I also rewatched Wong Kar-Wai’s 1994 film Chungking Express (a more accurate translation of the Chinese title is Chungking Jungle, apparently) and enjoyed it even more than on my first watch. It’s an odd but lovable film, bursting with fresh energy and spontaneity - partly because Kar-Wai pieced several script ideas together to make it and shot it when he was on a production break from another movie. Chungking Express is neatly divided into two halves, around 40 minutes each: one following Hong Kong cop #223 as he copes with a breakup, and spends a night with a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who (unbeknownst to him) is a drug dealer fearing for her life, the other follows Hong Kong cop #663 as he copes with HIS breakup, while a free-spirited young woman named Faye falls for him and attempts to improve his life - but without his knowing. The neon colours of the film make for a surreal but vibrantly beautiful experience, and it offers a considered commentary on love and life, one which still feels relevant in today’s world.
I found it interesting how Chungking Express plays with genre also. Although the second love story is pure eccentric rom-com, the first toys with the criminal underworld and night life in a city quite a bit. It’s no full-on crime drama though, and the memorable stretch-printing techniques Kar-Wai likes deprive action-flick-lovers of an otherwise exciting shootout scene. The film is also better in context: it’s filled with motifs of expiry dates and plane travel, at a time when many were leaving Hong Kong in worried anticipation of the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China on 1 July 1997. This movie wouldn’t be at the top of my recommendation list to everyone: I must say all the characters seemed a little insane on a first watch (and maybe they are), and the film doesn’t have a conventional structure of sorts - it’ll either work for you or it won’t. But Chungking Express has very much warmed on me, and anyone either interested in art films or how to deal with change in their own lives should absolutely check it out.
