Presentation Schedule
Spectrality and Object Agency in Chungking Express (103603)
Session Chair: Jiwon Ahn
This presentation will be live-streamed via Zoom (Online Access)
Wednesday, 13 May 2026 12:55
Session: Session 2
Room: Live-Stream Room 5
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
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This paper offers a new interpretation of Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's film Chungking Express, arguing that the human characters function as ghosts or specters and that the agency of non-human objects is essential for understanding the film. The analysis applies an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, including Spectrality Studies, Actor-Network Theory (ANT), and Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), and addresses the methodological tensions and compatibilities among these approaches. The study conducts textual analysis of key sequences, dialogue, visual strategies, and spatiotemporal structures to demonstrate how Chungking Express challenges conventional notions of existence, identity, and agency by blurring the boundaries between animate and inanimate entities. Interpreting the film's protagonists as spectral figures and attributing agency to non-human objects, Chungking Express offers a perspective on urban alienation that departs from established cinematic conventions. This interpretation contributes to the understanding of Wong's cinematic methods and advances theoretical discussions of spectrality and posthumanism in contemporary cinema.
Authors:
Zoran Poposki, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Zoran Poposki is Associate Head at the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, The Education University of Hong Kong, China.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule
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