Chungking Express (Review)

Moral ambiguity doesn't pertain to just black comedies. Dramas can also make use of it. Chungking Express plays with love vs loneliness. Perhaps 'moral ambiguity' isn't the right term but to look at the film in this light gives us insight into the stylistic approach.

I think I stick on the word ‘moral’ in front of ambiguity for this film because of how characters react to one another and the insight given by their inner monologue. You or I wouldn’t purchase a can of pineapples every day for a month, all with the same expiry date. We wouldn’t say good night to every inanimate object in our house before going to bed. Morals are seen as rights and wrongs but ‘right and wrong’ are different for every person. So if you distill it down it becomes do’s and don’ts. If you apply this to the actions of the characters presented to us one can see the morals of the coping mechanisms our protagonists use.

Chungking Express is a film with two distinct halves. Both follow police officers in Hong Kong as they deal with the breakup of a relationship that has inundated their thoughts and feelings. These relationships still do have that effect when we meet them. One deals thinks the breakup is a joke since they broke up on April 1. He will humour her for a month. He buys a can of pineapples every day throughout April, all expiring on the 1st of May. His birthday. When he realises it’s over he meets a drug smuggler and deals with desire to love with her.

The other police officer (Tony Leung a Wong Kar-Wai regular) breaks up with his partner and is lost in life and a bit confused too. The “love interest” is quite ambiguous. It’s clear that the story is between him and Faye Wong’s character but if their is love or not is left up to the audience. Faye works at a food express/takeaway place for her cousin. Her definition of living life is unique and it captures the attention of Leung. Leung's place in life also captures the curiosity of Wong.

The film gives us insight into these characters lives like no other art form can and like only Wong Kar Wai can. Film is often seen as the greater than the sum of its parts. A lot of people seem to think that if you can make some good parts the the whole will come together to make something great. Kar-Wai however, prefers to give the smaller parts more attention and lets them serve the whole. Rather than trying to make everything serve the bigger picture.

Where American movies representation love in ways that are often brutally shoved down our throats, Kar-Wai has a more eccentric yet tender touch. This is in part thanks to the visual flair of the movie. Whose visual shorthand could only be captured on the streets of Hong Kong. The film was shot and edited while another Kar-Wai film was on hiatus (Ashes of Time). This meant that this film had only a small amount of time to be made. This feeds into the film as it efficiently gets not only plot but themes and emotions across with great ease.

The (in)famous cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s take on Hong Kong is far more sophisticated than the brutal American way of showing us a story. Doyle believes that American films use the frame to put information in so that you can understand what is going on. So he does the opposite and tries to create an emotion and capture the feeling for more than just the characters. Everyone who sees this film will talk about the character’s confused state of their body and soul. They’ll also tell you that it’s set in Hong Kong, or at least a city really close. How many could tell you that Bridesmaids is set in Los Angeles?

Even when the film does do something stylistically that stands out, such as mixing slow motion and time lapse in the same shot, it doesn’t take away but instead only enhance the moment. These moments more than make up for the main criticism, for me, towards Kar-Wai’s films that his lack of a screenplay is only made up for by an overtly playful style.

The performances on the film feel like they’re non professional actors. This is by no means an insult. For the most part we are watching professional actors but they act clumsy and human at times in a similar fashion to non professionals. The actors remind us that we are watching a fabricated reality. While it is fabricated it manages to bring us closer to our own in many ways. I can’t say that the character treat their characters with x, y, and z because they effortlessly embody them, never breaking the illusion that this is all just a film.

Overall Score: 10/10

What are your thoughts on this film?

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Writer/Director: Wong Kar-Wai

Starring: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung and Faye Wong

Cinematography: Christopher Doyle & Wai-Keung Lau

Editors: William Chang, Kit-Wai Kai and Chi-Leung Kwong