Chungking Express (1996)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Very well executed

A Brilliant Conflict

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Story surrounding two recently dumped cops falling for two tsunderes (women with cold appearances but cuddly hearts) .. Romantic comedy featuring amazing cinematography with a multitude of color palettes and lighting schemes , and the choppy frame editing providing either rushed, hurried, or stagnating feeling--------------------------------------------------------------------Cop 223: He splits up with his girl of 5 years on April Fool's, and believing it's a bad prank he eats her favorite meal, a can of pineapples, once a day until his birthday a month later. He vows when his birthday arrives he'll move on from his past girlfriend and fall in love with the next woman he lays eyes on ..That woman happens to be a cocaine dealer disguised in a raincoat, shades, and a blond wig. After a deal gone wrong, she's hunting for the men who set her up , when she has a fated encounter with Cop 223. It only lasts for a night, a restless night, as both want each other's company but fail to understand each other's feelings, instead spending the night tossing and turning in the bed and through t.v. channels …Cop 663: The California Dream Tale .. He visits a local coffee shop everyday in hopes he'll run into a flight hostess he had a one-night with. As he shares his stories of loneliness with the workers, the cousin of the owner - Faye - slowly begins to fall in love with the man. One night, the flight hostess goes to the coffee shop and returns the Cop's keys with a letter. The Cop doesn't want the letter (so he can keep dreaming of her return) and asks for Faye to hold on to it until he's ready. Few days later Faye runs into the Cop while he's on break and the rest is history …..She begins sneaking into his house when he's not home and redecorates. The Cop suspects someone is in his home but doesn't mind the company. Eventually she gets busted twice , but instead of admitting her affection for the cop, she escapes on a "plane" to California and leaves the cop a message to wait for her for one year …..8.5/10 …. Feels like a personal home video, a man with a camera venturing Hong Kong taking romantic shots of his friends 100/10 in the name of changing the game of cinematography

Writer / Director Kar-Wai Wong's Chungking Express is surprising on many levels. While this is a simple Bachelors looking for love story at the outset Tony Chiu-Wai Leung (Cop 663) and Takeshi Kaneshiro(He Zhiwu, Cop 223). The females -Faye Wong (Faye), Brigitte Lin Woman in blonde wig (as Ching-hsia Lin), and Valerie Chow (Air Hostess) are all interesting company. The story weaves through the Chungking Express restaurant. The strange thing is the using of the Mamas & Papas California Dreaming as a theme relating to all these relationships.4 Years before The Blair Witch Project, this movie employs the same filming technique. The other surprise to me was the visuals Director Wong used in this movie. There are amazing visuals that are even more advanced than Blair Witch would be 5 years later. The way the director does chase scenes, jogging scenes, and uses mirrors and unique camera angles in this film make it a unique visual experience.Visually, this might be the most under appreciated film around. There are visuals here that would still be miles ahead of the CGI stuff that are now nowhere near this level. Between the outstanding visuals and a fine acting job by the cast, and a better than the average film by a mile.There are comedy elements which can make the viewer smile, though I have to admit I cringed when one actor ate 30 cans of sliced pineapple in one sitting. While I like Pineapple, for me this is a bit extreme sacrifice to make because your love has gone. I understand the Driector had 2 other projects going around the same time as this film. Still, the script is a different sort of romance and the visuals he employs in the film are simply amazing. Filmed on location in Hong Kong, and look for the American Corporate Logos in this film.

One centimetre separates the two stories of Chungking Express. Two cops drift in the aftermath of the breakdown of long term relationships. Cop 223 wanders and buys cans of pineapples, hoping that their expiry dates are just false promises and that he will be given a second chance. Cop 663 stops by the Midnight Express food stall each night on his shift, but cannot seem to move on from his stewardess ex-girlfriend. This is the night-life of Hong Kong at its most vivid, taking its cues from the French New Wave; the hand-held camera barrels around cramped alleyways and corners bursting with the hum drum of the makeshift shops, neon signage and lights are deliberately overexposed, and each setting carries its own colour coding. The streets are cool blue, crowded yet lonely. Cop 223's apartment is sterile and bathed in green; he's one of those people that get super tidy after a breakup, instead of the opposite. The bar has an orange-red glow where he negotiates a lonely encounter with our other primary character, a drug dealer with a blonde wig, coat and sunglasses. There is also the step-printing effect that this movie is famous for - replicating frames which creates the staggering, blurry effect that would normally be associated with a drop in frame rate and shutter speed. This ups the kinetic chase scenes to almost sensory overload; the dim hallways, the multicoloured lights streaking all along the streets, car horns blaring from all directions. Wong Kar Wai isolates these characters within a paradox; they wander the streets of Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, but find themselves to be lonely at the end of each night. More than once, we find ourselves staring at Faye compartmentalised and squished between the shelves in the frame, with a sort of voyeuristic longing behind the gaze. Doyle and co. will use strong telephoto lenses to enhance this theme; one choice scene involves Leung beckoning her to lean in before whispering a joke. While they may be mere centimetres from one another, the focus instead has his face crisp and in the foreground while hers is further away and blurred. There is no better way to express 'close yet so far away'. The most iconic technique is the way WKW freezes our primary characters in these little moments while the rest of the Hong Kong crowd bustles and rushes past them. It's a breathtaking effect that locks them down within their own small pocket of eternity. The first instance is the most striking scene in the film; the big doe eyes of Faye staring across at Leung as he seeks to indefinitely delay the bad news and finality of what lies inside the envelope. Later this feeling is visualised the same way again, as he waits for a date that will never show, distracting himself by pushing coins into a jukebox. These seconds drag on agonisingly while the city rushes on, careless of their little crisis. Some detractors have complained about the repetition of the soundtrack and how it drones on and on. I think this marks, to some extent, the difference of attitudes and contexts of the western and eastern viewer. We are blessed to have musical and media overload, to have chart-topping hits at the touch of a button and more musical range than we could ever consume. For the Hong Kong of Chungking Express, pop songs leak through, and those that do, are treasured dearly. See how the camera sways in motion to a working Faye as she dances to California Dreaming for the umpteenth time. For her, it represents not literal California (although she does visit, and it isn't up to the fantasy), but the desire to escape the rat race of Hong Kong and travel. For Cop 663, it is that hazy, dreamlike apartment that she shared with his ex which contained all his love and comfort. As the cinematography overexposes the light coming in through the windows in those nostalgic rooms, it links itself to the reconciliation scene in the convenience store where the lights blare just as brightly and he finally finds his closure. Time for a new 'California'.

Chungking Express is a tale about connectedness, coincidence, old habits and love. The movie dives more into the idea that people can be in the same place at a different time. There are even scenes where characters are in the same place at the same time, but they are completely unaware. This is the theme of the film. The director cleverly showed the distance between people and capturing the moments of spontaneous contacts. The setting is 1994 Hong Kong where the urban streets and buildings seem to be part of the story as silent witnesses on the characters. The mood has a note of nostalgia on it, like you know this feeling before but you cannot pin point why or how. And as the title of the film is derived from two places in Hong Kong – Chungking Mansion and Midnight Express – so is the movie presenting two stories of detached cops and how they cope up with their lost love. The two stories are unrelated, however, and are presented one after the other.It is truly majestic. There is a certain charm about this film, a sort of dreamlike quality.