Buckland-Warren-Puzzle-Films-Complex-Storytelling-Contemporary-Cinema

8Happy Together? Generic Hybridityin 2046 and In the Mood for LoveGary BettinsonIn this chapter I argue that adventurous storytelling in Wong Kar-wai’s 2046(2004) and In the Mood for Love (2000) arises predominantly out of an elaborateengagement with popular genre. I begin by arguing that narrationalploys in 2046 act self-consciously to disorient and misdirect the viewer:the film’s ambiguous combination of melodrama and science fictiondraws the viewer into errors of comprehension. Later I suggest that In theMood for Love discreetly meshes together two disparate genres, resultingin a narration shot through with story gaps, unreliable cues, and retardations.I go on to sketch the ways in which both films alight upon a conventionof melodrama, arguing that 2046 – a putative sequel to In the Moodfor Love – cannot justify its complex generic strategies to the same degreeas its more celebrated predecessor. Finally, I identify Wong’s generictactics in terms of a fundamental cinephilia, and point to what I suggestare the most pertinent and proximate contexts for Wong’s generic andnarrational experimentation.Storytelling in both films is seldom gratuitously complex. Typically anobliquely staged action or a story ellipsis will be motivated by textual elements;often the unorthodox device will execute narrative functions, retarding,advancing, or providing commentary upon story action. I try to showthat In the Mood for Love and 2046 justify even their most idiosyncraticnarrational maneuvers by generic or compositional devices of motivation.The chapter also attempts to characterize the narrative functions performedby such maneuvers, along with the particular effects they engender.Changing Minds: Complex Narration in 2046At the beginning of 2046, Tak (Takuya Kimura) is traveling on a traindeparting from the year 2046, a year which attracts time-travelers who seek