Whereas our former officer of the law wore an ill-fitting suit and a beleaguered expression, Cop 663 sports a crisp, blue patrol uniform and close to no expressionChungking Express (1994) film notes by Tova Gannana for Far Away EntertainmentWong Kar-wai wrote a sequel to Chungking Express and it’s currently in pre-production. He's a strikingly different kind of officer than Cop 223. Cop 663 finishes writing out a note to himself and then stoically ambles up to the Midnight Express.
They speak to inanimate objects, write notes on paper napkins, send voice mails to an answering service, and wear pagers. Characters voice their thoughts in narration. The camera angles and just direction is dynamite and I can’t help myself but fall in love with it.The women in Chungking Express (1994) wear sunglasses. Wong Kar-Wai’s direction here is some of the best I’ve ever seen in cinema. The true essence of love is so beautifully explored here, and the performances as well is just magnetic, amazing stuff to watch.
They frequent restaurants without white tablecloths, bars and clubs shrouded in curtains and lit in neon. Everything is plated or wrapped to go. They drink whiskey, doubles, black coffee and cola. They eat their meals on the street or don’t eat at all. They have many things to say and no time.
Cop 223 is undercover, never in uniform.Woman in a blonde wig (Brigitte Lin) is a drug smuggler who loses her drugs. One of the things that bothered me about Chunking was how many times they cued California Dreaming.Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) smiles easily, eats constantly, and pines for May, the woman who recently dumped him. Just watched Chungking Express and after reading the high praise it got Im very confused.
In mourning, he wants to comfort someone who like him needs to be comforted. He is about to turn 25, and his girlfriend May has not returned. She smokes, shoots a pistol, pushes men around, kidnaps a child for a short while, drinks whiskey, and meets by chance Cop 223 in a late night bar. Her disguise, a belted trenchcoat and white satin heels, has become for her what is real, “If I put on a rain coat I wear sun glasses too.” Her lips are dark red. Woman in a blonde wig channels Sterling Hayden if he were to channel Marilyn Monroe. She outfits them in tailored suits, custom shoes their wives pad their stomachs to look pregnant.
She could get lost if she wanted. Like slurred speech, the camera moves in slow motion following Woman in a blonde wig as she looks for the men who have disappeared. One can imagine how busy it is, how big it must be. The drug mules have vanished with her cargo at the airport.Hong Kong is a destination, an international city with many languages.
Three songs play throughout the film, two about dreams and dreaming and the other about time. He isn’t the prince who wakes her up with a kiss, but a kind person who gives her a place to rest.The two stories in Chungking Express don’t intertwine. As he leaves he takes off her heels and with his tie wipes them clean. He spent the night in a hotel room high above the city eating and watching old movies on the TV set with Woman in a blonde wig fully clothed asleep on the bed. He calls his birthday a historic day though only one person calls to leave him a message. The image of her with black hair is blurred as though she is a butterfly beating her wings in transformation.Cop 223 will be ok because he is a romantic.
She knows the world is dangerous. Like Cop 223 she is searching for who she was jilted by. Before her drug mules ran away, she was in control.
The flight attendant has long hair, Faye’s hair is close cut. He is mournful not bitter. Cop 663 wishes his girlfriend hadn’t left. She fills Cop 663’s food and drink orders. Cop 663 switches to black coffee.Faye (Faye Wong), the waitress at Midnight Express, listens to California Dreamin’ as loud as her boombox will go. Woman in a blonde wig has her uniform.Cop 663 (Tony Leung) orders the chef salad night after night til his girlfriend, a flight attendant (Valerie Chow), leaves him a note and returns his key in an envelope.
Cop 223 says in the beginning, “We all have our habits…we all get our hearts broken sometimes.” There is a way to go about your day and still be surprised.In Chungking Express the characters are sleepwalking and daydreaming. They will meet again but only after she has been to California and he has become the waiter at Midnight Express.The four characters have their routines. Faye writes Cop 663 a letter that he leaves out in the rain. He opens his door and finds her inside. Shy, she wants to be there when he is not there. She takes the key and lets herself into his apartment.
Thus Cop 663’s story can begin. Now I’ll remember her all my life.” Cop 223’s story can end because he has been seen, his presence has been a balm to a person in need.
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