Loving in Solitude and Encountering Pity in the Cinema of Wong Kar Wai

Abstract

This article outlines a process which is commonly at play in the narrator-characters’ paths of Wong Kar Wai’s films; namely the shift from the pursuit of a fusional ideal of love to the discovery of the virtue of compassion. Through an analysis of two visual motifs, the mirror and pity, the use of montage – especially shot/reverse shot and cross-cutting – and a comparison with Liu Yichang’s novel Intersection, the aim is to identify three moments: the predominance of a narcissistic attitude, the recognition that this attitude is shared, and the development of a capacity for pity, interpreted as a pivotal sentiment.