Chungking Express

Flawless tale of brief encounters and abstract moments. Far superior than most of Hong Kong's bullet ridden action fests, Chungking Express takes you on an emotional journey of love, loss, and chance excursions. Cinematography and editing is groundbreaking as this drama unfolds soap-opera-like stories without all the overacting and melodrama. Wong Kar-Wei has sealed his place in cinematic history with this tour de force.

WARNING: SMALL SPOILERS MAY BE GIVEN BELOW

Today being a lazy Sunday, I finally got around to watching Chungking Express. This film is something which has always been on my lengthy cinema bucket list.I am joyous that I took the the time viewing into this film as it was both uplifting and meditative amongst the chaos.

The film's plot revolves around two separate narratives regarding two policemen working within Chungking,both of whom have gone through recent break ups. Their stories are told sequentially and are both running in chagrin until they encounter a new woman.

For the first story, we become acquainted with He Qiwu, a man who pines over his most recent relationship with a girl called May. Whilst the May of which his relationship recently ended with has no screen time, there is plenty of monologue spoken from He Qiwu and interaction with other characters regarding her that as an audience we can feel his pain. (I mean, who hasn't been there before?) He Qiwu goes on the rebound and seeks out a girl after much self pity. It is at bar that he encounters a certain femme fatale.

The femme fatale is not issued a name in this story segment however it just adds to the sense of mystery she aesthetically displays by the "costume" of which she wears: A Blonde Wig and Glasses. It becomes quickly evident within the first fifteen minutes of the film that she is a dangerous presence as we see her organizes an illegal drug smuggling operation.

When He Qiwu and the woman with the blonde wig cross paths, it is not because he is after her. It is because he found himself out at a bar on the prowl and as we as viewers are sure of, the ineluctability of them meeting together is certain. They are not united together as lovers, however there is a slither of hope given to He Qiwu after their encounter and in his current position, a morale booster.

In the second story, the unnamed Cop 663 is going through the motions post break up with an air stewardess. We see that the stewardess had decided to visit a snack counter which he frequents and gave a letter to the owner regarding her wishes to break up and keys to the apartment.

This is all caught by the exuberant Faye, a worker at the counter. As Cop 663 does not wish to look at the envelope being fully aware of what the letter will detail, Faye falls him for and uses the keys to start rearranging the house while he is at his day-shift unaware. From there, the story builds around the meetings between of both Faye and Cop 663.

Throughout both stories there are reoccurring motifs that we take in such as expiry dates, the name of May, a model airplane, California Dreamin' by The Mamas & Papas, a Garfield stuffed toy and more which have been omitted from this review. The symbolism behind these help build the strength of both stories and also slightly relate them.

The setting of Chungking is a multicultural place and in being so it is interesting to hear dialog hear dialog in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Indian throughout the film.

It is hard for the setting to not draw you in. However, despite the streets being as flooded with populace as they are, we are left with the contrast of the characters usually being in isolated locations. Taciturn and with a running self monologue.

The soundtrack should be a key player in any film watched and in The Chungking Express it is not something which is not to be ignored. Most notably the soundtrack is dominated by California Dreamin' during the second half of the movie. The highlight song for me personally is a delightful Cantonese cover version of the song "Dreams" originally performed by the Cranberries sung by no other than Faye Wong, main actress of the second segment.

In regards to the cinematography, it is hard to believe that shots being taken are not being done so under natural lighting. In a scene where the Indians are assembling clothes and toys, we get various cutaway shots and amazing editing. (In particular one shot of shoes filled with cocaine/heroin being put away is shot upside down which for unknown reasons I really love) The editing is quick and fast paced, rarely lingering.

Through the use of shaky held hand camera during chase scenes and the busy streets we feel disorientated and just as lost as the characters on screen.

I believe this film is an equally a comfort to those in love as to those who are out of love. Don't give up.

Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers) meets Brigitte Lin (Ashes of Time Redux) after a depressing month trying to get over his girlfriend. She has just lost a group of Indians smuggling drugs. He obsesses over her departure and misses on what is right before him. Things don't last forever. The use of frenetic camera shots and flashing lights make this segment a little hard to take, but still satisfying. You can't get caught up in the story because that is not what's important. It's the film itself that is the point. Just when you think something may happen, the story changes.

In the second segment, Tony Leung Chiu Wai (Lust, Caution; Infernal Affairs) loses his girlfriend, too, but doesn't obsess, especially with Faye Wong (2046) available. But, he hardly notices her. She, on the other hand, spends time cleaning and rearranging his apartment without his knowledge.

It is a film for film lovers. The medium is the message. Kar Wai Wong establishes himself as a true master of the art film.

There is something very personal and intimate about this film that I missed the first time I saw it. Chunking was recommended to me by a friend of mine whose opinion I value, so I tried it again - and I believe I got it.

Looking back on many of the romantic films I have enjoyed, I noticed that the main characters are usually women. Even those with men don't delve with any sophistication into the male heartbreak. As a result, I am not sure I know how to properly grieve a failed relationship. LOL.

Here the heroes both suffer from failed relationships. In the first story we don't really see anything of his relationship, we just see that he held on a little too long. More important than the relationship or the reason it didn't work is the aftermath and the acute dysfunction with which he approaches the next. In his first 'May Relationship' he claims the failing was not knowing enough about her so he tries to 'get to know' more about his new 'blonde' love.

In the second story, the cop falls in love with a woman he doesn't even know. How about that for consistency of the way many of us dudes love? When we fall for women, we often fall for the idea of what they represent to us at the beginning rather than the reality of what she is. The shot that Wong Kar-Wai captured in the second cop's apartment in which the heroine hid on the wall in plain sight and the cop looked in the bathroom missing her completely was a fair characterization of the film. --- The male characters fell in love with the idea of a predefined woman and missed, in essence the women that were right under their noses.

Ultimately fascinating.

Masterful Hong Kong film-maker Wong Kar Wai understands that love is about the unspoken moments between people, the hidden gestures betraying loneliness. Chungking Express is a unique expression of such notions of love. The film doesn't pretend that love is all-embracing and constant, in the way so many predictable films would suggest. Love, for the protagonists of this film, comes and goes between subtle glances - always elusive. Indeed if a level of contentment can be reached at all for these characters - it is a fleeting moment, a memory of a song, the way that somebody smells. There are so many essential moments in this film - when Dinah Washington's 'What a difference a day makes' plays over two lovers cavorting, the moments when characters talk to inanimate objects to overcome their loss of love, the brief glances between the second policeman and the waitress across the counter of the fast-food restaurant. It has been dismissed as an exercise in style over substance by many, mainly due to the hypnotic way in which the film is shot and the lack of a real story as such. I don't feel the need to defend it from these accusations because the beauty of the film is there on the screen and nothing I have said or could say could really do it justice. It breaks my heart every time.