453 Chungking Express

[Michael]

I agree with oldsheperd that there is not much of a relationship between Tony and Faye on the surface. They don't really talk or get to know each other much. Their interaction is all very banal... on paper.

But it's the language of cinema that firmly establishes this relationship and invests me in it every single time. When the pair leans over the counter as California Dreamin' blasts, I can't help but feel I'm looking at a romance, even if what they're saying is as plain as "I like Caesar Salad".

Faye is in love with California Dreamin', not the cop. This is her summer love of California Dreamin'. She sees how wounded that Cop is and moves to create a fantasy world to bring him out of the heartbreak, the sweet recovery in which he communicates with new inanimate objects and wears new shirts, all thanks to Faye. This piece of the film is not about their romance in the traditional sense (a la The Notebook). If it was romance, Faye would had never left, she left to explore her love that was California.

[Jun-Dai]

One of the things I like about Faye Wong's character is the way she sort of injects herself into Tony Leung's world where he is, well, pretty completely self-absorbed. In real life, of course, it would be pretty creepy. But many (if not most) great romantic films would be pretty creepy if played out in real life. Her one-sided obsession with Tony Leung is not unlike Takeshi Kaneshiro's one-sided obsession with Brigitte Lin, and that's part of what joins the stories together (and what joins the stories together with both of the stories in Fallen Angels, which has two more one-sided obsessions, although in that film they sort of end up turning in on each other in a nice way).

The only reason I'm fixating (counter-fixating?) on this point is that the Faye Wong–Tony Leung story is the main reason I like Chungking so much. I still prefer Fallen Angels, but partly because the Brigitte Lin story really doesn't do it for me (though Brigitte Lin is herself quite mesmerizing in the role). Other than that, I like both films so much I think they should just get married and have kids.

[oldsheperd]

I'm sure that if I were younger I would be more susceptible to the charm and romance of the second story. Now that's just me personally and I'm not saying you have to be young to see the charm and romance.

I just don't understand how May is any kind of catalyst for 663 getting out of the duldrums of his break up. She changes things in his place yet he still talks to inanimate objects. Without May's intervention 663 seems to be working through his ordeal just fine by himself. So based on this perception anything May does ends up being peripheral. To me May is just a lady who likes to play games, act coy and act like everything she does is cute and charming.

[Bomby]

I am also with the majority when it comes to the first story vs. second story debate in Chungking Express. I feel like the amount of time in which this section takes place is very open to interpretation (although I cannot remember at this time whether or not the audience can clearly see the date in the shot of her letter to Mr. 633). It's as if its a compilation of their memories together, that could be spanning out over only a few weeks to perhaps a few months. In terms of its realism, it could be compared to having a "crush" on a classmate or someone who lives in the same apartment complex or dormitory in which the only contact is very brief, and often regarding simple things, like laundry or a lecture: when remembering that person, who you may have been acquainted with for only a few months, it plays out like a compilation of those little moments, with the time between each interaction seeming like an irrelevant waste.

Perhaps the dormitory crush comparison is apt for me, as I first saw Chungking Express on the Miramax DVD in my dorm room on a lonely night during my freshman year of college. I had seen In the Mood for Love about a month earlier for an assignment on cinematography in my Intro to Film studies class, and was very impressed. Despite that, from the moment I began the film, I was not prepared to be as delighted as I was. Usually when I watch a film, I won't want to see it again for a few months, but I felt myself wanting to watch it again the very next day. It didn't take but a few weeks for it to dethrone Seven Samurai for the number one spot on my "official" list of my favorite films ever.

Although I have not yet seen Mala Noche, another film which has a similar feel to Chungking Express which I feel would be good for a double-feature would be Shunji Iwai's Love Letter. While it's definitely not as good as Wong's film, it has much of the sense of excitement within an unorthodox romance that made Chungking Express such a delight.

Some critics in HK give Chris Doyle a lot of credit for Wong's style/international success, and see Fruit Chan as a more innovative and original home-grown director.

As long ago as this was posted, I'd like to respond to it anyway. While Chris Doyle does deserve some credit for Wong's success, it is not as big of a slice of credit as these critics would like you to believe. A simple comparison between Doyle's films with Wong and his films with other directors shows a stark contrast in style, and usually lack the same results. For example, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Last Life in the Universe, while beautifully shot, felt a bit more contrived than Wong's films.

If any of you have seen Doyle's directorial debut, Away With Words, which is generally considered to be a disaster (though I do have a fondness for it), Wong's importance becomes more clear. It seemed like Doyle was attempting to create a Wong Kar Wai film, and the results just don't show.

[oldsheperd]

McKenzie Phillips' new revelations in her book have totally changed this movie for me. Now I'll think of Phillips banging her Dad whenever I hear California Dreamin'

[AtlantaFella]

McKenzie Phillips' new revelations in her book have totally changed this movie for me. Now I'll think of Phillips banging her Dad whenever I hear California Dreamin'

I was thinking the same thing today (sans graphic mental imagery)... I wonder if WKW now wishes he had chosen a different song.

[souvenir]

Don't you have to separate everything along the lines of artistic merits outweighing future knowledge of personal affairs? Do you also picture Gloria Grahame and her stepson while watching In a Lonely Place or Shadows?

[oldsheperd]

I do.

[agnamaracs]

Question: on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not at all, and 10 being StudioCanal, what is the likelihood of this going out of print before the year is over?

[Peacock]

1

[domino harvey]

May 1

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Interestingly, the officially stated size of the Miramax catalog has dropped from 700 to 600 titles since it went on the block about six months ago. It seems Disney is allowing Miramax's old pickups to lapse while they look for a buyer. That doesn't necessarily mean CKE specifically is at any short-term risk, and of course if Miramax does lose it, then Janus/Criterion could always step in and license it directly from Block 2 or whoever.

[dad1153]

Watched "Chungking Express" on Blu-ray over the weekend for the first time. My first Wong Kar-Wai movie (and a blind buy at that) for which I had absolutely no expectations going in. All I knew (from skip-reading this thread) was (a) it had two stories set in Hong Kong, (b) it was somewhat-romantic and (c) it used California Dreamin' over-and-over as a hymn of sorts. That last detail is what tempted me to blind-buy "CE." As someone that can become obsessed with a particular song and hear it over and over past most people's repetition threshold (I'll only confess to one: ABBA's 'SOS' ) the idea that a movie could reflect this peculiarity without becoming overbearing appealed to me. Worst case scenario if I didn't like the movie is that I could resell the Blu-ray and lose a little money. Well, not only am I NOT going to be selling my BD anytime soon but, after three viewings (one with Tony Rayns' helpful commentary) I'm doomed to think of Faye Wong's shades whenever I hear California Dreamin' on the radio. "CE" is a freakin' great (though not perfect) movie. I would seriously like someone to do a home edit of the movie WITHOUT the voice-overs by all main characters. Though I warmed up to them by the third viewing (and Rayns makes a good point that they're necessary to fill backstory since the shoot was so quick and semi-improvised as it was being made) I think the movie would be a little better if we didn't hear the monotone voices of the protagonists. Just an observation from a Non-Cantonese speaker that felt the VO voices came across a little bit flat.

My first viewing left me cold but not indifferent to the movie's charms, both technical and story-wise. The framey slo-mo shots inside the Chungking House looked terrible and, for the most part, Takishi Kaneshiro's portrayal of a lovelorn cop felt sanitized and too-cute-by-half (though not to the nauseating degree that it would in an American rom-com). Cop 223's 'we've all been here' scenes felt genuine though, as if they were the heart of the movie and not the 'missing drug mules' crime story. But holy shit at Brigitte Lin's 'Gwailo' femme fatale! A totally bad-ass character in a movie where she didn't seem to belong. I actually looked forward to the inevitable meeting between 223 and this mystery lady ('57 hours later') but I felt mildly disappointed in the payoffs to both these character's stories. If anything is 'Godardian' about "Chungking Express" (I know, I know... can of worms!) is the first half's need to cram a 'noir' type genre plot/character into what is basically 223's 'day in the life' innocent life-changing romantic story.

Then lightning literally strikes the movie when Tony Leung walks into Faye Wong's POV to the sound of California Dreamin'... holy shit, what a fucking entrance! And Faye's Chinese cover version of The Cranberries' Dreams song? Pop music perfection as BGM means the 2nd half of "CE" is already halfway where it's going before it's over (and instantly gave The WB dramas of the 1990's and early 2000's their modus operandi to express character feelings! ). I don't want to simplify my appreciation to the whole second story with a simplistic 'the movie had me at hello' line, but that's pretty much what happened while retroactively making me appreciate what Kar-Wai was selling in the first story. Chis Doyle taking over the cinematography also helped as the camera became less 'shaky' and more 'fly on the wall' non-obtrusive (even though it never really stops moving). Yes, Faye is a love-it/hate-it type of character (the dreamer in his/her own world) but for the context of what Kar-Wai was trying to say she not only sells the role but embodies one interpretation of what a hopeless romantic is like. Leung embodies the other (I couldn't help but think of a less-insane-but-equally-demented D'Onofrio talking to 'Charlene' in "Full Metal Jacket" when Cop 663 talked to his inanimate objects) and, by the movie's final scene, came to believe these two could be either good friends or soul mates. I'm not crazy about open-ended endings but the one in "CE" (which is somewhat mirrored in "Lost In Translation") is just about perfect: feel free to make of 663 and Faye's relationship as you please or feel, but the beat (of the unheard-by-us music still playing at the Midnight Express music box) goes on regardless.

My second and third viewings (the latter with Rayns' commentary) solidified my appreciation for the 2nd story and helped me appreciate (though not necessarily love) the first half more, particularly the expiration date gags, the presence of India residents in HK at the time (they're also Faye's co-workers at the Midnight Express, something that I didn't notice the first time) and how the exit of Brigitte Li's character from the movie (and of the actress from cinema forever) may have been set in motion by 223's actions without him even knowing it! I LOL'ed so hard when I saw Faye walking out of the shop with the giant Garfield right next to Brigitte! As a 37 year-old single guy living alone in NYC for almost 15 years I can sympathize with oldsheperd's assertion that, if I had seen the movie in my 20's, it would have resonated more powerfully with my younger self then than it did now (overlooking, of course, that the 'dad1153' of 1994 wouldn't even had known where to see "CE" in theaters). But you'd have to be a stone-cold corpse to not have feelings and memories of lovelorn obsessions, partners and soul mates (real or imagined) that shaped your life into the person you are today. That's the nostalgic fuel that propels "CE" forward, which personally reminded me of "The Third Man" and "Clerks" (someone should have made a semi-improvised movie set exclusively at the Midnight Express with 'Piggy' Cham Kam-chuen as the comic relief guy and 'Richard' in the Randall role; instant laughter guaranteed! ) more than "Breathless" or "Masculin feminin." Cost me thirty bucks and tax to join the party but I'm fully onboard the "Chungking Express" from now 'til...

P.S.: the 'Moving Pictures' featurette has a portion of the scene when 663 and Faye first meet, and in it California Dreamin' is really cranked way up. I freakin' loved the effect and apparently Kar-Wai downmixed the loudness for this Criterion version. Has this been officially confirmed? I also loved the scenes when the song (and Dreams) is used, but were ALL the scenes with songs in BOTH movies played equally as loud or just California Dreamin'? Call me crazy but I might track an inferior-looking R1 DVD version of "CE" if I'm certain to get the music blasting like it does in the 'Moving Pictures' featurette. That doesn't make me weird, does it?

P.P.S.: how on Earth did Miramax get the MPAA to pass "CE" with a PG rating (per the included theatrical trailer)? Between Brigitte's shootout at Chungking House and Valerie Chow's provocative scenes at 663's apartment when they were together this is about the most boundary-pushing PG flick that I can think of since the mid-80's (when the Spielberg flicks forced the creation of PG-13). Any other post-'85 PG movie that has gotten away with as much flesh and violence as "CE" did in '94?

[Tom Hagen]

Do you watch every movie you see for the first time several times over a period of a few days? You've mentioned similar things in other threads . . . I'm not criticizing it, but it just seems so exhausting.

[dad1153]

^^^ Again, single guy in my 30's living alone in the city. Plus I like to stay up until late (usually 2-3AM) and can get by on four hours' sleep (more on weekends). And it's rare for a movie to make me want to see it again or soon after seeing it for the first time (I also watched "Summer Hours" and Kasdan's "Wyatt Earp" over the weekend and liked them a lot, but not second-viewing-right-away-or-any-time-soon good) so "CE" joins an elite group that is getting semi-frequent (most recently "Vivre Sa Vie").

[CrazedCollector]

P.S.: the 'Moving Pictures' featurette has a portion of the scene when 663 and Faye first meet, and in it California Dreamin' is really cranked way up. I freakin' loved the effect and apparently Kar-Wai downmixed the loudness for this Criterion version. Has this been officially confirmed? I also loved the scenes when the song (and Dreams) is used, but were ALL the scenes with songs in BOTH movies played equally as loud or just California Dreamin'? Call me crazy but I might track an inferior-looking R1 DVD version of "CE" if I'm certain to get the music blasting like it does in the 'Moving Pictures' featurette. That doesn't make me weird, does it?

Not weird at all. I tracked down the Artisan and Gaumont DVDs of Last Emperor after I got the Criterion set and Blu, for the correct non-revisionist aspect ratio.

[med]

Re: the film's rating, I can't explain the presence of the PG in the trailer, but it actually ended up with a PG-13 when it had its US theatrical release.

[dad1153]

^^^ Thanks for clarifying, the flick seemed too much for even an open-minded interpretation of PG. PG-13 is fine for "CE" (still inappropriate for "Princess Mononoke" IMO, particularly for pretty graphic beheadings that also snuck under the PG-13 banner in Cruise's "Knight and Day").

[knives]

Violence is okay as long as you don't say naughty words.

[dad1153]

What about sexually suggestive scenes that don't show too much skin though? Or am I the only one with a filthy mind that thought of the toy planes 663 was playing with as phallic substitutes (especially in the half-second-through-the-curtains silhouette shot with Chow in her bra)?

[dad1153]

Saw "CE" again over the 4th of July weekend. The more I watch this the more I'm falling in love with it, and anticipating my eventual dive into Kar-Wai's other 90's work ("Fallen Angels" and "Happy Together," which I already bought from Kino Blu-ray). Before seeing "CE" two weeks ago I didn't realize that I had no idea who the Cramberries were, or that they once had a hit song called "Dreams" in the early 90's that my brain simply registered as background noise in promos, commercials and other movies. The same way many claim they can't hear "California Dreaming" without thinking of this movie or Faye Wong is how I feel about the Chinese version of "Dreams" (sung by Wong), which is in permanent rotation in the innards of my brain and on my MP3 player. Help!!!!

[knives]

You'll love Happy Together, my favorite of his.

[ShellOilJunior]

Question: on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not at all, and 10 being StudioCanal, what is the likelihood of this going out of print before the year is over?

Looks like it might be a casualty this year or a result of the Miramax shakeup...

[dx23]

Anyone know why the Blu-ray of Chungking Express went OOP but the DVD didn't?

[domino harvey]

Anyone know why the Blu-ray of Chungking Express went OOP but the DVD didn't?

The DVD of the Leopard made that list too. It's still for sale on Criterion's site, so I took it as a mistake or maybe there's multiple UPCs (one for the digipak and one for the new case, maybe?)