My Blueberry Nights

There was a great deal of enthusiasm surrounding My Blueberry Nights. This was Wong Kar Wai's first American film. Some years ago this move would have meant that he has 'sold' out but that argument doesn't hold water anymore. Wong's reputation of being a master filmmaker precedes him. His demigod stature and cult following have made him one of the most closely watched filmmaker of recent times. So much so that Cannes had no problem showcasing a 20-minute version of his then work in progress 2046. Wong Kar Wai mesmerized the world with an extended trailer of a film that he had been working on for almost 4 years.

My Blueberry Nights is the second Wong Kar Wai film that I have left midway. My brother had gone to China and upon his return he got a bunch of DVDs. His yardstick, when in doubt, was to pick up any DVD that had the festival wreath on the cover! He got 2046 but the DVD justified its cheap price, Rs. 40, and didn't have any English subtitles. Nevertheless the lush images were enough to whet one's appetite. A year or so later I finally laid my hands on 2046, I started watching it with great anticipation. This was Wong Kar Wai after In the Mood for Love. This was the film that was in the making for years and was shrouded in intrigue and mystery just like any Wong Kar Wai film. Twenty minutes into the film and I'd had enough of his bizarreness! It's been years now and I still haven't completed the film.

Watching My Blueberry Nights was like 2046 all over. It’s the story of a woman whose boyfriend starts cheating on her. She finds a kindred spirit in a man who runs a diner and offers her advice along with a slice of blueberry pie. She suddenly (like most Wong Kar Wai characters) suddenly takes off to Memphis and starts working as a waitress. She meets a cop who just can't get over his ex-wife. The cop and the waitress indulge in some banter and that's where I gave up. The review says that she goes on to Reno and interacts with a poker player. She is, of course, doing all this to look for herself.

My Blueberry Nights is laced with the typical markings of a Wong Kar Wai film- vivid colors, lushness, great camerawork and characters who are unable to live through the night. Herein lies the catch. Post 2046, for me, all these come across as usual WKW trappings. The first giveaway is the camerawork. Even though it's Darius Khondji who photographs the film instead of Wong regular Christopher Doyle, the cinematography could easily pass off as Doyale's. You would argue that Chris Doyle style is actually Wong Kar Wai signature. Maybe it's Wong Kar Wai, the auteur, at work but one can't help but get a feeling that it's the same film all over again. The characters still move in slow motion, the haunting music (Ry Cooder) seems like leftovers, the framing, the movement of the camera, the conversations, nothing seems good anymore!

Is this a sign?

Wong Kar Wai is definitely one of the most influential filmmakers. He made the mundane look exciting. He works without a script in the true sense; he takes his own sweet time to finish a film. The question one really needs to ask is weather it's possible for WKW to go on doing the same thing and yet not bore me to death? Revisiting the older Wong Kar Wai films, namely In The Mood for Love, Chunking Express, Happy Together, Days of Being Wild, Ashes of Time and Fallen Angels, I have come to the conclusion that barring In The Mood For Love and Happy Together none have the same impact on me. The thing I understood while trying to watch My Blueberry Nights is that one shouldn't attempt the same thing again. More importantly something that works in one country and language might not really work in another. Why didn't this film work? Maybe because everyone swears by In the Mood for Love and even a blind person could make out it's the same film. Would this work if it were made in Cantonese or Mandarin? No. The same reason stands- they have already seen and loved In The Mood for Love.

Ang Lee could have remade Brokeback Mountain for China but he didn't. Just as he'd not remake Lust, Caution in the US! One of the most respected filmmakers operating today, Lee can make a killing by remaking his English films in China and vice-versa. Imagine transporting 1970's American suburbia of The Ice Storm to 1960's Hong Kong. Lee would rather 'sell' out and do a Hulk instead of living the same nightmare again!

As for Wong Kar Wai...give me a Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung walking in slow motion in rain to get some chow instead of a cocky Jude Law forcing a blueberry pie down Norah Jones's throat!