Chungking Express
“Chungking Express,” a movie about two cops who have recently lost love. We meet Cop 223, while he pines over lost love he meets a new woman with a blonde wig. We don’t find out her name, but we soon discover that she is a drug smuggler with a dilemma. The two meet in a bar, they have a conversation that leaves a little more to be desired. The woman in the blonde wig states she wants to rest. Cop 223 brings her to a hotel room where he hopes to find her in the mood for more than rest., though she passes out. He watches her sleep and cleans her shoes before decides to leave. The story transitions to a new cop, he goes by Cop 663. Cop 663 has just had a short fling with an airline hostess that ended in conflicted feelings. He has fallen for her and is devastated that she doesn’t reciprocate. He meets another woman named of Faye. She becomes infatuated with him to the point of breaking into his apartment to rearrange his belongings. This goes on throughout the rest of the film until he catches her. Cop 663 decides that he does in fact love her and asks her out to dinner only to find that she has run off to California.
Kar Wai Wong’s movie “Chungking Express” is driven not by the plot, but the characters and their interactions with each other. There are no resolutions, not in the traditional sense, we are merely meant to witness the plot points. So much of what this movie is about is witnessing the idiosyncratic habits of an artificial society trying to find substantial meaning to their existence. This movie addresses loneliness. As human beings, most of us do not want to be alone, our minds fixate on a time when we were not; we long for those circumstances again, though remain afraid of the familiar endings. Though Wong’s characters long for companionship, many question whether they can stomach the pain of another broken relationship.
“Chungking Express” is broken into two separate stories that take place within the same neighborhood. Both are about love that never really takes off. Though we as the audience learn so much about the characters through his chase. We draw opinions on whether or not said characters would make a successful couple without ever seeing the two in practice. The film switches aesthetic looks frequently; this is done to help the audience focus on what is important, Character arc. For example, chase scenes between cops and criminals are filmed with a very low shutter speed which makes for a very stylized choppy picture, we get am impression of what is happening but it is only a glimpse, quickly the movie’s focus returns to the characters inter-personal feelings, the movie keeps its focus on the elements of loneliness and love.
“Chungking Express” is highly stylized and focuses on the relationships between human beings. The interactions are subtle and yet speak volumes for those with an analytical mind. For those moviegoers that expect a film to communicate everything in regards to “how to feel” and “what to think,” they may walk away from “Chungking Express” somewhat confused. This movie fails in trying to tell a story that has a beginning, middle, and end, though it succeeds as a commentary on pop culture lifestyle.
An element of the story that was surprisingly successful was the character monologues. Sometimes internal, though many were conversations with inanimate objects. These monologues successfully portrayed loneliness, as if a person could be so lonely they have to converse with objects. The objects in the conversation were often times things left behind from an ex. This is a convention that many can relate to, whether it be an article of clothing or a bottle of shampoo, they serve as a sad shadow from a familiar time.
Stylistically, the two stories are very different. Chungking is fast-paced and exhilarating, starting with a hand-held chase scene that is full of light and color that carries through the rest of the story. The editing is similar to a music video, establishing the urban lifestyle in piece set primarily at night. It cuts back and forth between the officer’s desperation and the drug dealer’s retribution, until the two meet in a bar. Express is much more involved, and takes place during the day, cutting between the lives of the two characters. The dialogue between the officer and the waitress is minimal and completely irrelevant to the overall feeling. Wai uses slow motion shots to represent the isolation of his characters in a crowded city.
Throughout the film Wong features protagonists that yearn for romance. He uses long montages to show action, featuring Dennis Brown’s “Things in Life” and The Mamas and the Papas “California Dreaming”. The scenes are reminiscent of Godard with reference to night-light and pop culture, and Cassavettes in terms of improvised dialogue and situations.
“Chungking Express” was an enjoyable experience. We found it to be an original take on the familiar everyday subject of love. Within the story, there are two stories, though they still in some way seem to tell the same story. Two cops, both coming out of serious relationships, in which we see two very different ways of coping with the after math. Through their struggles, we learn a better understanding of why these characters may have had difficulties in their relationships. It also gives us an insight on how they must change in favor of their new relationships.
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