Review of Chungking Express (1994) by Emre T — 16 Feb 2010

Chungking Express is an art house film that is particularly recommended for goers who aren't fazed by a picture that shows no strong story or moral, or a film that leaves you with English subtitles as an alternative if you can not understand Cantonese or Mandarin, or can not understand it acutely enough throughout the running time of approximately one hundred minutes. Hate to start negatively, but that was more of a positive warning. I'm warning that this film is disputably unsuitable for casual audiences, as most would find it too... too something, or maybe not enough of something else.

In a large, impressive nutshell, this 1994 Hong Kong gem consists of two love stories told in sequence, both of them structured around a policeman and his unsuccessful lusts or relationships with the opposite sex. Unlike a lot of films in the industry, this particular one doesn't need a fantastic, original story. The first piece begins amid a magically manic encounter with a woman donning a blonde wig and a rather odd man with a paper bag hiding his facial features (and he iss completely irrelevant to the storyline).

The story builds up quickly and continues from its introduction in a fast memorable blur. Magical shots with a hand held camera demonstrate an understanding of human emotion and charm.

It's a visually impressive, sexy wander through Chungking Mansions (as well as other settings such as Midnight Express, a nighttime snack shop) with likeable lead He Qiwu or 'Cop 223' (Takeshi Kaneshiro, probably most popular for his role as Jin in Shi Mian Mai Fu), who has decided to move on from his ex after a month, on his birthday May the first. He counts down the days using pineapple tins with the expiry date of his birthday, hoping that from that day onwards he will find a new woman in his life.

There's also the striking female (Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia, who has starred in almost a hundred films) that does just that, who appears on the officer's birthday after an eventful day of sorting an odd sexual relationship and unsuccessfully trying to flee a drug smuggling operation gone wrong. This woman is disguised, leaving a trail of bodies behind her. But as we see through He Qiwu's observant, fascinating perspective of life, she always seems to be dangerous but also fairly approachable and lonely.

The second story begins with the same snack shop the first cop visited, except this cop (Tony Leung, most popular for his role as Broken Sword in Ying Xiong) has a girlfriend.

Cop 663 chooses a takeaway meal every night for him and/or his girlfriend - a different choice every time - his preference however, being a chefs salad. Then one visit to Midnight Express, the manager asks, 'Want to try something different?', the cop simply requests a black coffee, 'Plenty of choices in men just like food. Guess I should of stuck with the chef's salad', and now we come to see a waitress named Faye (Faye Wong, singer and actress) who we have seen before, but this time she takes interest more than usual in this cop who orders food almost every evening.

This waitress and officer form a light friendship, and one day the waitress invites 663 to travel with her to California when she has saved all of her money. The bored young adult is only half-serious it seems, but she develops a crush and spends most of her spare time breaking into his flat and rearranging it while he's working.

The second story is more suggestive, yet less energetic than the shorter opening segment. There is less narration and more dialogue, but just as much humour. We do not know as much about the protagonists in the second love story, but there are still rather original and briliant scenes that do their arguably cute romance some justice.

Overall.

The director and writer, Wong Kar-Wai, illustrates two complicated, warm stories in a creative and exciting style that leaves the viewer satisfied and inspired.