Chungking Express (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Apr 17, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Wong Kar-waiRelease Date(s)
1994 (April 15, 2025)Studio(s)
Jet Tone Production Co., Ltd./Miramax Films (The Criterion Collection – Spine #453)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B-
Review
Chungking Express unreels two parallel dramas in a wildly kinetic film whose inventive camera work, use of color, overwhelming sound design and brisk editing often dominate the simple stories being told. Both are set in rain-soaked, claustrophobic Hong Kong, and each involves a police officer and unrequited love.
In the first story, Detective 223, He Qiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro), longs for his ex-girlfriend May and is frustrated that she avoids the Chungking Express snack bar where they used to meet and hasn’t answered any of his phone messages. He decides to purchase, for a month, numerous cans of pineapple that expire on his birthday, May 1st. If she doesn’t return his calls by then, he will assume that their relationship, like the canned pineapple, has expired. While he waits, hoping for May’s call, he encounters a mysterious woman in a trench coat and blonde wig (Brigitte Lin). This woman is trying to find the gangsters who botched a recent smuggling job so she can kill them before they kill her. Detective 223 winds up falling in love with her.
The second story focuses on Faye (Faye Wong), a worker at the Chungking Express, who is the secret admirer of Detective 663 (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) and doesn’t know how to make him notice her. His former partner, a flight attendant, knows he’s a regular at the snack bar and brings Faye a note along with a key to the detective’s bachelor pad. Faye skips work and sneaks into the detective’s apartment when he’s at work, cleans and redecorates it, but inadvertently kills some of his fish and floods the place in the process.
The parallel story approach isn’t new, but in Chungking Express, the two stories are unrelated except that they each offer a perspective on love and the two leading male characters are detectives. While this approach can be disorienting as we attempt to pick out common threads, it draws us into the characters’ motivations. The film has an improvisational look that makes it stand out. Apparently, the script was filmed in sequence and was written as the film was being shot. Director Wong Kar Wai uses cinematic techniques to underscore themes of loneliness and the desire for love, presenting the stories through a flurry of dazzling visual effects.
Wong’s camera sweeps through crowds, unsure of where it will settle. There are swish pans that blur images, extensive use of hand-held camera, mirrored images, a glow emanating from myriad candles, several montage sequences, vibrant color, and light reflecting off shiny, moving surfaces. This film is constantly in motion, demanding that the viewer keep up. Rather than distance us with so much visual intensity, the film succeeds in making us care about the characters, whether they’re self-deluded, innocent, aggressive, or oblivious.
Of the four main characters, Lin’s seems to be transplanted from an American film noir of the 1940s. Hers is the most substantial storyline in the film and lacks the lightness and humor of the rest of the film. When we first meet her, she’s enigmatic, and the gradual revelations erupt in gunfire.
Wong’s characters are lonely people living in their own world. Other feelings are repressed by their loneliness. This results in emotional tension that short-circuits their ability to commit and sometimes leaves them abandoned when they fail to see it coming. The director points out that change is unavoidable and inevitable. Nothing endures forever. The theme isn’t presented as a downer, however, but as just one of life’s realities.
Chungking Express was shot by director of photography Christopher Doyle on 35 mm film with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.66:1. For Criterion’s Blu-ray re-release, the 4K restoration was supervised and approved by director Wong Kar Tai from the 35 mm original camera negative. Colors are bold and vivid, literally dazzling the eye. The use of reds is especially notable. Clarity overall is excellent. Details such as signs, Lin’s trench coat, objects in 663’s apartment, and police uniforms are nicely delineated.
The soundtrack is Cantonese 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Optional English subtitles are available. Despite the language barrier, dialogue seems to be clear and distinct, though actors do speak quickly. California Dreamin’ by The Mamas and the Papas is played a great deal as a kind of leitmotif for two of the characters. Directional stereo effects are especially good and create an excellent sense of being in the action.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection include the following:
- Interview with Cinematographer Christopher Doyle (10:20)
- Episode of Moving Pictures (12:12)
- Deleted Scenes (15:35)
- Trailer (2:42)
Interview with Christopher Doyle – Filmed in 2002, this brief interview features Doyle in various Hong Kong locations used in Chungking Express. Doyle comments on how much the city has changed in the eight years since he filmed there. With its ever-changing face, Hong Kong can seem to transform overnight. His biggest challenge was when he could get sunlight and when he couldn’t. Because of nature’s unpredictability, “a style based on no options became some sort of style.” Endless rain added production value and didn’t necessitate a rain machine. Clips from the film are shown when Doyle speaks about specific locations and scenes. One location was the longest escalator in the world. Doyle wanted locations to represent both old and new Hong Kong. Though filmmaking is technical, he notes, it also involves emotion.
Episode of Moving Pictures – In this 1996 episode of the British television series Moving Pictures, both director Wong Kar Wai and director of photography Christopher Doyle discuss their work and aesthetics of filmmaking. Wong says that, as director, he has to know the place and the people well in order to film in a particular location. Hong Kong is “fast and confusing. Anything can happen.” Wong and Doyle tour locations used in Chungking Express. Doyle shows off his apartment, which was used as Tony Leung’s character’s apartment. Wong speaks briefly about his earlier films, claiming he changes his style from time to time depending on a film’s subject. They point out scenes that had a monochromatic look, and examples from the film are shown. In Hong Kong, requirements for film companies are highly organized. Doyle hopes that, with his efforts, Chungking Express reflects the “poetry of life.”
Deleted Scenes – Director Wong Kar Wai discusses three scenes that were eliminated prior to release and the reasons they were cut. English subtitles accompany his comments. The scenes are The Star, California Dreaming, and Baroque.
Booklet – The enclosed accordion-style booklet contains the essay Electric Youth by Amy Taubin, cast and crew credits, information about the restoration, and color photos from the film.
Chungking Express is a look into the urban essence of the heavily populated island of Hong Kong. It has a spontaneous feel that singles it out from many scripted films, but occasionally the two story arcs get muddled. The rapid editing and switching back and forth between stories can be somewhat jarring and confusing until you get used to the rhythm of the film. It takes time to grasp the relationships, partly because of the pace and the film’s non-linear narrative. A commentary on love, loss, connection, and the unpredictability of emotion, Chungking Express is a handsome film, from its actors to its set design, cinematography, and use of color.
- Dennis Seuling