One City, Two Stories, Endless Melancholy: Chungking Express

Chungking Express is one of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai’s most iconic films. With its post-modern narrative, experimental visual style and universal themes, it has become an important part of 90s cinema. The film is made up of two loosely connected stories, telling the intersecting lives of the characters around themes of loneliness, love, time and hope.

The movie is divided into two parts telling the story of two different policemen:

First Story: Cop 223 (Brigitte Lin & Takeshi Kaneshiro)

• He Qiwu (Cop 223), after breaking up with his girlfriend, believes that she will come back by May 1 (30 days). He always buys canned pineapple, his girlfriend’s favorite.
• A mysterious blonde woman (Brigitte Lin) is a dangerous criminal who smuggles drugs. Coincidentally, she meets Qiwu in a bar.
  
• Theme: Hope and loneliness. Qiwu waits for the passage of a date filled with canned pineapples, while the woman is on the run.

Second Story Cop 663 (Tony Leung & Faye Wong)

• Cop 663 is disappointed when his stewardess girlfriend leaves him.
• Faye is a young woman who works in a fast-food shop. She sneaks into 663’s house and changes his belongings to show that she is in love with him.
• Theme: Melancholy and the desire to start over. Faye dancing to “California Dreamin’” symbolizes the desire for escape and freedom.

Time and Waiting

• Qiwu’s counting down to May 1st, Cop 663’s obsession with the sounds of airplanes, Faye’s purchase of an undated ticket are all indications that the characters are both racing against time and at the same time trying to freeze it. Again, the repetitive clock images represent a resistance against the flow of time.

The characters are lonely even in the crowded streets of Hong Kong. The director portrays the loneliness and alienation in the crowd quite well. Windows, doors, telephone booths decorate the subtext of the movie as symbols of miscommunication.

The Meaning of Things

• Pineapple cans → Qiwu’s attempt to hold on to the past.
• Airplanes → Cop 663’s lover’s profession and the image of escape.
• California Dreamin’→ Faye’s quest for freedom.

It is hard not to admire Christopher Doyle’s cinematography:
With fuzzy shots, moving camera, neon lights, he brings us into the complex worlds of the characters. He also manages to convey melancholy and passion with frequent green and red tones. One admires the way Wong Kar-wai reflects the complex inner world of the characters.

Soundtrack:

“California Dreamin’” (The Mamas & The Papas) → reflects Faye’s mood.
“Things in Life” (Denise Ho) → a sad background.

Impacts

• Quentin Tarantino took over the US distribution of the film and contributed to its popularization.
• It became one of the most influential films of 90s Hong Kong cinema.
• It has a place in the history of cinema as a poetic expression of love and loneliness.

Chungking Express offers the audience a poetic journey through the world of “lost” characters.Wong Kar-wai rejects the traditional narrative and makes the audience a partner in the emotional turmoil of the characters.

Do you think Faye had the right to enter Cop 663’s house and change his life?

Score: ★★★★★ (5/5)

IMdb: 7.9/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109424/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk