Review #48: 'Chungking Express' (1994)

As He Qiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) jogs around a deserted sports field in the pouring rain, he narrates 'we're all unlucky in love sometimes. When I am, I go jogging. The body loses water when you jog, so you have none left for tears'. For me, that quote summed up this quite wonderful movie. In any other film, the line would be so appallingly pretentious. Here, it fits the movies styles and attitudes. This is a playful, sensitive and almost mocking love-letter to the complications and folly of, well, love.

The film tells two stories, one focusing on He Qiwu, also known as Cop 223, who, having recently broken up with his long-term girlfriend on April Fools Day, decides to buy a tin of pineapples with the expiration date of May 1^st (his birthday) every day until May 1^st. He feels this is the date to move on if they haven’t gotten back together. Meanwhile, lonely and drunk, he spies a mysterious woman in sunglasses (Brigitte Lin) sat alone at a bar, who has just seen her drug smuggling operation go drastically wrong. In the second seemingly unconnected story, a quirky snack bar waitress Faye (Faye Wong) falls in love with Cop 633 (Tony Leung) who has also recently broke up with his air stewardess girlfriend. Faye, spotting his obvious loneliness, takes it upon herself to rearrange his apartment every time he is out to try and improve his outlook.

Director Wong Kar-Wai made the film whilst on a break from editing his messy but still rather excellent film Ashes Of Time (1994), wanting to make something light and down to earth in the wake of all the martial arts and visual poetry that went on in Ashes. To think he made this as a side project to calm his nerves speaks volumes about the Hong Kong directors’ abilities. Originally seen as three stories, as opposed to two, the director had to cut out the third story feeling the film was too long, eventually making it into a full feature on its own, 1995’s Fallen Angels. Although the two stories are seemingly unconnected, they are ultimately the same story told in slightly different ways, and both contain the same themes.

It appeared to me at first that Chungking Express was ultimately about loneliness and longing. But in the couple days following, it came to me that perhaps it was actually about love. All the characters are lonely, disconnected and sad, and are all like this as a result of love. Love makes you do strange and bizarre things. He Qiwu, after building up a large collection of pineapple tins as May 1^st hits, he decides to eat them all in one sitting. The strange and enchanting Faye, buys the oblivious Cop 633 fish and buys new furniture for his apartment, without him even noticing. He is so caught up in his lovesick rut that he almost believes the changes happening in front of him are a result of it.

If the wonderful script and acting aren’t enough, Kar-Wai films it all like a giddy schoolboy given a new camera for Christmas. It’s the only film post-1960’s I have seen that truly embodies the spirit of the French New Wave. Many have attempted mirroring the style, but Chungking Express has a restless and almost excitable style that boils over with fresh ideas. A bold and inspired film, full of intelligent writing, astonishing acting, and a beautiful setting in Hong Kong. And one that tackles the true complexities of love.

Directed by: Kar-Wai Wong
Starring: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Brigitte Lin, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Faye Wong
Country: Hong Kong

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie