Watch: Wong Kar-Wai's Charles Bukowski Inspired Ad For Shu Uemura Cosmetics

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by Kevin Jagernauth
December 14, 2011 12:00 PM
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While Wong Kar-Wai is no stranger to directing commericals, having helmed spots for brands as diverse as Motorola, BMW, Orange France, Lancome Paris and Dior, we have to say even this is a bit of a surprise. Granted, this has been in the works for a while but it's the first we've heard of it; Wong Kar-Wai has teamed with comestics company Shu Uemura on a Christmas collection of products, featuring heavily on the colors blue and red.

To help get the word out, he's directed an ad for the commercial entitled "The Mask," which boasts Charles Bukowski's "Burning In Water, Drowning In Flames" as an inspiration point. "This poem by Charles Bukowski is a paradox. My film explores this contradiction of passion. I thought that the contrast of red and blue, which reflects the opposition between the hot and cold, was ideal," he explained about the ties between the beat poet and his cosmetics ad.

Relatively unknown actress Sandrine Pinna is the face of the campaign, which Wong Kar-Wai was asked to do during the film of "The Grandmasters." Speaking of that project, we haven't heard anything about it in months, but with Cannes around the corner we certainly hope we're not too far away from seeing it. Until then, you can watch "The Mask" below. [Smartypanties/WongKarWai]

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Wendy | December 14, 2011 8:08 PMReply

Sandrine Pinna is actually very well-known in Taiwanese media. She did a film called "Yang Yang" a couple years back, and it got selected at various world film fests. http://asianmediawiki.com/Yang_Yang