Asian Cinema: Chung King Express

(Chungking Express, 1994)

I am surprised that we were screening Chinese film, but at the same time I was like having a thought of will I understand what is the film telling. I had watched one movie before that is directed by Wong Kar Wai director, which I also cannot fully understand what is the director trying to convey the messages to us.

There are two story included in one film and the main characters of the second story can be seen in the first story frequently. When the first story's protagonist came out from the snack bar he always go, he met the heroine of the second story, who is the cousin of the snack bar's owner.

(The mysterious blonde wig woman and Cop 223 was in the bar.) 

The first story's plot is about the protagonist, Cop 223, who had broke up with his girlfriend and met a mysterious blonde wig woman that is involved in drug smuggling.On May 1, the protagonist approached the woman in blonde wig. In hotel, nothing happen but only sleeping, watching TV program and eating. He shined her shoes before he left the hotel for jogging. After she left the hotel, she shot the drug baron who had set her up. He received a message from her wishing him happy birthday. He then went to the snack bar and met a new worker, Faye,  who is the heroine for the second story.

(Cop 663 was helping Faye to take the stocks. )

The second story's plot is about another cop, Cop 663, who is also dealing with his broke up and Faye secretly felled for him. Faye often used the key that is supposedly give back to the protagonist, given by a flight attendant, to break into the protagonist's house to redecorate and "improve" his living quality. Cop 663 eventually found out Faye likes him and Faye did not show up for the date, but her cousin did, told him she had left to California and she had left a boarding pass drawn on a napkin. The last scene was Faye, a flight attendant went back to the snack bar and discovered it had been bought by the protagonist.

In this film,  the use of color in the film are most likely colored with the cold color scheme, especially green and blue tone which are significant for the feeling of sadness. These tones are often used in the director, Wong Kar Wai's films to represent although they are different scenes but having the same situation. For instances, for the first story, Cop 233 is in the mood of depression as he knew that his love is like the pineapple can has an expired date. As for the second story, the Cop 663 is also in the mood of frustrated after he realized that Faye had left without saying anything.

(First story: Cop 223 was eating the pineapple can after realizing that his girlfriend will never come back to him.)

(Second story: Cop 633 was waiting for the 'boarding pass' to be dried after Faye left Hong Kong.)

The director,Wong Kar Wai, also had applied the effect of using hand-held shooting in several scenes in the first story. Hand-held shooting can gives out the effect of how chaotic the situation is and also shows the distance of the protagonist's journey to get to one thing or one person. For examples, the scene that Cop 223 was chasing a criminal, to show the difficulties and chaotic, the scene are very shaky compared to others. And the scene that the mystery blonde wig woman was chasing by the Indians after shooting several peoples, it has also have used the hand-held shooting to present the nervous and chaotic situation.

(Cop 223 was chasing a criminal.)

(The mystery blonde wig woman was running away from the Indians.)

In the use of the audio's choice, the films that are directed by Wong Kar Wai have rarely used the Cantonese song as the background music, unless the song itself is close to what the scene is presenting. We can saw the choice of background music by just watching this film. When the mystery blonde wig woman was in the Indians Street, the BGM has based on the scene chosen the Indian song. Another BGM that has based on the scene is the English songs that is played in the snack bar, Cop 633's house and restaurant.

(The mystery blonde wig woman was in the Indian Street.)

(Faye was dancing in the Cop 633's house while listening to the music.)

References:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/02/Chungking_ost.jpg/220px-Chungking_ost.jpg
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https://d2ycltig8jwwee.cloudfront.net/features/216/fullwidth.982cfbd5.jpeg
https://pantalladesombras.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/chungkingexpressmintmovie-com-31.jpg
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https://sofiabroadcast.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/chungking-1.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/35/c3/8f/35c38f33922b44183b2711d2e9c35611--chungking-express-faye-wong.jpg