One strand of auteur theory, as Graeme Turner explains, concerns identifying a director's visual style (Turner 44). When it comes to talking about the visual styles of Asian directors, especially in the context of Hong Kong cinema, one name that immediately comes to mind would be none other than Wong Kar-wai. Any student of Asian cinema is likely familiar with its seminal works. Wong Kar-wai is considered “the very last auteur from the second wave” of Hong Kong cinema (Teo 193). His passion for stylistic cinema and his pursuit of cinematic art have earned him recognition as a Hong Kong auteur. His status as an auteur stems from the distinctive visual style and individualistic visions evident in his films. Besides directing, Wong Kar-wai also writes screenplays for his own films. This gives him almost complete control over the entire film production and reinforces his authorship. He is famous for shooting without a script, improvising the narrative as he makes the films. With all of his films classified as independent arthouses and unlike Hong Kong's many commercial products, Wong Kar-wai stands out from other directors (Stokes 186). In this essay, I will examine and discuss how film critics and scholars such as Stephen Teo, David Bordwell and others have spoken about his visual style, in relation to one of his many award-winning films, Chungking Express (1994).Chungking Express marked Wong Kar-wai's major breakthrough on the international film scene and remains one of his most memorable, if not the best, works of his film career. American director and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino convinced his distributor, Miramax, to buy the rights to Chungking Express for...... middle of paper ...... Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. The art of cinema: an introduction. 5th ed. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1997. Bordwell, David. Planet Hong Kong. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000. Chungking Express. Real. Wong Kar-wai. Jet Tone Production, 1994. Fu, Poshek and David Desser, eds. Hong Kong cinema. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Hayward, Susan. Key Concepts in Film Studies. London: Routledge, 1996. Stokes, Lisa and Michael Hoover. City on Fire: Hong Kong Cinema. London: Verso, 1999. Teo, Stephen. Hong Kong Cinema: Extra Dimensions. London: British Film Institute, 1997. Turner, Graeme. Cinema as a social practice. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 1999. Wollen, Peter. Signs and meaning in cinema. London: Secker and Warburg in association with the British Film Institute, 1972.