THE MASTER OF light and shade he may be - but he's the master of shades, too. Wong Kar-wai never steps into the public arena without his prescription sunglasses, refusing to take them off even when indoors. With his eyes hidden from view, it's sometimes impossible to tell where he's looking, what he's thinking or whether he's finished answering a question after one of his customary pauses.
Many rumours have circulated about why Wong hides his eyes. Some say he suffers from a rare disorder and is ultra-sensitive to light - although the sensual, luminous colours of his films would suggest otherwise. Others says it's vanity - an attempt to look like the chain-smoking characters who populate his movies. Or maybe he simply dislikes being interviewed.
The truth is more down to earth, derived out of a basic need for privacy: they're his disguise. 'I have no problem with the press - I give interviews all the time. Sunglasses are like a uniform for me,' says Wong, smoking his umpteenth cigarette. 'I don't have a name card, so I have glasses. Without these sunglasses, people don't recognise me. That way I can have more privacy with my family when I don't wear them. Some people do things in opposite ways.'
Although his films are filled with tragic types suffocated by romantic longing, Wong in person is cheerful, to the point of being playful. And although he imposes a dimmed view of the world on his eyes when facing reporters - as he does on the day he's at Taikoo's UA Cinema, promoting his part in Eros, a directorial menage a trois with Steven Soderberg and Michelangelo Antonioni about erotic love - it's what his eyes see through the camera that the world is clamouring for.
Since his 1989 debut, As Tears Go By, Wong has become one of the world's most distinctive and sought-after directors. The success of Days of Being Wild, Ashes of Time, Chungking Express and Happy Together (the last of which won him the best director prize at Cannes in 1997) has led to him being dubbed 'the most imitated filmmaker in Hong Kong'. But his influence extends beyond the region, with familiar Wong tropes popping up in the works of directors as diverse as Spike Jonze, Cameron Crowe and Sam Raimi.
The long-awaited 2046 was released last year to a mixed reception in Asia, but was greeted as a masterpiece elsewhere. When you can deliver an unfinished version of your film to the Cannes Film Festival and still leave critics claiming you're worthy of a prize, you must be doing something right.