The New York Times has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/26/magazine/26KARWAI.html?pagewanted=print">a long article</a> (<a href="http://msittig.freeshell.org/articles/NYT_2046.html" title="Freeshell archives.">archived</a>) on the making of Wong Kar Wai's latest movie, <span class="movie title">2046</span> .  There was a big gala for this movie in Shanghai last week, after which Wang Faye and Tony Leung rode in an older model car in <a href="http://msittig.wubi.org/photos/2004/09/SiemensMC60/0101_033514.jpg" title="A picture of the parade from my phone.">a big parade</a> downtown.  I like that the review mentions Haruki Murakami; hopefully he'll get more attention as more people come to read his books.  <a class="book title" href="http://msittig.wubi.org/photos/2004/09/ArrivalInShanghai/DSCF1914.JPG" title="A photo of me with the book.">Kafka on the Shore</a> is coming along slowly but surely...

<quote>[His movies'] witty invention, color-drenched visuals and romantic longing offer the kind of bittersweet satisfaction found in the fiction of Haruki Murakami or the photographs of William Gedney, about whose subjects John Cage once said, ''They seem to be doing happy things sadly, or maybe they're doing sad things happily.'' 
</quote>

<span class="movie title">2046</span> opens this week in Shanghai.  Tickets <a href="http://www.tickets.com.cn/ticketing/searchtickets.asp?search_type=V1&searchway=1&keyword=2046">start at 32 RMB</a>.