Read by Wong Kar Wai
What books does Wong Kar Wai recommend?
The Wong Kar Wai book recommendations here belong to the Cannes-winning Hong Kong filmmaker behind In the Mood for Love, whose atmospheric cinema and fragmented narratives often echo the novels he loves. Sixteen titles are drawn from interview collections such as WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai and Wong Kar Wai: Interviews, plus conversations tied to specific films. Fiction and literature dominate, with strands of psychology, philosophy and history. His signature pick is Manuel Puig's Heartbreak Tango, whose non-chronological structure he compares to pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a technique that shaped his own storytelling. He credits Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch as the source of a structural technique in In the Mood for Love, and calls Yasunari Kawabata his favorite Japanese writer. Wong also authored one book here, the interview-and-image volume WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai.
Last updated January 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
Heartbreak Tango
A Serial
byManuel Puig
1973224 Pages“In Heartbreak Tango, Puig tells the stories through different characters' point of view, and it's not in chronological order. They may seem random, but they're like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai (Interview with John Powers)
Read by Wong Kar Wai
Blossoms
Fan Hua
byJin Yucheng
2013444 Pages“This book is the story of my brother and sister.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Sixth Tone / Interview regarding the adaptation of 'Blossoms Shanghai'
Read by Wong Kar Wai
byTennessee Williams
2004208 Pages“What I like about Williams is that he is raw. His works can be angry, desperate, but they are never cold. You can feel the heat, the pain, the wisdom. I don't like things crystal clear.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai (Interview with John Powers)
byAlbert Camus
1989144 Pages“This book resonates with me immensely. In fact, in real life, I feel like I'm living through many scenes in the book.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Wong Kar Wai: Interviews (edited by Silver Wai-ming Lee)
byGabriel García Márquez
1985368 Pages“The character Yuddy [in Days of Being Wild] was like the cholera—the epidemic that changes the course of the two women's lives.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Moving Image Pinewood Dialogues
Read by Wong Kar Wai
The Physiology of Taste
Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy
byJean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
1825384 Pages(12,350)
“I proposed a triptych as I'd been reading Brillat-Savarin's The Physiology of Taste – 'Tell me what you eat, I'll tell you who you are.'”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: BFI Sight & Sound interview, May 2025 (Reflecting on In the Mood for Love)
Read by Wong Kar Wai
byLawrence Block
1982352 Pages“Tony Leung and the character [Matthew Scudder] possess great similarities.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Interview with Lawrence Block regarding My Blueberry Nights collaboration
Read by Wong Kar Wai
byYasunari Kawabata
1996192 Pages(41,487)
“Kawabata is my favorite Japanese writer. I want to read specifically 'Snow Country' and 'The House of Sleeping Beauties'...”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Wong Kar Wai: Interviews (edited by Silver Wai-ming Lee)
Read by Wong Kar Wai, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ralph Lauren and 5 others
byF. Scott Fitzgerald
2004180 Pages(4,896,000)
Source: Cited as a major influence and structural reference for his films by John Powers and critics
Read by Wong Kar Wai
Hopscotch
A Novel
byJulio Cortázar
1987576 Pages“It's a technique I learned from Julio Cortazar, who always has this kind of structure.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Interview regarding the structure of 'In the Mood for Love'
byHaruki Murakami
2000320 Pages“Haruki Murakami was very popular in Hong Kong then... I thought it would be funny to have voice-overs written in Murakami style.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Wong Kar Wai: Interviews
Read by Wong Kar Wai
Where I'm Calling From
New and Selected Stories
byRaymond Carver
1989544 Pages(22,276)
“Now I'm quite interested in Raymond Carver.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Wong Kar Wai: Interviews
Read by Wong Kar Wai
The Legend of the Condor Heroes
A Hero Born
byJin Yong
2020432 Pages“I wanted to take the characters of Jin Yong and imagine their lives before the events of the novel.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Press materials for 'Ashes of Time' (an adaptation/prequel to the novel)
Read by Wong Kar Wai
byOsamu Dazai
1948176 Pages“I like Dazai a lot.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Wong Kar Wai: Interviews
Read by Wong Kar Wai, Chip Wilson, Steven Spielberg and 1 others
byJohn Steinbeck
2002464 Pages“Beginning with John Steinbeck – 'The Grapes of Wrath', 'Of Mice and Men' – to F. Scott Fitzgerald...”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Interview (The Vibes/Paris Film Awards) mentioning study of Steinbeck
Read by Wong Kar Wai
The Buenos Aires Affair
A Detective Novel
byManuel Puig
1973219 Pages“The film Happy Together's Chinese title shares its name with this Puig novel; it was my tribute to Latin American writers.”
— Wong Kar Wai
Source: Interview explaining the Chinese title of 'Happy Together'
Also recommends books in
Frequently asked questions
What books does Wong Kar Wai recommend?
His 16 recommendations include Heartbreak Tango by Manuel Puig, Jin Yucheng's Blossoms, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, Camus's The Stranger, and Kawabata's Snow Country, drawing on Latin American, European and Japanese fiction that shaped his cinema.
What is Wong Kar Wai's favorite book?
Wong points to Manuel Puig's Heartbreak Tango, praising how Puig tells stories through different characters' points of view and out of chronological order, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, an approach that influenced his films.
How do books influence Wong Kar Wai's films?
He credits Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch with a structural technique used in In the Mood for Love, adapted Jin Yong's The Legend of the Condor Heroes into Ashes of Time, and named Happy Together after Puig's The Buenos Aires Affair as a tribute to Latin American writers.
Where do Wong Kar Wai's book recommendations come from?
They come from interview collections including WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai and Wong Kar Wai: Interviews, plus interviews with outlets such as Sixth Tone and BFI Sight & Sound tied to individual films.
Has Wong Kar Wai written a book?
Yes. He is credited with WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai, a 2016 volume built around interviews and imagery that documents his filmmaking, his literary influences, and the atmosphere behind films like In the Mood for Love.
All 16 Books Wong Kar Wai Has Recommended
- Heartbreak Tango · Manuel Puig
- Blossoms · Jin Yucheng
- A Streetcar Named Desire · Tennessee Williams
- The Stranger · Albert Camus
- Love in the Time of Cholera · Gabriel García Márquez
- The Physiology of Taste · Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
- Eight Million Ways to Die · Lawrence Block
- Snow Country · Yasunari Kawabata
- The Great Gatsby · F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Hopscotch · Julio Cortázar
- Norwegian Wood · Haruki Murakami
- Where I'm Calling From · Raymond Carver
- The Legend of the Condor Heroes · Jin Yong
- No Longer Human · Osamu Dazai
- The Grapes of Wrath · John Steinbeck
- The Buenos Aires Affair · Manuel Puig