Splicing

Chapter 1 demonstrates Wong Kar-wai’s ability to reinvent an old tune by tracing the history of the Latin song “Perfidia,” both before and after its appropriation in Days of Being Wild (1990). The chapter considers first the use of music as a vehicle in the creation of a realistic setting in a variety of film genres. Having placed Days of Being Wild in the context of nostalgia cinema, the chapter also maps the role of music in creating an ambiguity between realistic storytelling and mythography. To elucidate Wong’s retooling of “Perfidia,” various theories of borrowing, sampling, and citation are surveyed (and critiqued). The chapter ends with an extended reflection on Michel de Certeau’s understanding of everyday bricolage by way of framing a new theory of synchronization in film.