Michelle vs Blondie

• How is the soundtrack post-modern?

  A version of 'forget him' sung by Shirley Kwan is a reworking, it is one of the very few contemporary Cantopop songs ever used by WKW.

  The song is used as a message from the hitman to the agent.
• WKW soaks our introduction to manic pixie dream girl 'Blondie' in the theme of unrequited love, through the red glow in breakup of the Killer and the Agent to the performance of excessive attraction with Blondie.

  The western influences on HK film industry in 1995 were huge on directors from the HK second new wave.
• Begins with mirroring shots placing Wong and Michelle both in the same seat at the bar: yet this stands as their only similarity, in this communication of their break up utilizing mirroring shots and music
• Slow zoom on Wong soaked in the red light of the bar (red connoting sacrifice and love) zooming of his reflection in the mirror as his intradiegetic VO details his playing of Michelle's emotions,, 'leaving her clues', a clear example of this WKW theme of unrequited love playing out.

  As the VO cuts out and his diegetic voice tells the bartender to give M the coin, corrupt value of relationship, the camera crabs out of the reflection onto the real Wong, highlighting his dual identity
• WKW uses Wong to explore the transiency of romance: 'but everything must come to an end', a fatalist ideology.
• WKW favourite method of communication is through music.

  '1818' = 'forget him'
• Mirroring zoom of Michelle is filtered in B&W, expertly (technical competence / interior meaning = Andrew Sarris auteur theory) visually communicating the melancholic sadness she is drenched in: the sadness of unrequited love.

  Performance: dropping her head, her slow movements juxtaposing Blondies erratic movements: the song connecting the old (Michelle) and the new (Blondie) together
• L cut into a MLS ground level centre framing Wong entering the McDonalds: conveniently its bold neon yellow and orange colour pallet conform to the MTV aesthetic / WKW aesthetic as a western influences.
• Christopher Doyle's handheld camera swoops around, following Blondie, a ecstatic, manic pixie dream girl with orange / pink blonde dyed hair reminiscent of western culture's influences on HK second new wave: Frenchie from Grease 1978

  Diegetic 'forget him' playing in the back communicating Wong's inability to love
• Camera arc reveals the desolate McDonalds, before lingering in a canted HA 'close but far' enhancing the awkwardness of the interaction.

  This two shot reveals Blondies' binary opposition to the killer, but even her over-the-top bravado is a mask of her underlying anxieties of never finding love.
• Blondie identity is blurred with the other mentioned 'blondies' in the film: the 'blonde' identity is applied to multiple characteristics: the manic pixie dream girl, Ho as his hair begins to turn blonde when he is in love with Charlie and the elusive 'blondie' charlie searches for, much like the other women in the restaurant.
• Blondie has no internal dialogue, she differs from everyone else, her erratic, loud and annoying personality stands out in a sea of characters with minimal dialogue. Yet we learn an equal amount about her due to her vulnerability: she is the one character who can communicate, the lack of communication drives the struggles in the film.

  
  

  In SRS when commenting 'we used to date, i had long hair, you called me baby' revealing that she has based her entire appearance on his opinion, WKW connects relationships and identity.
• WKW crosscuts between Wong fulfilling his desire of 'company' with Blondie and a uncomfortable MS from her feet, and then HA CU of Michelle on his bed masturbating and sobbing, heartbroken, it is as though she can visualise him in bed another woman even as she still tries desperately to get off on the thought that he's thinking of her while sleeping with Blondie.
• Voyeuristic HA MS of Michelle lying on Wong's bed in agony and ecstasy, she wears a plastic sheath over her silk dress, clashing a modern, Westernized accessory with classical Chinese clothing but also conveying how she has encased her sensuality.