MS University Faculty of Fine Arts Film Festival: Chungking Express Review

This film was screened as part of ‘Twenty First’, an ongoing film festival at Faculty of Fine Arts at MS University.

Date of screening: 5^th December, 2013

Director: Wong Kar Wai

Cast: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung, Faye Wang, Valerie Chow

Chungking Express can only be expressed as cinema on hashish. For those who rejoice the art and style of filmmaking, this film is pure euphoria. There is beauty in each frame, in the close-ups, in the profile shots, in the tracking slow-mo action, in the canted (tilted) shots, in the lighting, in the music – in everything. Plot development there isn’t much, but each character’s thoughts and mental state are captured through narration and editing.

Each character is lonely, each has an idiosyncrasy: one (Takeshi Kaneshiro) jogs excessively so his body drains out all the water – he doesn’t want to shed tears; one (Brigitte Lin) looks (at least to me) like Madonna with a bad wig and is involved in drug deals; one (Tony Leung) actually talks to his household items when lonely (usually in his undergarments) – the bar of soap, the towel rag, the stuffed teddy are his companions, and one (Faye Wang) is obsessed with ‘California Dreaming’ by the Mammas and the Pappas, playing it at full blast even at her workplace.

Both men are cops and both have been dumped by their lovers. One meets the girl in the wig at a bar and hits on her with an unusual pick-up line: “Do you like pineapple?”, repeating the line in different languages, even English, until she responds. Just as we think their story shall develop, the plot abruptly cuts midway to two completely different protagonists (here, I stress on completely as both the male protagonists look similar, especially in scenes with low lighting, and I remained confused for a while).

This cop too faces break-up pangs, hoping his air-hostess girlfriend (Valerie Chow) would return one day. So devoted is his love that he doesn’t pay heed to Faye, the new female employee

at the same restaurant frequented by the film’s first protagonist, usually to purchase Coca-cola. She’s a frail, plain and perky looking woman, and she’s trying her best to gain his attention – observing him through the shop front glass, following him to the market under the pretense of grocery related work and well… taking over his home while he isn’t present; the spare keys to his home were given along with a letter ending their relationship by the cop’s girlfriend before her travel.

The music video style employed reminded me of Harmony Korine’s latest film Spring Breakers; Korine may’ve been equally indulgent in exploring the stylistic aspects of filmmaking, but he doesn’t allow his repetitions to slacken the film’s energy levels. With Wong Kar-Wai’s film, however, certain patience is asked for. For a while, the action dwells on Faye’s little exploits – buying goldfish, tidying the place, switching the labels on his canned food – after she trespasses the cop’s home (and the cop’s amazement at seeing his rooms neat and organized). California Dreams plays each time, and there isn’t anything of great importance in Faye’s actions, unless you consider playing with stuffed toys and model airplanes to be fascinating ways of cutting time. We as the audiences shouldn’t be anticipating any revelations in the narrative at this point; Wong Kar-Wai just wants us to experience that particular moment, the way he captures it.

I am completely in agreement with the great critic Mr. Roger Ebert’s observation that the film would puzzle many youngsters, and this review was written in the 90s. In 2013, when most commercial films do not go beyond conventionally angled shot-reverse shots and tracking shots and predictable dialogues, plot-driven dialogues, such a film would hardly get any patrons; in fact, a number of viewers at Faculty of Fine Arts at MS University didn’t know how to react to its characters and absolutely had no clue what was supposed to be funny. An empty stare isn’t something Wong would want from his audiences when they watch Chungking Express, but this kind of film is really made for those in love with the materials of the story rather than the story itself. I’m one of them.