A fleeting return to 'Chungking Express'
Cinematic Flapper
Anna Nguyen
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: Lifestyles
After realizing that "Chungking Express" was newly released on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection a year ago, I've finally purchased it. It was my friend from Nevada who informed me of such good news - my friend who has been, perhaps, my most loyal reader during my tenure as a column writer for the cinematic flapper series. My friend who I have, I must boldly state, converted into a Wong Kar-wai fan. Yes, Miss Eunice Barron, I speak lovingly of you.
"Chungking Express" is a gem of a film and holds a special significance in my memory. Wong's 1994 film was the first film I watched by the amazing Hong Kong auteur, who is both admired and deplored by many. This film, however, can easily be an exception to those who adamantly declare their abhorrence to the auteur. His recurring themes are in the film - memory, expired time, jilted lovers and music - but there is a uniqueness to "Chungking Express" that shines out from Wong's other pieces. It is, perhaps, the innocence of love and yearning that has never been recaptured in Wong's later films.
This pop-art gem, made during a hiatus from "Ashes of Time" when Wong wrote the screenplay as a break from the emotionally exhausting shoot, is divided into two stories about two cops who have been jilted by their loves. The two stories are not at all connected to each other, but the two main characters of the latter half appear briefly in the first chapter.
The first story tells the story of Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) whose love has reached its deadline and is unable to move on. His love life becomes complicated when he meets a mysterious woman in a blonde wig (Brigitte Lin in her last film role before her retirement) involved in a troubled drug smuggling deal.
The second story, which is my favorite and which will be the main focus of this column, shifts to a comically pathetic story about Cop 663 (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) who dwells on his flight attendant girlfriend's sudden departure to inanimate objects. He speaks to a bar of soap and rag and a goofy Garfield plush. His slow journey from healing is aided by Faye (the magnificent Mandopop queen Faye Wong at her best in her premiere film), an ethereal, pixie-haired waitress at Midnight Express, a food stall, who cleans up Cop 663's past by redecorating his apartment, much to his oblivion.
Faye is identified by two songs in the film - the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" and Wong's Cantonese version of the Cranberries' "Dreams." Faye listens to "California Dreamin'" constantly as she works at the food stand, drowning out the noise of a fast-paced Hong Kong, captured maddeningly by Christopher Doyle. Faye is just a delight to watch and has such an amazing, natural presence that leaves one wishing to imitate her character. Her quirky gestures are endearing as she plays with ketchup and mustard bottles as she moves to the beats of "California Dreamin'" and her chemistry with Cop 663 is inexplicable.
The expiration of time is constantly reminded in "Chungking Express." Cop 223 immerses himself in an eating orgy, eating expired cans of pineapple to force himself to move on from May. Before leaving to California, Faye presents Cop 663 a fake boarding pass to visit her in the States, dated a year from whenever she left. In the last scene, she returns to Hong Kong, now a flight attendant; she finds that Cop 663 has bought the stack ball and is changing it into a restaurant. Unlike Cop 223's fleeting time with the blonde lady, Cop 663 and Faye seem to have a future together.
Whenever I watch "Chungking Express" and hear Cop 663 tell Faye that he'll go "wherever you want to take me" in the film's very final scene, I don't want to recover from the unfamiliar, oddly upbeat feeling that takes over. That second story is so fulfilling that whenever I watch it, I skip to the latter half of the film to watch Cop 663 and Faye. I don't think Leung has ever looked better in uniform as he did in "Chungking Express."
Anna Nguyen is the lifestyles editor of The Arkansas Traveler. This is her last column for the semester.
"Chungking Express" is a gem of a film and holds a special significance in my memory. Wong's 1994 film was the first film I watched by the amazing Hong Kong auteur, who is both admired and deplored by many. This film, however, can easily be an exception to those who adamantly declare their abhorrence to the auteur. His recurring themes are in the film - memory, expired time, jilted lovers and music - but there is a uniqueness to "Chungking Express" that shines out from Wong's other pieces. It is, perhaps, the innocence of love and yearning that has never been recaptured in Wong's later films.
This pop-art gem, made during a hiatus from "Ashes of Time" when Wong wrote the screenplay as a break from the emotionally exhausting shoot, is divided into two stories about two cops who have been jilted by their loves. The two stories are not at all connected to each other, but the two main characters of the latter half appear briefly in the first chapter.
The first story tells the story of Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) whose love has reached its deadline and is unable to move on. His love life becomes complicated when he meets a mysterious woman in a blonde wig (Brigitte Lin in her last film role before her retirement) involved in a troubled drug smuggling deal.
The second story, which is my favorite and which will be the main focus of this column, shifts to a comically pathetic story about Cop 663 (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) who dwells on his flight attendant girlfriend's sudden departure to inanimate objects. He speaks to a bar of soap and rag and a goofy Garfield plush. His slow journey from healing is aided by Faye (the magnificent Mandopop queen Faye Wong at her best in her premiere film), an ethereal, pixie-haired waitress at Midnight Express, a food stall, who cleans up Cop 663's past by redecorating his apartment, much to his oblivion.
Faye is identified by two songs in the film - the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" and Wong's Cantonese version of the Cranberries' "Dreams." Faye listens to "California Dreamin'" constantly as she works at the food stand, drowning out the noise of a fast-paced Hong Kong, captured maddeningly by Christopher Doyle. Faye is just a delight to watch and has such an amazing, natural presence that leaves one wishing to imitate her character. Her quirky gestures are endearing as she plays with ketchup and mustard bottles as she moves to the beats of "California Dreamin'" and her chemistry with Cop 663 is inexplicable.
The expiration of time is constantly reminded in "Chungking Express." Cop 223 immerses himself in an eating orgy, eating expired cans of pineapple to force himself to move on from May. Before leaving to California, Faye presents Cop 663 a fake boarding pass to visit her in the States, dated a year from whenever she left. In the last scene, she returns to Hong Kong, now a flight attendant; she finds that Cop 663 has bought the stack ball and is changing it into a restaurant. Unlike Cop 223's fleeting time with the blonde lady, Cop 663 and Faye seem to have a future together.
Whenever I watch "Chungking Express" and hear Cop 663 tell Faye that he'll go "wherever you want to take me" in the film's very final scene, I don't want to recover from the unfamiliar, oddly upbeat feeling that takes over. That second story is so fulfilling that whenever I watch it, I skip to the latter half of the film to watch Cop 663 and Faye. I don't think Leung has ever looked better in uniform as he did in "Chungking Express."
Anna Nguyen is the lifestyles editor of The Arkansas Traveler. This is her last column for the semester.
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