The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-Wai: Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance, Second Edition

The widely acclaimed films of Wong Kar-wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. Bettinson argues that Wong’s films—from Days of Being Wild and Chungking Express to In the Mood for Love and The Grandmaster—are permeated by an aesthetic of sensuousness and “disturbance” achieved through techniques such as narrative disruptions, jarring cuts, the blocking of facial access, and other complex strategies. The effect is to jolt the viewer out of complete aesthetic absorption. This tenth-anniversary edition of The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai includes a substantial new afterword bringing the story of Wong’s career up to date (including reflections on the mainland Chinese drama Blossoms Shanghai). Bettinson revisits and extends the arguments of the first edition, surveys the recent key debates on Wong’s filmmaking, and introduces fresh lines of critical investigation.

Gary Bettinson is senior lecturer in film studies at Lancaster University. He is co-editor of The Poetics of Chinese Cinema (2016), Hong Kong Horror Cinema (2018), and The Cinema of Stephen Chow (2024), and editor-in-chief of the journal Asian Cinema.