Color schemes and the different apartments/houses

I'm not trained in this, but I've developed an interest in color and prop choices after working with a lot of students writing film analysis papers. I noticed a few things and wondered what others might add:

* Jim--both his clothing and his home and restaurant--often appears in shades of orange or tan, which mirrors the color of the chicken he serves. His home has a lot of natural wood and other textures you would expect in an older community. The lighting is dim but warm and yellow. Any decorations on the walls look old and are mostly of people (antique-looking paintings or old photographs). It feels more organic and homey

* Wen--wears blue and his apartment has a lot of shades of blue with some pops of orange (most notably to me on the bed, although Jim's bedspread is also blue, unlike the rest of his house.) Wen's home has faces everywhere: graphic images on the walls, shapes that look like eyeballs, horse heads, a lot of square and rectangular lines. It's darker, less natural light. The electrical appliances stand out

* The police officer's family home is black and white and has a lot of curved/semi-circle motifs: the pot that the plant is in, the pattern of the tablecloth, the way the family members are dressed, the ivory tusks

*In part 4, when we see Wen out at night, he's wearing a striped polo shirt with tan and blue lines

Just interesting stuff to me. : )

I did notice the color, and I thought it was very "Thai" - use of contrasting but complimentary colors like in traditional clothing - the outfit on the left in the linked photo is very similar to the colors you were mentioning. It's not just the orange tones, but how beautifully they went with the silver-blues.  Check the opening scene in the diner and you can see how much blue is introduced, largely by lighting, but also clothing. Or it's the reverse in the car incident scene in Ep 2, with the silver blue predominant and orange accents. And you really can't miss it when they sit on the stairs at the end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Thai_clothing#/media/File:Siam_traditional_clothes.jpg

It would never even occur to me to put the colors in man's outfit in the middle of the photo together, but it works perfectly. The women's outfits are stunning - a women could attend a modern Western event dressed like that and she'd be the center of attention. 

Anyway, maybe the point is the colors are contrasting but complimentary and belong together - a metaphor.

After reading this, I wanted to add that every time Jim and Wen are together (at least during night time), there's always blue and orange light and now I realize it adds up to what you said.

 whoopsydaisy:

I also noticed this, but I thought that the blue was "Moonlight" and the tan was "Chicken" to make the title

I guess that's possible, but does chicken really merit color symbolism? The moon, sure. My take is that it's because the colors contrast and yet go well together, like Jim and Wen. On my screen it was much more orange than tan.