Apocalypses and Ruins: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Cormac McCarthy's novel, The Road, and Wong Kar-wai's film, In the Mood for Love, in an attempt to compare Eastern and Western societies. The comparison between the novel and the film – each a product (and a reflection) of Western and Eastern cultures, respectively – should also be traced to the dystopian element of the narrations, conceived as a study of the concept of "otherness": namely, the hypothetical transcendence of one's own cultural limits.

This comparative approach aims to connect two seemingly different plots: the novel is apocalyptic science fiction, the film a love story. The common ground between the two pieces and the connection point to dwell upon, however, is the contemplation of ruin: lingering on the contemplation of the downfall, in both works diverts from the core of their narrative. With the space-time continuum thus blocked, a parallel and split reality forms.