Wong Kar-wai is a true professional when it comes to presenting romance on the screen. Many reading this have seen, or hopefully are at least aware of his best known work – In The Mood for Love (2000). Before that masterpiece came other tales, and in possibly one of his more unabashedly upbeat films we have the love stories that intersect in 1994’s Chungking Express.
The film is split into two stories which cross and overlap in the most subtle of ways with small details that weave them together. Commenting on the brief encounters one makes in every day life and how when you may least expect, but need the most, a connection can be made.
Each of the stories share similar traits, such as the male leads both being Hong Kong cops that spend time at the Midnight Express snack bar. Both of these men are unsuccessfully moving past recent breakups with women who have already moved on quite easily. Beyond that though the stories are as different from each other as night and day in tone, as well as outcomes, that nonetheless leaves each character involved changed for the better.
Story One has us presented with a hapless Romeo of sorts, and a femme fatale of a more realistic world and how the seedy underbelly of the city throws them together. He Qiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro), also at times known as Cop 223, lays down the groundwork with a narration that keeps us in the loop of the current circumstances we are witness to.
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In a coincidence that feels like a cruel trick from a world with a twisted sense of humor, he is still reeling from a breakup on April Fool’s Day. Something he wished was a joke, but is appearing to be fact as far as his unseen girlfriend is concerned. It’s a bit of an understatement to say He Qiwu is not adjusting as he makes pitiful calls to her family, calls to old dalliances and grade school crushes. And most symbolically collecting canned pineapples with expiry dates of May 1st.
The date in question represents a lot – to stand for a month since the breakup, sharing the name with is ex – May and also sadly being his birthday. A mission he goes after quite passionately and religiously as the cans pile up more and more. Much to the chagrin of shop owners not understanding someone wanting practically expired goods.
The other half of the tale is simply that of the blonde (Brigitte Lin) who Wong Kar-wai decides to leave nameless, which in pertaining to the character’s nature is more than fitting. She sulks through the streets like a cat, radiating a feeling that she is both untouchable and unknowable. Looking as if she was lost from a film noir while donning a stylish trench coat, dark sunglasses and a blonde coiffed wig that brings to mind that which Barbara Stanwyck famously wore in Double Indemnity.
Her world is one of back room dealings and careful plans as she maneuvers and carries out covert drug dealings. When one goes wrong, we are witness to her loss of control, but see that she is not a person to be messed with no matter the stakes.
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Wong Kar-Wai in this first half brilliantly paints out a world and a side of Hong Kong that feels unreachable. Yes, viewing it one sees streets and alleys that at surface level may be unremarkable, but through his vision it feels somewhere else. A yellowish-green tint saturates many scenes, which make the neon accents pop out to our enraptured eyes. As well as the blonde’s scarlet sunglasses that perfectly match her matte red lips.
This first half also readily uses hypnotic camera tricks which makes scenes look at once both slowed down and fast paced in a way that feels out of an erratic dream. Takeshi Kaneshiro and Brigitte Lin may not spend a lot of their story actually together, but when they do their is a soft connection of mutual need and respect. This first story is the shorter of the two, but it stays with you mentally with its brilliant visual flair. That long afterwards keeps images of hot pink and electric green CDs spinning in a jukebox as well as blazing neon store signs.
Similar to our first story, the second story of Chungking Express introduces us to another cop dealing with a broken relationship. Cop 663 (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) in question is the object of attraction for Faye (Faye Wong), who is one of the latest employees to the Midnight Express snack bar which was frequented by Cop 223 in the previous tale.
Where Wong Kar-wai presented love in the first half as two ships passing in the night here it is much more exuberant and humorous. With many scenarios evoking much loved staples of classic romantic comedies.
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We spend most of our time with Faye, and seeing the world through her gaze, Wong brings such energy and light to her character. She’s easily the scene stealer of the whole film. Much of Faye’s actions and behaviors done by anyone else would be seen as questionable at best. But done by her they couldn’t be more innocent and charming.
I suppose others would possibly use the term “manic pixie dream-girl” to describe her. But I despise that terminology and feel that a female character can be goofy and attractive just as she is, and not because a man deemed it so. That’s what Faye is, someone unique to herself first and foremost.
Faye is holding an unrequited torch for Cop 663, while at first he just sees her as a peculiar girl who plays her music much too loud. He’s too busy initially to read between the lines, as his head is stuck in the clouds, for a better turn of phrase, as his heart yearns for his stewardess ex-girlfriend who has long since jilted him.
Air travel plays a key visual role with repeated symbols. From model airplanes gliding over bare shoulders and sunk down in fish-tanks. To forgotten airline uniforms left behind in Cop 663’s closet. For someone we hardly see, the ex-girfriend’s memory hangs heavy in the atmosphere. And when she later fails to return her set of keys to Cop 663 she leaves them at the snack bar for him to find.
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The temptation being too big for Faye to resist as she uses the keys to go into his apartment while he is out. That may read as stalker-ish and creepy, but Faye is delightfully naive in some ways that you can’t help but forgive what these actions may look like on paper. There is no twisted malice in her sneaking in, as the time spent consists mostly of tidying up and bringing freshness back into his place. He has slowly letting turn into a mausoleum for grieving his broken heart. Soon though the jig is up when slowly, but surely, Cop 663 gets suspicious and comes back earlier than expected.
Music in particular plays a strong role in this story, as Faye’s favorite song to play is “California Dreamin'” by The Mamas and The Papas. The hallmark of late 1960s American music echoing through key scenes of Faye and Cop 663’s back and forths. The song is catchy but also seems to represent Faye’s idealism and secret yearning for more than her current station in life.
Another song is memorable here, though unlike “California Dreamin”’ it gets a twist that makes it even better in my opinion. That being “Dreams” from The Cranberries, which gets covered in Chungking Express by star Faye Wong in a Cantonese version. The cover plays over a montage of Faye cleaning and messing around in Cop 663’s apartment, and flutters over the scene in Wong’s ethereal tone of voice. The melody gets stuck in your ears, and one may find themselves absentmindedly humming it long after the credits have rolled.
Wong Kar-wai ends the film in a way that feels fulfilling as well as uplifting. The kind of ending that any romantic will find more than satisfying, and may make you swoon if you’re so inclined. Chungking Express is a film that is truly for viewers who love those glimpses of understated magic in film. The kind of magic, I should say, of encounters and events that may not readily happen all the time in real life, but those we wish did.
For when they are shown flickering on our screen we know how sweet it is. Even if it feels as simple as watching the romantic entanglements between two love-sick cops, a femme fatale and a starry-eyed dreamer. Wong Kar-wai proves to be a modern day master of love, and never is it as optimistic as it is presented here.
Chungking Express is available to stream now on The Criterion Channel.
