Trivia

1st Chinese to win the Best Director Award at Cannes film Festival (1997)

Loves Ingmar Bergman's films.

Wong has an unusual approach to film making, starting production without a script and generally relying on instinct and improvisation rather than pre-prepared ideas. In advance, the cast are given a minimal plot outline and expected to develop their characters as they film. To capture naturalness and spontaneity, Wong does not allow for rehearsals and alternately encourages improvisation and collaboration. He similarly does not use storyboards or plan camera placement, preferring to experiment as he goes. His shooting ratio is consequently very high, sometimes forty takes per scene, and production typically goes well over schedule and over budget.

He claims that his non-linear style of story-telling is inspired by the late Argentinian writer Manuel Puig's novel titled "The Buenos Aires Affair".

He is fluent in English.

Never went to a film school.

Stated that one contemporary director he really likes is Danny Boyle.

Profiled in "Films and Dreams: Tarkovsky, Bergman, Sokurov, Kubrick and Wong Kar-Wei" by Thurston Botz-Borsnstein. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008.

Dropped out of an art school and joined a screenwriter's program in 1980.

Director with the most films (6, all directed between 1989 to 2000) among the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures, selected by Hong Kong Film Awards in celebration of 100 years of movies.

Did not speak Cantonese--the local dialect of Hong Kong--until the age of 13.

Graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic College in Graphic Design (1980).

Left Shanghai with his mother at the age of 5, when they emigrated to Hongkong, leaving his father, a hotel director, his brother and his sister behind.

President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in 2013.

President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 59th Cannes International Film Festival in 2006.

Considers Zui hou sheng li (1987) his best script.

His son Qing, born 1994, along with his wife live in Hong Kong.

President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 8th Beijing International Film Festival in 2018.

Made 7 films with cinematographer Christopher Doyle: Ah Fei jing juen (1990), Las cenizas del tiempo (1994), Chungking Express (1994), Ángeles caídos (1995), Happy Together. Historia de un encuentro (1997), Deseando amar (2000) and 2046 (2004). After Doyle was forced to leave the latter two films due to their extremely long production periods, they have not worked together since.

Wong is wary of discussing his influences and favourite directors, but has stated that he watched a range of films growing up, from Hong Kong genre films to European art films: he took an equal approach to them and was broadly influenced.

His mentor is Patrick Tam.