Chungking
Express is a Hong Kong film made in 1994 by the famous award winning director
Wong Kar Wai. The film is not a typical Hong Kong film industry has been
heavily producing martial art film, gangster movie and cinema action thriller
that dominants the cinema chart in 90 era. Action movie stars like Jackie Chan,
Jet Li and Donnie Yan became extremely famous after they starred in action
film. However, Hong Kong film industry isn't a one trick pony as there are many
narrative dramas deserve a second look before we switch back to the action
blockbuster film. For Chungking Express, there are 2 stories with similar
plotline that the first one starred by Brigitte Lim and Takeshi Kaneshiro and
the second story starred by Tony Leung and Faye Wong. Both stories have
different background and actors as the only connection between them are the
snack bar called Midnight Express to connect both stories.
In a region of the east meets west
and honored as the pearl of the orient for its’ energetic modern city and
glamour night scene, Hong Kong. Strangers walk into other strangers everyday in
this busy city. They are feeling lost as their loneliness have no one to speak
to. Wong Kar Wai is telling a story of loneliness in the city from different
characters' narration. Hong Kong film industry does has its' upper hand in the
narration of police officer in occupation department as most Hong Kong movies
featured minor or lead role as police officer to keep the plot interesting.
Without coincident, both main actors in Chungking Express happen to be a cop
with Takeshi Kaneshiro as Qiwu, Cop223
and Tony Leung as Cop 663.
The
first story began with Cop223 broke up with his girlfriend and had a hard time
to move on. Meanwhile, a drug smuggling gone wrong had put the blonde wig woman
in dangerous position. They met each other and spent time to rest in a hotel.
Cop223 went into the snack bar again and bummed into Faye Wong. This is the
starting point of second story; Cop663 also broke up with his girlfriend, a
flight attendant. He met Faye in the snack bar and Faye fell in love for him.
Faye took care of him by cleaned up his house and Cop663 found out. He asked
her for a date in a bar named "California" but she didn't show up and
flied to Caulifornia. She became an air-stewardess also and visited the snack
bar which owned by Cop663 later.
Chungking
Express is heavily influenced by French Impressionism, an avant garde style of
filmmaking to create the effect of surrealism. One of the characteristics of this art form is
to convey the meaning and emotion thru actors’ suggestive behavior and
interaction with the environment, rather than speaks out blatantly. The opening
scene features blonde hair woman rushes in the street while Cop223 is chasing a
criminal in similar location. The scene is blurry and shaky from a third person
perspective that follows the same movement of the actors. This creates the
feeling of being in a dreamlike mind state as we are sleepwalking thru the
street. The dizzy effect from the shaky camera shots conveys the message of
uncertainty in search for their love in a foreign lane. It is also filmed and
edited for a slow motion effect to emphasis the feeling of lost and
uncomforted. The actors are clueless and searching for something very important
to them in an exotic foreign lane, Chungking Mansion, a multicultural
marketplace in Hong Kong. This shows how city life could leads to depression
and pressure with their fast paced lifestyle. It makes them unhappy and tired as
they have no time for leisure and meet new people, as Cop223 says in opening
line:” every day we brush past so many people, people we never meet or people
who may become close friends. It sends the message for city people to break out
of their comfort zone as they might share similar loneliness experience in the
city of Hong Kong.
The
technique of unstable camera film shots continue for the gun fight and street
chase scene. Blonde hair woman is running for her life after she shots the
Indian drug smugglers who betray her. As the high tempo Indian music is
playing, it evokes the feeling of chaos and anger for blonde hair woman and the
Indian gangs. It majorly focuses on the blonde hair woman as she is out of her
comfort zone and desperate needs for help. Another shaky cam scene is the
assassination of the Caucasian drug supplier. The camera shots from the blonde
hair woman’s perspective to convey the feeling of bitter and anger for the
betrayal of a former lover as she approaches him from the back. It encourages viewers to anticipate and
imagine what will happen to blonde hair woman as she seeks her vengeance. She
is satisfied with the outcome, yet she is sad and worries that she might be
killed by the Indian gangs. Jump cut is used on the makeover scene of the
Indian drug smugglers transform into business men and how they hide their drug
in shoes and luggage. The queue of multiple actions to compile this quick pace,
rapid action and again, high tempo Indian music share the emotion state of
Indian drug smugglers and blonde hair woman as they are excited for the
lucrative money from this drug trafficking and eager to participate. However,
they are scared to think that they might go to jail as they aren’t familiar
with the Hong Kong’s law system.
Prop
and time is an important aspect in this movie. The indication of time is being
translates thru props like food can, clock and blonde wig. The clock starts
counting at 9pm, 28 April and the time ends in 1st May. It is the
duration of intense loneliness of Cop223 as he broke up with his girlfriend,
May in April fool’s day, 1st of April. He will buys a can of
pineapple everyday to represent the idea of longevity of the love relationship
between him and May. This is because 1st of May is an important date
for Cop223, it is his birthday and he still hopes he can backs together with
May. On 30 April, he has an argument with the shopkeeper who throws away all
food cans with expired date 1st of May. He scolds the shopkeeper is
cruel and takes home all the food cans. This represents his anger and frustration
toward May for breaking up with him. No matter how many times he calls her with
the phone, she would not reply. This result brings Cop223 to experience the
loneliness of being alone in the city. He desperately attempts to find a
companion thru the contact list of his phone. However, his former female
classmates and friends are either married or rejecting him. In the end he talks
to his dog to express his sadness and disappointment for himself as he devour
all the pineapples to indicate the end of the relationship when there are no
more pineapple to consume.
The
airport departure board is indicating the countdown for limited time to board
the plane as blonde hair woman feels nervous and frightening for this drug
smuggling plan might fails. The dilemma comes true as all the Indian gone
missing and she desperately searches around. The date on an unopened can is the
expiry date to remind blonde hair woman her life is in danger for not retrieve
the drug from the Indian men. The same date of the can is showed again the
scene of the drug supplier being killed, but this time the can is opened. It is
a sign for the heart of blonde hair lady as she finally relieves herself from
the grip of hatred and drug business trouble. Thru the movie, blonde hair woman
only wears the raincoat and sunglasses. This dressing set up shows the
insecurity and fear she faces when she dates the drug supplier. She relies on
it to cover her identity being exposed. It is a long term relationship as she
narrated she forgets how long she has been wearing the same outfit again and
again.
As
for the blonde wig, it is another cover up for the blonde hair woman. However,
this one is special as it indicates the bond of love shared by blonde hair
woman and drug supplier. We see drug supplier gives a similar blonde wig to the
female bar owner. She lied to blonde hair woman that she doesn’t see drug
supplier. Drug supplier put on the wig on the bar owner to indicate he finds
himself a replacement after he betrays blonde hair woman. The song by Dennis
Brown called “Things In Life” with lyrics like there are bad times and good
times, so have a little fate….is the message of philosophy to deal with
hardship in life thru the bar scene with blonde hair woman in trouble. It sets
the melodramatic tone to the scene to make the audiences feel sorry for this
unfortunate lady. In the end she takes off the wig after she kills the man who
betrays her on 1st of May as stated on an opened can. It shows she
is being herself by letting her hair down and throwing the wig away. She
regains her freedom as she no longer manipulated by the drug supplier, or the
city itself, Hong Kong.
When
Cop223 and blonde hair woman meet in a bar, he asks a question and says:” do
you like to eat pineapple.” It is a sexual suggestive question as Cop223 is
projecting pineapple as the meaning of love. Cop223’s sexual desire also
illustrated thru the background atmosphere with rain and saxophone music. He
tries not to put a move on blonde hair woman in the hotel as he distracts
himself with from her body with random actions like watches dramas, eats French
fries and polishes off her heels. On Cop223’s daily life, he is jogging to
drain out his sex drive to avoid falling for the state of loneliness.
The
second part of the movie is manifesting the theme of “Dream”, a characteristic
of French impressionism film, which Tony Leong and Faye Wong displays charisma
performance to portrait normal citizens of Hong Kong. The song “California
Dreaming” is blasting thru the snack bar when Faye is working. It is her way to
create a safe zone, relax mode and remind her of her dream.
During
the flashback, Cop663 uses an airplane model to emphasis the relationship with
his girlfriend as they both meet in an airplane. Cop663 describes an airplane
with full fuel as long term relationship, he also indicates the end of this
relationship as the plane changes its’ destination in the middle of flight.
Cop663 happens to be a loyal man as he only orders chef salad from the snack
bar. No matter what other food choice the owner offers to him, he will still
picks chef salad. It shows he is a discipline man with a loyal heart to the
relationship he once had. The breakup affects him even worse as he suffers
loneliness that similar to Cop223.
Cop663
is expressing his loneliness by projecting his sadness in the objects around
his house. A dripping wet towel represents his tears as he tells the towel not
to cry. As he has no one to talk to, he talks to stuffed animals to encourage
it to get better. Also, he tries to get back with his girlfriend when he talks
to the closet. Theses behavior shows the typical citizen of Hong Kong where
they are trapped in the concrete jungle as they have no way out of their
personal problem.
Faye
is working for a tedious job in snack bar. For a sense of adventure and
likeness for Cop663, she decides to give Cop663’s house a makeover. She also
talks to the stuffed animal to confess her feeling to Cop663. This shows she is
shy and introvert for not tell him directly. In the process, she lied to her
uncle to clean Cop663’s house and it shows she is rebellious and carefree when
it comes to decision making. In the scene where she discovers a piece of hair
from his bed, it indicates bad thing follow. As she bummed into a long haired
lady who approaches Cop663, she turns suspicious and bitter. When Cop663 backs
to his house, he finds his home is flooding. He thinks he forgets to switch off
the water pipe. Faye is the opposite of Cop663, while Cop663 is falling for
depression; Faye breaks free and does random things that make her happy. She
doesn’t care about the others as she always listens to the song “California
Dreaming”. Audiences can learn to loose and goof around as it helps to cheer
and lift up people’s spirit.
Cop663
notices things around his house are different as he says there is having
emotion. But the truth is he turns better with Faye’s care and eventually he
finds out. He asks her on a date on bar named “California”. She is happy but
she doesn’t go to the bar, but instead, she flied to California. California is
not just a song or location in this movie; it is a dream, a place to discover
and the love confession of Cop663 as he invites her to meet there. It serves as
a huge influence of western culture towards the Hong Kong locals like Faye who
dreams to travel to United State. Faye’s decision to leave and fulfill her dream
as the importance of her dream outweighs the feeling of love, although she
promises she would come back 1 year later. Many city people are afraid to
choose dream over other important things in their life, but Faye does the
opposite as she does what she feels from her heart. Meeting with Cop663 changes
her life and triggers her passion to chase her dream to travel in California.
It makes her to think deeply and consider her future in a serious manner.
The movie itself is largely using music theme from the western music artists and Indian music. It creates the spark of fusion and gives the dynamic touch to the city of Hong Kong to represent itself as a multicultural city of the east. Chungking Express is chic, timeless and modern with its' unique touch of film style.
Overall,
the movie 2 part stories serve like a Yin and Yang combo. First story is my
favorite with the seedy background and dark story as it represents Yin,
especially it filmed mostly at night time. Second story is bubbly with the
charming Tony Leong and Faye Wong as they are filmed in daylight. Both have their
own supporters, but eventually they are complimenting each other in a
contrasting way to tell the story of loneliness in Hong Kong city. Audiences
could give it a try for this classic Hong Kong awarding winning film to learn
more of the Hong Kong non-mainstream films.
Reference
Noller, M. (2008, November
28). Chungking Express. Retrieved from
Maslin, J.. (1994, September
26). Chungking Express (1994). Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9503E2DA133AF935A1575AC0A962958260
No comments:
Post a Comment