HONG KONG -- Wong Kar Wai as advertising director.

An interesting concept, since he's best known for a meandering creative vision that includes a free-form shooting style and the lack of scripted scenarios.

But Wong can do corporate, evident by his growing portfolio of advertisements.

His most recent project was with Christian Dior's John Galliano for a new Dior spot starring Eva Green.

Wong's side career filming commercials launched in 1997 when he was approached by Japanese advertising agency Dentsu to shoot a short film.

"Little did I know that short film ended up being used as a commercial," Wong says via email.

Since then, Wong has filmed spots for such diverse companies as BMW, Lacoste, Motorola and now Lancome's new Hypnose Homme fragrance, which stars Clive Owen, who also starred in the BMW spot.

"I had a good time working with Clive on the BMW ad, so when this new opportunity (with Lancome) came up, I gladly accepted the offer," Wong says.

The BMW clip was the third in a series of eight that were filmed for an Internet campaign by a high-profile group of helmers: John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, John Woo and Joe Carnahan.

The series, which was a hit with 100 million views on the Internet, was produced by Anonymous Content and RSA. Despite his feature storytelling style, the shorter form of ads wasn't too far of a stretch for the helmer.

"Obviously, I'm not very conscious about my style," Wong says. "I just react to the material and let my instincts guide my artistic judgment."

Wong's company, Jet Tone, also has an advertising division which specializes in producing commercials as well as repping top commercial directors in Asia.

© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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