Some directors are best approached through their biggest film. Wong Kar-wai is not one of them. His cinema is a mood before it is a story: neon rain, slow-motion steps, a song played until it becomes a memory. The films are better when you meet the mood gently, and in an order that lets it build.

Here is the order we would suggest, and why.

1. Start with Chungking Express

1994 · 8.0 TMDBChungking ExpressTwo melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant.

The friendliest door. Two short stories about lonely Hong Kong policemen, told at a run, with jokes, pop songs and an energy that feels almost improvised. If you like this, you will like the rest. If you do not, you have lost an hour and forty minutes and gained a very good soundtrack.

2. Then In the Mood for Love

2000 · 8.1 TMDBIn the Mood for LoveIn 1960s Hong Kong, two neighbors form an intimate bond after making a discovery about their spouses in this visually stunning tale of unrequited love.

The one everyone names. Hong Kong in 1962, two neighbours, and a love story built almost entirely from things left unsaid. Tony Leung won Best Actor at Cannes for it in 2000. It rewards patience: watch it once for the look, and again for the restraint.

3. Happy Together

1997 · 7.6 TMDBHappy TogetherA couple travels from Hong Kong to Argentina to revive their relationship but experience turbulence when both men's lives drift in separate directions.

A change of scenery and a change of temperature. A couple falls apart in Buenos Aires, and the film feels rougher and more exposed than its neighbours. Wong won Best Director at Cannes in 1997 for it.

4. Days of Being Wild

1990 · 7.3 TMDBDays of Being WildYuddy, a Hong Kong playboy known for breaking girls' hearts, tries to find solace and truth after discovering the woman who raised him isn't his mother.

Where the signature style really begins. It is often grouped with In the Mood for Love and 2046 as an unofficial trilogy about longing across the 1960s. You do not need to see it first, but it makes the later films richer.

5. Fallen Angels

1995 · 7.7 TMDBFallen AngelsAn indifferent hitman, his infatuated business partner and an ex-convict search for love and meaning as their lives cross paths in Hong Kong.

A sibling to Chungking Express, darker and more stylised, full of wide lenses and late nights. Watch it when you want the visuals turned up.

6. 2046

2004 · 7.2 TMDB2046Women enter and exit a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years after the author loses the woman he considers his one true love.

A sequel of sorts to In the Mood for Love, and a more complicated, more science-fictional film. Save it for after you are already in love with the rest.

Then, if you want more

A few practical notes. Watch these at night, and on the biggest screen you can. Do not watch them while looking at your phone; the films are built from small gestures. And keep a note of which one you liked best: it usually says more about you than about the director.

Log them as you go on your film diary, or collect them in a list of your own from any film page with Add to a list. When you are done, the best romance films of all time and the shelf of Japanese cinema are good places to go next.