Texts

THE REPRESENTATION OF HONG KONG AS A SUBJECT OF NOSTALGIA IN THE KAR-WAI’S TRILOGY

Hong Kong is a city which has been amalgamating Eastern and Western cultures, and formed identity of its own multicultural structure. Hong Kong from colonial times until the transition in the 90’s, experienced a vicious cycle of capitalist-based economy and the ever increasing economic-social pressure of China. The phenomenon has affected the Hong Kong cinema’s reflection of the notion of dual identity and identity confusion in the postcolonial era. This identity confusion showed itself as a deep feeling of nostalgia in the works of Wong Kar-wai, a member of Hong Kong cinema. In Kar-wai’s films, Hong Kong is not just his individual reality but also a portrayal of the country’s history. His films present cultural and social transformations to the audience. In Kar-wai’s films, Hong Kong is a metaphor of these cultural artifacts, and additionally reflecting the existential anxiety of ambivalence and duality. His focus on themes such as love, deception, loneliness, disidentification and alienation is rising from the tension between Hong Kong, China, Britain, and Japan. Moving from the fact that a cinematic space reflects ideologies, political system and social relationship, this study aims to analyse Wong Kar-wai’s trilogy which includes Days of Being Wild (1990) In the Mood for Love (2000) and 2046 (2004) in a sociological perspective to understand the representation of Hong Kong’s colonial and diasporic identity – taking a Lefebvre framework which asserts that (social) space is organic, lively, and changeable and it is a social product, into consideration. The study is focused on the daily life of the film characters to understand their relationship with space.