by Tom Farrelly
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tony Leung, Brigitte Lin, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro
Intro:
Everything comes together in an explosion of dangerous, messy, colourful romance.
Much has been said about Wong Kar-wai’s dreamy colourful Hong Kong mood piece since its release in 1994.
Chungking Express observes two heart-sick Hong Kong policemen, whose lives are quietly transformed by unexpected romantic encounters.
Wong Kar-wai spends the first half of the film with two distinct characters before brushing shoulders with the next fleeting connection and haphazardly jumping ship. We spend the latter half of Chungking Express with a new set of could-be lovers, never to return to our initial two.
It’s a lot to ask of your audience, to abandon your original protagonists entirely whilst you initiate set-up and introductions of strangers all over again. Chungking Express manages an Indiana Jones-esque bag switch as Cop 663 and Faye grab our attention as quickly as we became enamoured with the woman in the blonde wig.
It’s a genre mashup that has no right working as well as it does. A breakup film meets gritty drug crime drama. For the uninitiated, Wong Kar-wai poses the question, what if Leo Dicaprio’s character in The Departed got dumped and went through a 500 Days of Summer break up? He reminds us that even high performing policemen get dumped.
Both our policemen experience intense emotional turmoil but manage it very differently, just as the film manages them with the same polarity. The majority of Chungking Express is told through visual language and tone. The bar scene with our first couple’s ‘meet cute’ (if you can call it that) is dripping in lusty, violent Hong Kong reds and oranges. A saxophone-clad, sultry neo-noir piece straight out of Blade Runner plays above them and it’s delicious. An unbeatable vibe, you just want to dive inside the film and drown in the texture.
Our second couple have their spectacular moment, complemented by spectacular use of ‘Dreams’ by The Cranberries. A simple scene (but far from simple in the hands of Wong Kar-wai) where our lonely policeman orders a coffee from Faye, working at a late-night fast-food store.
Time stands still as Cop 663 drinks his coffee, Faye leans on the counter daydreaming at Hong Kong foot traffic. The bright red Coca-Cola machine against the cold blue take-out shop lighting, all hangs there whilst the music smashes us over the head. It’s not subtle, it wants to be a remembered moment, and it achieves just that. The type of frame film bros would eventually gush over and plaster Tumblr with.
Its plot is less important than the feelings it evokes. There is a whimsical, dream-like quality to everything, only supported by the obvious but effective music choices like The Mamas & The Papas and their ‘California Dreamin’. Everything comes together in an explosion of dangerous, messy, colourful romance. The kind of film you can either consume wholistically with the lights turned off or play at a party in the background as a moving wallpaper. Every shot really is a painting, every frame filled with so much meaningful, tangible, lived in colour.
Chungking Express is begging for a 4K re-watch in cinemas.
