Wong Kar Wai Knows How to End a Film

This post is a part of The Endings-Blog-A-Thon over at Joe's Movie Corner.

I would be shocked if I were the only person to mention Wong Kar Wai for this blog-a-thon. One of today's finest filmmakers, WKW has managed to create a new, distinctive visual style along with his frequent collaborator Christopher Doyle. His films are gorgeously cinematic, well-crafted and impressionistic. In what are, in my opinion, his 3 greatest films, WKW goes out with a bang, ending each movie with a beautifully realized snap shot of Hong Kong. We exit these characters' lives as a song fills the soundtrack and the camera cuts away, leaving them to continue on with their existence.

But enough talk. There's really no way of understanding the magic of these endings without seeing them.

Chungking Express



Fallen Angels


Happy Together



Here are some other great endings. They have nothing to do with Wong Kar Wai, but they do all end with music, so there ya go.

Cruel Intentions


Cinema Paradiso


The Graduate


Harold & Maude