DIRECTOR: Wong Kar Wai
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1994
GENRE: Comedy / Drama / Mystery / Romance
LANGUAGE: Japanese (Subtitled)

CAST:

Brigitte Lin .... Woman in blonde wig
Tony Leung Chiu Wai .... Cop 663
Faye Wong .... Faye
Takeshi Kaneshiro .... He Zhiwu, Cop 223
Valerie Chow .... Air Hostess
Chen Jinquan .... Manager of 'Midnight Express'
Lee-na Kwan .... Richard (as Guan Lina)
Huang Zhiming .... Man
Liang Zhen .... The 2nd May
Zuo Songshen .... Man

REVIEW

Chungking Express is a film which is set in Hong Kong, showing the fast paced culture that is present here and presenting the lifestyles of three main individual; the characters of Faye, Cop 223, and Cop 663. The lives of these three key individuals are woven together along with the Blonde Woman at the beginning who remains nameless despite having her own sub-story in the film and her own voiceover narrative.

This film can be seen to present the globalised culture that Hong Kong can now be seen to possess. The effect of globalisation is subtly portrayed in this film such as with the logos of McDonalds, Coca, Cola, and Del Monte amongst other shown in the film. The Coca Cola label is often focussed on in the fast food place that Faye works in and it can be seen that Wong Kar Wai is here presenting to us that Hong Kong is just like any other major city such as New York or London in many respects.

At the beginning of this film we are presented with the narrative of the Blonde Woman as she organises a drugs operation. She has a deadline of May 1st in order to complete her drugs raid, however this is not possible for her as it all goes wrong for her, seeming that the only way for her to escape it all is to get a plane out of Hong Kong and leave for good. The concept of air travel is important in this film and is a point which I will come back to later on.

Cop 223, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro and presents a character that is just trying to get over a break up with his girlfriend May. This character eats tinned pineapple for 30 days after the date she broke his heart, this being the point at which the first interwoven narrative can be seen - the date is May 1st. This being the date that the Blonde Woman's time will run out, is also the date that time will run out for Cop 223 in his realisation that his ex will not be coming back to him. It is a tin of sardines with the date May 1st which signify to the Blonde Woman the date she has until to get her drug trafficking done by, so both cases uses tinned food in order to illustrate the 'expiration dates' of their time as it can be seen. Cop 663, played by Tony Leung is another character that can be seen to be enveloped by loss. In the film, his girlfriend splits up with him all because when he is at the fast food parlour that Faye works at, the owner suggests him that he gives his girlfriend a choice rather than always getting her the 'Chef's Salad.' This 'food choice' then becomes symbolic of the choice which she feels she has and so chooses to dump Cop 663 as she realises that she does not have to choose him, deciding to move onto pastures new.

Cop 663 girlfriend is an air hostess and as he explains it, he managed to successfully seduce her on a flight. The idea of aeroplanes is important and is one which has links to both Faye and to the Blonde Woman. When Faye is in Cop 663 apartment, she picks up the model plane which Cop 663 has here and plunges this plane into his goldfish bowl. I feel that the manner in which she does this is symbolic of the end of his relationship with her, and in dumping the plane in the water herself, Faye is showing here that she is taking over and is fast becoming a part of Cop 663 life.

Both the character Cop 223 and Cop 663 are given voiceover narratives which are useful to us as a viewer as by gaining the knowledge of their thoughts and feelings, we are able to discover how they are feeling inside as well as hearing what they are saying to others. I always feel that voiceover narratives of the key protagonists in films add real depth to them and critically engage us as a viewer in the film more than if this voiceover was not present. Faye is also given a voiceover narrative and it is through this that we learn of her love, or lust for Cop 663.

Faye is an extremely important character in this film as it is she that links Cop 223 and Cop 663. Cop 223 says of Faye that 'At the high point of our intimacy, we were just 0.01cm from each other. I knew nothing about her. Six hours later, she fell in love with another man.' The other man he is referring to here is that of Cop 663, with this point being chosen as the point at which Cop 663 is introduced and links between the two storylines already being seen. Although the two storylines are not inexplicitly linked, there are manners in which they can be seen to be linked and in this respect the key narratives of the film do come together and produce an intelligently crafted film wherein we can understand the separate narratives in relation to one another.

It is easy to get caught up in the visual sheen of this film, with techniques being used throughout the film such as that of stop motion. At times it can be seen that the camera is doing too many films and the bright colours which are being seen are over indulging as it retracts from the narrative of the film as a whole I feel in that as a spectator - you are too busy looking at what is going on screen, focussed on the mise en scene, while the plot is moving on before you know it. It is extremely easy to miss things because there is so much going on and I feel that at times Wong Kar-Wai has been a bit over ambitious with this film.

The main part of this film is made up of the dual narrative of Cop 223 and Cop 663, however the sub-narratives of the Blonde Woman and of Faye also come into the film and play a part in the progression of the narrative. As a spectator, sitting down to watch this film for the first time you are not expecting to be presented with a film that offers so many different narratives as although they are relatively simple and easy to follow, the subtle inter-narrative links provide much mental processing of the film causing you to think about the film in more ways than you would have imagined to start with. At the start of the film, it seems to be one of a typical Hollywood narrative wherein man meets woman and they begin to fall for one another, however this is not the case and instead the plot is far more complex and intriguing than this.

I feel that this is an extremely strong film from Wong Kar-Wai, and despite how being over ten years old, is one which is still relevant in contemporary society. I would recommend this film to everyone with an active interest in film as it is a great film which makes you think, makes you laugh, and most importantly; keeps you entertained. For all those interesting in special effects - there are special effects in an abundance to keep you entertained, as well as the inter-woken multiple narratives of the film which will keep your mind active throughout the duration of the film and leave you pondering about it for some time after.