Intersemiosis in Film: A Metafunctional and Multimodal Exploration of Colour and Sound in the Films of Wong Kar-wai Betty Oi-Kei Pun A thesis submitted to the University of New South Wales In fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Chinese Studies and Department of Linguistics School of Modern Language Studies Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences The University of New South Wales Australia 2005 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed ……………………………………………………………… i Abstract Intersemiosis in Film: A Metafunctional and Multimodal Exploration of Colour and Sound in the Films of Wong Kar-wai This study explores two stylistic features in the films of contemporary Hong Kong film-maker Wong Kar-wai: colour and sound. In particular, it focuses on how transitions in colour palettes (e.g. from a natural colour spectrum to a monochromatic effect of black-and-white) and specific sound resources (such as silence) function as important semiotic resources in the films, even when they appear to create a disjunctive effect. The study draws on two perspectives on communication to explore film. The first is the metafunctional hypothesis of Systemic-Functional Linguistics, which theorises that the communicative dimensions of texts can be explored from three simultaneous ‘macro-functions’: the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual metafunction. The second is multimodal communication, which stresses that multiple semiotic resources are used for meaning-making purposes and that meanings created multimodally are multiplicative in essence. From this theoretical basis the study aims to illuminate two inter-related objectives. First, that the meaning potentials of colour transition and sound are construed and enabled by the co-ordinations of meanings across different co-present semiotic resources – known as intersemiosis in the study. Second, that the semiotic capacities of the two resources can be usefully explored from a functional perspective. Drawing especially the notions of intersemiosis and resemiotisation the study shows that colour transition and sound are multivalent resources in Wong’s films. In other words, their meaning potentials are metafunctionally complex and are never static. The thesis argues that colour transition and sound should not be seen as having ‘a’ meaning, but rather, that it is the semiotic complexities among the co-patterned resources that shape the meaning-making potential of the resources, and in turn, help contribute meaning potentials to the films. ii Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis is a rewarding and challenging journey, and many debts are incurred during the course of the journey. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to the following people who have contributed to the completion of this thesis. First and foremost, my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Dr Louise J. Ravelli and Dr Jon Eugene von Kowallis, for their invaluable advice, encouragement, support and patience. This thesis would not have been possible without their supportive and critical readings of various drafts of the thesis. I am also indebted to Dr Teri Silvio for her insightful advice and guidance in nurturing my intellectual curiosity during the early stage of the thesis. I also owe a special thanks to Professor Philip Bell and Associate Professor Rick Iedema, whose support and helpful input helps me to refine the focus of my thesis. Thanks are also due to the financial support and research facilities that are provided by the School of Modern Language Studies, UNSW. Heartfelt thanks are also due to the following people: to Dr Chris Cleirigh and Dr Maree Stenglin, for their stimulating discussions and ideas in the multimodal discourse workshop; to Emilia Djonov, for her enduring friendship and support, and to Atanas Djonov, for his unfailing patience and generosity with his time (especially during my last mad dash to the finish line in the final stage of the thesis) in helping to prepare the film clips; to Aunty Sandy and Uncle Jeffrey, for their encouragement and many sumptuous meals during periods of tight deadlines; to Chye Hong Lim, for her friendship and generosity, and for keeping motivation with humour, inspirational philosophical musings and many mouth-watering meals; to Benjamin Broad, for his friendship and expertise in the preparation and scanning of diagrams and illustrations; and to Patricia Chung and Florence Yip, for their friendship and help in finding books from Hong Kong. Finally, my sincerest and deepest gratitude to my parents, as this thesis would not have been possible without the support and freedom they have given me to iii pursue my interests. To my father, for the encouragement and belief he gives me, as well as his many words of wisdom about living and learning; to my mother, for the sense of discipline she has instilled in me – without which, I would not have gotten through the enormous task of the thesis in relative calm. iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements....................................................................................................iii List of Figures ..........................................................................................................viii List of Tables...............................................................................................................x Chapter 1 Introduction........................................................................................11 1.1 Orientation.......................................................................................................11 1.2 The work of Wong Kar-wai: An introduction .............................................14 1.2.1 The films of Wong Kar-wai and their characteristics ............................14 1.2.2 Critical discussions of the films of Wong Kar-wai ................................17 1.2.3 Further observations of colour and sound in Wong’s films ...................26 1.2.4 Summary.................................................................................................33 1.3 Objectives and scope of the study..................................................................34 1.4 An overview of the study ................................................................................42 Chapter 2 Theoretical Foundations....................................................................44 2.1 Key principles of Systemic-Functional Linguistic Theory..........................45 2.1.1 Language and text...................................................................................45 2.1.2 Choice and meaning ...............................................................................46 2.1.3 Language and context.............................................................................51 2.1.4 Metafunction...........................................................................................54 2.1.5 Summary of the SFL approach to language ...........................................58 2.2 Theoretical models for non-verbal communication.....................................59 2.2.1 The notion of multimodality...................................................................60 2.2.2 SFL-inspired studies of non-verbal communication ..............................63 2.2.2.1 Metafunctional models for non-verbal semiotic modalities....................63 2.2.2.2 Kress and van Leeuwen’s model of visual analysis ................................65 2.2.3 Summary.................................................................................................77 2.3 Film semiotics and SFL-inspired models of film analysis ...........................77 2.3.1 Semiotics and its influences in film analysis..........................................78 2.3.2 SFL-inspired models for film analysis ...................................................83 2.4 Key analytical concepts from SFL: foregrounding, resemiotisation and cohesion .....................................................................................................................92 2.4.1 Foregrounding ........................................................................................92 2.4.2 Resemiotisation ......................................................................................95 2.4.3 A re-interpretation of the notion of resemiotisation...............................97 2.4.4 Cohesion...............................................................................................102 2.5 Conclusion to Chapter 2...............................................................................106 Chapter 3 Selection and Transcription of Data...............................................109