Joan Chen

“Rouge. This film is so romantic and tragic, and it’s a story of a ghost being stood up in the afterworld and coming back to find the lover that they had made a promise they were going to swallow opium. It’s Anita Mui’s best performance. So beautiful. These two actors are so beautiful. They’re no longer with us, but they are here. Immortality.”

“Mulholland Dr. And of course, I also worked with David Lynch, and I love his dreamy, atmospheric, complex way of telling this narrative, never straightforward, and you can’t explain a David Lynch film at all because you have to watch it, because it’s cinema. Yeah. So great.”

“Body Heat. I just arrived in the United States in 1981, when this came out, and this was, like, the first film that I saw in the United States, and I was absolutely shocked. I came from a communist system and we were a culture of hero-worshipping. And when I saw this, I was like, “What? You can make a film of such morally dubious characters?” I mean, Florida, the subtropical, kind of humid, it’s, like, part of the decay, part of the corruption. And first time in a film: Kathleen Turner, so hot.”

“Kieślowski, Three Colors. I think I watched Blue, like, five to ten times. It’s, like, my film school. The grief, the blue that represented an emotion and feeling. I remember the chandeliers, The Swimming Pool. It’s a difficult way to tell a story because you’re telling an inner world. And he externalized it just so perfectly. And, of course, also there is Red. Warmer, much warmer, the connectedness between people, compassion, and also something whimsical, of a retired judge.”

“World of Wong Kar Wai. And he’s really my favorite director, my favorite Chinese director. I will just say my favorites: Days of Being Wild. I remember the last shot so well, that probably has nothing to do with the film, but it’s absolutely unforgettable. Indelible. And then Chungking Express. I loved Chungking Express. In Chinese, Chungking Express is actually Chungking Forest. So it’s that urban jungle, that loneliness, isolation, and longing to connect. Again, so atmospheric, so beautiful.”