Chungking Express (1994)
A review of Wong Kar Wai’s 1994 film Chungking Express.
I will forever die on this hill that Chungking Express is the best film that Wong Kar Wai has ever made. And it’s not because this was my first Wong Kar Wai film, and I remember seeing it on the huge film screen of my college’s film room.
Or that it was in Contemporary Chinese Cinema that I watched this movie, with one of my favorite professors and some good company. No, it’s because of the cinematography and the story of this film that I think makes it the best movie by Wong.
I hadn’t seen the movie since then, until now.
The only reason I’m watching is it because the Made in Hong Kong 2021 festival gives free access to all the Wong Kar Wai movies to anyone who lives in the DMV for a short period of time, and, best of all, they’re the restored HD versions.
I was really curious about the HD versions, since I’ve only seen the gritty nineties films. The grittiness added a particular texture to the film, one that I’d imagine would be hard to replace, so this is something I’m going to be watching for in this review.
Perhaps this is all why there’s supposed to be a sequel in the works, twenty years later. Anyways, let’s unpack what makes this movie so gloriously beautiful.
Content
The plot of Chungking Express is split into two different stories; our first story features Cop 223, who has been dumped by his girlfriend May on April Fool’s Day. He refuses to believe it, and, so, he buys a can of pineapple every day for the month because it’s her favorite thing to eat.
He goes to convenience stores and hunts down the perfect can: ones that expire exactly on May 1st. Naturally, when the time comes, he realizes it isn’t a joke, and is left to pick up the pieces of himself once again.
Cop 223 then falls in love with a drug smuggler at a bar. Can’t get any worse than that, right? Especially because she’s wearing a blonde wig that looks fake, sunglasses that completely cover her face, and a beige trench-coat. We fall into the antics of their story, and then are thrust into the second story.
We meet Cop 663, played by the lovely Tony Leung, who also is going through a breakup with a flight attendant. He’s obsessed with this woman, has her stuffed animals in his apartment, and then we see him occasionally playing with toy airplanes. Ah, so it’s the season of heartbreak in this film for sure.
But then we meet Faye, played by the stunning Faye Wong. She works at a food store that Cop 663 often frequents, and she has fallen hard for him. She’s so smitten and we catch glimpses of her longing gazes, and then we really begin to venture into the rabbit hole of this strange romance that’s brewing between them.
This movie is genuinely funny at times, and I’m a tough cookie to please when it comes to humor.
Whether it’s Cop 663 just talking to this massive teddy bear about his love life or Faye Wong’s character literally breaking into his apartment to clean for him, it’s a fun, fun ride. It follows the ups and downs of relationships with a tinge of humor and hope, giving the viewers an enjoyable experience that’s also extremely cinematic at the same time.
I also really love the tiny homages to the cultural diversity in Hong Kong we see throughout the film, although the depictions aren’t the best. Blonde-wig woman, who remains unnamed, is stolen from by Indians. We don’t get a positive depiction of them there. But we do see glimpses of non-East Asian people at bars and on the corridors of the streets, which is absolutely fascinating.
Cinematic Elements
This is such a beautifully visual film. As Cop 223 moves through the night markets, everything blurs around him and is sped up, while he’s sprinting through to capture the unknown assassin. It lends itself to the thought that he’s moving so quickly and across a vast distance, especially with the use of zooms and blur around him.
The opening shot is also of a dark, gloomy sky, with He Qiwu/Cop 223 narrating: “You brush past so many people every day. Some you may never know anything about, but others might become your friend some day.”
This lends itself to the theme of distance and time across the film; even if we are .01 cm away from someone in a crowded city, you may never see them again. Or, perhaps, a mere .01 cm away from someone can completely change your life.
We get these moments of rushes throughout the film, where everything is so exhilerating and moving quickly except our main character. It adds a sense of realism to me, where everyone around you is going places and has somewhere to be but you’re stuck here, in this moment of heartbreak or a rush to capture something in the far distance but never actually reaching it.
Before He Qiwu reaching the blonde woman in a wig, the film stops. It pauses completely and only his narration continues, the one where he says he’s going to fall in love with her quite soon.
It’s these moments that set the film up for the remainder of its run time, even though the story flips. Watch it and you’ll see that Wong is absolutely brilliant with his camera dynamics, making the viewer really feel in sync with the narrative.
Overall Thoughts
This just is a really brilliant film and I couldn’t recommend it more. If you’re an aspiring filmmaker or even someone looking to be a writer, you can find so much inspiration from Chungking Express because of the way Wong unfolds the narrative and uses the camera to spectate what’s going on.
I also will die on the hill that this is his best movie, because it’s way more fun and interesting than In the Mood for Love. Yeah, sure, ITMFL is an absolutely beautiful film and has one of the best uses of color I’ve ever seen, but the story is just…meh compared to Chungking’s.
