The Ending

• Wide angle shot distorting Michelle, lighting dominated by a surreal blue with green accents creating a cold, dead environment reflected in her appearance, her hair pushed to the side reflecting her loss of external confidence and desire to care.
• Michelle's intra-diegetic VO narration 'this winter seems to be much longer than usual' bringing a sad realisation that those who dream of a fairy tale ending often end without one.

  Loners, drifters and outcasts of Hong Kong are the protagonists yet each character is seeking warmth from one another: and that is what forges their paths to cross, 'i eat a lot but i am still very cold.'
• The mis en scene of a cigarette, noodles and her shaking create a 'natural pause' that WKW believes smoking contribute to, a hazy, transient and fleeting feeling that is love.
• Michelle occupies the right third of the frame, deep depth of field (realist used in an experimental way) whilst violence breaks out highlights she is unfazed - she is a prime example of the loneliness and solitude of FA, living in a state of dreaminess, and trapped in her own solitude.

  WKW utilizing neo-noir genre codes of violence + Michelle's performance.
• Breaking 180* rule camera cuts to shaky handheld HA CU crabbing upwards with Ho's movements as he sits behind Michelle.

  He is bloodied by the fight, his lighting of a cigarette mirrors Michelle's smoking in them both seeking warmth, the cause of their diverging paths as M breaks from her robotic spell when realising he is there.
• The experimental filmmaking of overlapping narratives reflects WKW's belief that the lonely people always manage to find one another. His intradiegetic VO supports Michelle's 'cold' feeling without Wong, 'she gave me a warm feeling' there is a shared search for for connection amongst the lonely, and it moves the narrative forward to when they meet.
• WKW uses an ECU on Michelle slowly turning her head, acknowledging Ho’s presence before mirroring this with Ho doing the same thing.

  Cut to centre framed MCU, she brings her fringe back to the front of her face (male gaze)
• In ECU of Michelle, non-diegetic ‘Only You’ begins, continuing in an L-cut to the end expresses hope ('I'm feeling such lovely warmth') as the remaining protagonists find a chance to escape from the perpetual night in their shared loss, even if 'the road isn't that long, and I know I'm getting off soon' like Michelle says.
• Sped up ELS jump cutting as the pair traverse HK on motorbike, the decreased frame rate blurring the neon signs manipulating the appearance of time reflecting postmodernism's instability and blurring HK's struggling identity (of the 90s) through the city lights
• The canted ECU push back into a MCU two shot as M rests her head on Ho's shoulder, they have learned to accept the ephemeral nature of life for a possible romance.

  Her intradiegetic VO "I haven't ridden a motorcycle for a long time," confides in the audience
• Ho exhales a puff of cigarette smoke, and the camera tilts, pushing outwards following this visualization of the drifting dissipation of life, Doyle camera lingers on a skyscraper in the frame, contemplating its future as well - historical context of the handover

  As the smoke drifts out of frame this impermanence of life is built.
• Experimental narrative with the open ending, leaves audience to resonate with the temporary, fleeting nature of their relationships and life through narrative, cinematography and sound