Upon doing some reading on this film, I noted an interesting and rather under-reported fact. The film’s title (Cheun gwong tsa sit in Cantonese, Chunguang zhaxie in Mandarin) loosely translates as The Light of Spring, which (according to Sheldon Lu) was the Chinese title for Antonioni’s Blow-Up when it was released in Hong Kong. Lu doesn’t offer much speculation on the provenance of this title, other than the fact that Antonioni’s film is based on a story by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar. I would suggest that the word “light” is significant, as so much of Wong’s (and Doyle’s) work seems to be obsessed with the qualities of different light sources, especially natural light versus fluorescence. Beyond that, it strikes me as a rather empty reference, and I much prefer the ironic-unironic English title, even if I don’t like the song very much.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Kino Video DVD
03 Apr 2005 2:54 PM | Submit Comment
