Abstract
This chapter explores Asian cinema through the lens of cinephiles and transmedia fans. Highlighting the connections of Wong Kar Wai’s features to fan-made short film, online game and on- and off-screen participatory cultures, Promkhuntong discusses the notions of collective authorship, transmedia storytelling, and network aesthetics. Pushing for the discussion of Asian cinema through the transnational flows and connections of paratexts and agencies within the transmedia ecology, the chapter examines artworks of the Thai filmmaker and transmedia storyteller Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, who pays tribute to Wong Kar Wai while developing his own transmedia self-reflexive filmmaking. The chapter also discusses the appropriations of Wong’s aesthetics for political activism, connecting film fans in Thailand with the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, and for consumerist lifestyle culture in Bangkok and Asian metropolitan cities.
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Filmography
2046. Directed by Wong Kar Wai. 2004.
A Hero Never Dies (真心英雄). Directed by Johnnie To. 1998.
As Tear Goes By (旺角卡門). Directed by Wong Kar Wai. 1988.
Casablanca. Directed by Michael Curtiz. 1942.
Certified Copy (Copie conforme). Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. 2010.
Chungking Express (重慶森林). Directed by Wong Kar Wai. 1994.
Days of Being Wild (阿飛正傳). Directed by Wong Kar Wai. 1990.
Fallen Angels (墮落天使). Directed by Wong Kar Wai. 1995.
Fish Tank. Directed by Andrea Arnold. 2009.
Happy Together (春光乍洩). Directed by Wong Kar Wai. 1997.
In the Mood for Love (花樣年華). Directed by Wong Kar Wai. 2000.
Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower. Directed by Poe Piscatella. 2017.
Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy. Directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit. 2013.
Moonlight. Directed by Barry Jenkins. 2016.
Pierrot le Fou (Pierrot the Madman). Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. 1965.
The Master. Directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit. 2014.
Things Wong Kar Wai Taught Me About Love. Directed by Alice Dallow. 2004.
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Promkhuntong, W. (2018). “Why So Wong”: Transnational Asian Cinema Through the Lens of Cinephiles and Transmedia Fans. In: Magnan-Park, A., Marchetti, G., Tan, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95822-1_21
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