Everyday Imaginaries: multiple faces of a city through the lens of Wong Kar-Wai

• Grant number: 24/23288-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning
• Principal Investigator: Paulo César Castral
• Grantee: Letícia Arataque Uema
• Host Institution: Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de São Carlos (IAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Engaging in the debate on urban imaginaries shaped by cinematic language, this study explores the works of Wong Kar-Wai (Shanghai, 1958), a central figure of the Second New Wave of Hong Kong cinema and a prominent name in contemporary cinema. Renowned for his aesthetics aligned with the cinema of flow, characterized by the depiction of the real in its constant dynamism, Wong's filmography-urban, erratic, and rooted in everyday life-captures and represents the fragmented movements of life in contemporary metropolises. The research aims to develop a critical perspective on the processes of representing urban experiences and to examine how material and virtual spaces are manifested on the cinematic screen. To this end, the study focuses on two key films by the director, Chungking Express (1994) and Fallen Angels (1995), selected for their continuity and complementarity in addressing the urban environment. In this context, the project seeks to expand the discourse on architecture and urban studies by intersecting them with art, culture, and urban theory. The central hypothesis suggests a resonance between the experience of film and that of the city. Thus, errancy-whether in Wong Kar-Wai's cinema or in urban life-emerges as a concept essential to understanding territorialities that are critical for urban planning.