Introduction to Ho

• The Mute is an intertextual reference to Chungking Express, his storyline was supposed to be in, yet due to Wong's on set writing style he ran out of time, Ho's 'after eating expired can of pineapples i never spoke again.' metaphor for trauma?
• MS, frame within a frame introduces third protagonist Ho Zhiwu (the mute) smoking in the toilet.

  Cutting to a handheld, invasive HA again using his intradiegetic voice over to allow the audience to gain subjective access, we learn that he is an ex-convict ‘my prison number is 223’
• The neon green lighting submerging the apartment is a WKW auteur technique.
• He Zhiwu has playful inability to take life seriously: he makes a living breaking into businesses in nocturnal Hong Kong and selling their goods and services for his own profit.

  This is also read through his costuming: tight baby tees, baggy jeans and pops of colour connote his childlike nature.
• He's costuming arc reflects WKW comment on a loss of identity through relationships: his hair began to turn blonde when with Charlie: he begins to conform to what he believes she wants, and their breakup and the death of his father turned his tight tees loose paired with jackets.
• Quick paced montage, (non-linear / fragmented narrative) flashes back with mugshot photography, using the flashes to transition as Ho messes with the photographer

  Reflection of postmodern through this fragmented narrative, as well as introduces another unconventional character

  He just wants to be socially accepted - yet goes about it wrong
• L-Cut with Chinese score ‘What A Lovely Night’ as Ho traverses through HK tunnels on his motorbike: the LA tracking shot and bike POV of nocturnal HK is empty and isolated: WKW dreams HK landscape
• Ho breaks the fourth wall in a handheld canted angle holding a cigarette in his hand, as he demonstrates to the audience how he cuts the meat: taking on the persona of a butcher: WKW showing shifting identities and the performative nature to HK, and the commercialism of HK cinema that the 2nd new wave aims to break away from
• Ho's intradiegetic monologue shows that since he fails to communicate and connect with others through speech, he attempts to have meaningful conversations with himself: or the camera.
• WKW stretches the boundaries of weirdness in cinema - HK second new wave making films for entertainment rather than commercialism.

  In the LA canted LS with pig carcass Doyle (cinematographer) captures a potential sense of sexual frustration through these amusing and wrenching visual metaphors.

  It also furthers his loss of childhood + isolation since his enjoyment comes from socialising with a dead animal
• The camera floats around He Zhiwu, creating a dramatic feel and a sense of madness as we watch this intimate moment between a boy and a pig. Through this scene, WKW stretches his theme of invading personal space into the audience.
• The warm, orange tone of the lighting connotes his ‘happiness’, that he says he has despite not making a lot of money.