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Review
by Kozo: |
Wong Kar-Wai's
films have always been steeped in Hong Kong-specific
genre. As Tears Go By was a triad drama, and
Days of Being Wild was a spin on the "teddy
boy" disaffected youth genre. Chungking Express
is no different. The protagonists of the film are
two cops. Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro), also known
as He Qiu-Wu, is a plainclothes detective who chases
bad guys around seedy Chungking Mansions in Tsimshatsui.
Cop 663 (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is a uniformed constable
who patrols around Central and the trendy Lan Kwai-Fong
district. The film also has a criminal: Brigitte Lin
Ching-Hsia as a blonde-wigged, drug-smuggling femme
fatale who finds herself targeted for a rub-out.
But that's as
far as the genre stuff goes. Despite these common
signifiers, practically nothing you'd expect out of
a cop action film occurs. There are a couple of chases,
as well as a payback moment midway through the film,
but the scenes play more like transitions instead
of necessary plot development. What's more important
are the character's inner lives. In Chungking Express,
the standard genre character is fleshed out and humanized,
and their inner struggles take on tremendous meaning.
Wong Kar-Wai has created a Hong Kong cop thriller
that's about the cops and not the thrills.
Cop 223 may snag a perp
or two, but what's more upsetting to him is his ex-girlfriend
May, who he's still pining over. Obsessed with expiration
dates (on love, promises and even canned food), he
feeds his heartbreak by ingesting expired cans of
pineapple - which isn't a good thing. Promising himself
that he'll love the first woman he sees, he runs into
the tired Brigitte Lin, who's suffering her own sort
of heartbreak. The match isn't made in heaven, and
any sort of physical affirmation of emotion would
be unrealistic, but their encounter manages something
quiet and affecting. In a sense, their meeting and
shared individual pain creates a minor, almost infinitesimal
bond between them. The moment passes, but something
quietly indelible remains.
Cop 663 has his romantic
problems, too. Unceremoniously dumped by a lovely
air hostess (Valerie Chow), 663 unburdens himself
to his collection of inanimate objects: a stuffed
bear, a bar of soap and even a wet rag. Unbeknownst
to him, the cute, Jean Seberg-coiffed Faye Wong has
silently fallen in love with him across the counter
of the Midnight Express deli. Unable to overtly convey
her affection, she contents herself with surrepitiously
caring for him. She cleans his apartment, redecorates
it, and quietly messes with his life. Whether or not
he notices seems not to matter - it's just her personal
expression of affection.
The individual is at
the center of Wong Kar-Wai's movie. Everyone has their
own private way of coping with loss and alienation,
and how each character does it feels both uniquely
odd and strangely familiar. Wong Kar-Wai isn't concerned
with happy endings, romantic platitudes or universal
truths. No UFO-style pearl of wisdom surfaces in his
film. One can identify with the characters or they
can find their individual quirks absurd. That's probably
one of the unique joys to Chungking Express - that the characters' quirks can affect each and
every viewer differently. Wong Kar-Wai doesn't tell
you anything with the film. The moments in the film
are opaque and seemingly unconnected, but beneath
that the viewer just might find something revealingly
personal and achingly real.
As you would expect
from Wong Kar-Wai, the film is literally dripping
with style, but it isn't over-the-top like his later
Fallen Angels (the unofficial third chapter
to Chungking Express) nor is it bombastic like Ashes of Time. Chungking Express operates
with a quicksilver, almost effervescent vibe, where
chances are found and connections made with one barely
noticing. The camera (handled by co-cinematographers
Christopher Doyle and Andrew Lau) moves constantly
and sometimes gives in to jarring step-printing or
strange slow/fast motion, but the moments are appropriate.
It's those sequences that convey the interior/exterior
experience of each character, be they the helter-skelter
chaos of a chase or the noiseless isolation of sudden
heartbreak. The style is alternately contemplative
and breezy; it's like the French New Wave with a dash
of MTV sprinkled in.
Chungking Express works on many levels. It's a stunning new wave "art
film" that also succeeds as a bouncy pop-culture
valentine to Hong Kong. It's an affecting exploration
of personal heartbreak and a uniquely cosmopolitan
take on urban alienation. And, probably most affecting
of all, it's a marvelous demonstration of love in
and of the cinema. Chungking Express seems
to tell us that love and its chances could be just
around the corner and out of sight. As much as the
film explores the frustration of heartbreak and unrequited
love, it also hints at the promise of something magical.
Movies can both show and create emotion, and Wong
Kar-Wai was able to do both with remarkable dexterity.
Even more, he did it in a way that only the movies
could - through camera, sound and space, and not through
spoken dialogue or printed epiphanies. All the powers
of cinema are at work in his understated little masterpiece. Chungking Express might even remind some people
of why they grew to love movies in the first place.
(Kozo 1995/2002) |
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