007, p.5). For these viewers, seeing
the past so meticulously evoked spurns existential questioning of both present and
future realities. The broody, ever present nostalgic tone of Mood that forces one to
look to the past is ironically reshaped as comment on the present and the future.
Past Realities, Present Solutions and Future Desires
The near constant political uncertainty that has embroiled mainland China as well as
Hong Kong has allowed for ever-changing perceptions of their historical past and
present reality. As Lee observes, the boundaries between what is real and what is not
become unclear when audiences “participate in the production of memory of a bygone
era on display, and try to discover in the process a shared cultural memory, or cultural
heritage for that matter” (Lee, 2011, p.58-59). Both Zhang and Wong contribute to
this blurring as they create images and stories that are unavoidably subjective and
made up by both their national identity and sense of self. The images conjured up by

26. 75054 - 26
Hero as a result of the visual style’s rooting in traditional Chinese aesthetic but also as
a product of the wuxia genre serve to elucidate China’s unstable past. Its re-telling of
history shows the dilemma between the personal and the national that China has
struggled with throughout its history and in doing so underlines how present reality
can be better understood by acknowledging and comprehending what has come
before. The aesthetics in Mood “toy with and challenge our experience of time as a
linear succession of moments” (Tong, 2008, p. 64) and produces a vision of Hong
Kong that is both established in reality and yet temporally challenging. Mood’s
engagement with the past achieves a similar goal to Hero, albeit through different
means, of coming to terms with the cultural uncertainty and confusing status that
Hong Kong faces today. Both films demonstrate the unique potential of cinematic
images to interact with viewers on both an individual and collective level. What is
unique in depicting the reality of China and Hong Kong is the precarious nature of
their social and political situations. In investigating and confronting these complicated
histories, both Hero and Mood demonstrate how images can confront and ultimately
shape an individual’s or even a group’s perceptions of past, present and future
realities.

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Filmography
Primary
Hero (Zhang, 2002, CH)
In The Mood For Love (Wong, 2000, HK)
Secondary
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Lee, 2000, US, HK, CH, TW)
House of Flying Daggers (Zhang, 2004, CH, HK)
Red Sorghum (Zhang, 1987, CH)
Yellow Earth (Chen, 1984, CH)

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