Chungking Express

Composite Score: 81.7

Starring: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Faye Wong, Valerie Chow, and Piggy Chan

Director: Kar-Wai Wong

Writer: Kar-Wai Wong

Genres: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violence, sexuality, and drug content

Box Office: $1.50 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Chungking Express follows the loosely connected stories of two police officers who have recently been left by their significant others and their subsequent escapades back into romance. The film is split into two parts, one following Takeshi Kaneshiro’s Officer 223 as he gets over his break-up with May before meeting a beautiful criminal and falling in love with her, the other following Tony Leung’s Officer 663 who experiences heartbreak when his girlfriend leaves him but finds potential romance in the restaurant employee who serves him while on duty each night. The film’s parallels, comparisons, and contrasts of the two men and their love lives speak to deeper realities of love, heartbreak, and the relationships we form. The film’s unique plot structure invites deep analysis and examination from its audience, while its simple tales of romance keep even the most cursory audience members engaged throughout the film.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                For some film viewers, Chungking Express’s loosely connected narrative might be frustrating, as the film spends its first forty or so minutes following Officer 223 and the Woman in a Blonde Wig as they navigate heartbreak and the Hong Kong underworld, at first separately and then eventually together and its last hour investing in the story of Officer 663 and Faye and their flirtations and potential romance. For people wanting each character to be tied to a central plot, such a narrative structure could be disappointing or frustrating. The only area of crossover between the two stories is the late-night restaurant where Officer 663 meets Faye and where Officer 223 uses the telephone to call May after she dumps him. It is a unique storytelling device, highlighting the interconnectedness of the mundane pieces of our lives, but it might not be enough to satisfy those looking for deeper connections between story lines.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Chungking Express explores the depths of our loves in relationships. It looks at the things that drive us apart, the things that bring us together, and everything else in between. For 223, he was determined to remain in love with May for an entire month after she broke up with him, mirroring our own desire to keep relationships and love alive even after their time has ended. He goes so far as to deliver the incredibly deep line, “If memories could be canned, would they have expiration dates? If so, I hope they last for centuries.” This beautiful line delivered in a voiceover by Takeshi Kaneshiro speaks to the extent to which we continue to cherish the memories of loves and friendships even after loss and breakup and pain. For 663, he did not seem to know how to love outside of a lucky encounter with his stewardess girlfriend. He attempted to bar her from choice – bringing her at first only chef’s salads to eat – and ultimately lost her when she was introduced to other options. With Faye, 663 had to learn, just as we do in our own relationships, to recognize the individual that he was falling in love with and understand her wants and needs and that they did not necessarily have to coincide with his own, ultimately bringing him a more successful, if more painful, relationship by the film’s end.

                A unique plot structure combined with deftly delivered truths about the nature of love and our relationships with other people are what make Chungking Express one of the Greatest Films of All Time. To detract from it for a lack of narrative cohesion seems to miss the broader point of the film – that each of us is on our own journey, and sometimes those journeys bring us together and other times break us apart, but no matter what, every person is at some point deserving of love. It is a hopeful and raw film, embracing the complexities of relationships that romances can at times hesitate diving into, making it worthy of its place on the list of Great Films and worth watching for sure.