Wong Kar Wai Takes Us Back in Time with "Blossoms Shanghai" and His Enduring Influence

Welcome to Renegades, Gold House’s editorial series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way. This week’s Renegade is renowned filmmaker Wong Kar Wai. His filmography, including Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, and In the Mood for Love, has transformed the cinematic landscape and inspired an entire generation of filmmakers. Now, Wong Kar Wai invites us into a new chapter in his work: his first-ever TV series Blossoms Shanghai on The Criterion Channel!

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We ask all our Renegades: what did you want to be when you were growing up, and how does that compare to where you are now?

My childhood was filled with movies; my mother often took me to the cinema. So perhaps, without knowing it, I was always being prepared for this. But my path wasn’t a straight line. Film school didn’t exist in Hong Kong at the time, so I studied graphic design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic. Two years later, a chance meeting led me to a TV production training course, which became my gateway into filmmaking.

Even though I didn’t become a graphic designer, that training – learning about composition, color, and visual rhythm – had a profound influence on me as a director. Life is about the unexpected connections.

On set, you’ve exemplified the definition of “renegade” by filming without a script and shooting without rehearsals, operating on instinct and improvisation. What empowers you to trust in such a unique approach?

I was a screenwriter for ten years before I became a director. This was during the rise of the Hong Kong New Wave in the late 80s, when a film—from script to screen—was typically completed within three months.

In my early days, I was a notoriously slow writer, as I was still learning my craft and trying to find my voice. I was also very naïve and thought that by writing “The End” on the last page of a script meant that it was complete and would be followed religiously. Of course, that is almost never the case.

A script is never immutable. Once it passes from a writer’s hands to the director or producer, it continues to evolve. When I became a director myself, I began to realize that “The End” wasn’t written on the last page of the script, but on the very last frame of the film. Since I was writing most of my own films, I could give myself some extra time, allowing the writing to evolve in sync with the filmmaking process.

So it’s a big misconception that I shoot without a script; I just don’t always follow it to the letter – or in exact order.

I remember when we were shooting Happy Together in Argentina. One day, my DP Christopher Doyle and I walked onto the set—the 10-square-meter hotel room where Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung’s characters lived. We had already shot many scenes there. Before setting up the first shot of the day, Chris and I looked at each other; he probably guessed where I would place the camera, and I could guess his preferred position, too. Everything had become too familiar, too routine. We had no new ideas, and we were both frustrated, feeling as if we had exhausted every possible angle in that small room. Finally, we made a decision: we randomly tossed the camera onto the mattress of the bed and wherever it landed would be the first shot of the scene.

I take a lot of inspiration from jazz jam sessions, where musicians are building off a song’s vibe, chord changes, and bass line. It’s improvisation within a shared canvas. That’s more or less how we’ve made our films.

What advice would you give to others wanting to be bold in their own lives and careers?

My advice on being bold? Don’t be afraid of the process. Boldness isn’t about having a perfect road map. You must be willing to embrace chance, to see the beauty in a “mistake,” and understand that the journey itself is the destination. Be open to the world showing you something you didn’t plan for.

This year was the 25th anniversary of In the Mood for Love. Reflecting on its legacy, as well as the lasting impact of all of your films, what do you think makes for a timeless story?

A timeless story isn’t about a specific plot. It’s more about emotions and memories that are universal. It’s the ache of loneliness, the heat of desire, the weight of a secret, or the nostalgia for a time that has passed.

These feelings are not bound by a particular time period or culture. They are human. A timeless story lives in its details -- it’s the magic of someone’s glances, the texture of a cheongsam, the steam from a food stall. If you can capture the feeling of a place or a moment so precisely that it becomes a memory for the audience, then the story will never get old.

Your films Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, and 2046 exist almost as a cinematic universe. How does your television series Blossoms Shanghai fit into or intersect with this universe? What do you think will feel familiar to fans of your work, and what might take them by surprise?

Those three films are indeed a loose trilogy, connected by the spirit of characters like Su Lizhen and Chow Mo-wan, exploring time and lost love in 1960s Hong Kong. Blossoms Shanghai is a different constellation in the same sky. It shares the same DNA of exploring a city at a pivotal moment—1990s Shanghai, a place of economic boom and reform. Some familiar elements will be the atmosphere, the obsession with time, and the focus on ordinary people with burning passions and principles.

What might surprise people is the scale and energy. While my previous work often turned inward, Blossoms Shanghai captures the roaring, ambitious, and chaotic spirit of a city being reborn. It’s a portrait of an era, not just an intimate romance. And as it’s my first television series, the format itself allows for a more expansive and detailed exploration of this world and its many characters.

You were born in Shanghai, but moved to Hong Kong at a young age. After cementing your legacy in the Hong Kong film industry, it took you 10 years to create Blossoms Shanghai which, in a way, can be considered a homecoming for you. How do you think your life and career prepared you to take on this series?

My entire life has been leading up to this. I left Shanghai as a child in 1963, but that city never left me. My films have always been about memory and place—recreating the Hong Kong of my youth in In the Mood for Love was an act of preservation. With Blossoms Shanghai, I am finally excavating my earliest memories, the scent of my birthplace.

My work as a filmmaker has taught me how to listen to a city and tell its story. I learned how to find the epic in the intimate, and how to use light, color, and music to build a world that feels lived-in. This series is the culmination of that. It took ten years because I was not just making a show; I was rebuilding a Shanghai that exists now only in memory, and that required the patience and perspective of a lifetime.

Set in such a specific time of economic boom and reform, Blossoms Shanghai is about an ordinary Shanghainese man with passions, principles, and ambitions. What do you think Western audiences will latch onto as they experience this world you’ve created?

I believe audiences everywhere connect with its universal human struggles and aspirations. It’s the story of an individual trying to find their place in a rapidly changing world, to make a name for themselves, and to navigate love, friendship, and betrayal. These are the themes of great American novels and European films.

They will experience [not only] the specific sights and sounds of 1990s Shanghai, but they will also feel the universal drive for a better life. It’s a story about ambition, which is a language spoken everywhere. The passion and principles of this “ordinary” man are what make him extraordinary, and that is a story that needs no translation.

From TikToks to Academy Award-winning films like Everything Everywhere All at Once, storytellers of all mediums have paid homage to your work. As society progresses, technology develops, and stories evolve, what are you eager to see more of, or perhaps even try for yourself?

It’s humbling and thrilling to see new generations find inspiration in my work. The chaotic energy and unconventional storytelling of Everything Everywhere All at Once shows that the audience’s capacity for complex, emotional narratives is greater than ever. I’m eager to see how some of these new technologies can be used not just for spectacle, but to express interior worlds and emotions in ways we never imagined.

The tool is not the art; the feeling is.

Lightning Round

Favorite Book: It depends at which stage of my life. At the age of ten, my favorite book was Romance of The Three Kingdoms. When I was 18, it was Camus’ Outsider. At 39, I was drawn to the fragmented, emotional storytelling of Manuel Puig’s Heartbreak Tango. In 2013, my favorite book was “Blossoms” which our series is based on.

Morning Routine: A cup of coffee and a 20 minute walk.

Comfort Food: The food of my childhood—the simple, warming dishes from the streets of Hong Kong and the homes of Shanghai.

Favorite Movie Poster: The Grandmaster poster made by Mondo. 

Last Film You Watched: F1. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We want to hear from you:

Help us make Renegades more engaging & helpful to you by taking this 3-5 minute end-of-year feedback survey.