Michael Mendez Yes! -- Kar-Wai Wong has done it again, and this time he has mixed up his style a bit. I have seen most of his work, but nothing compares to the strange and utter feeling you get whilst watching Chungking Express.This film is a two-parter: One story shows a couple-days-in-the-life of He Zhiwu aka Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who pathetically tries pursuing his ex-girlfriend, May, who is NOW moving on. He buys almost-expired pineapple in can's to figuratively look at how his relationship with her really is. HE IS NOT ALL THAT BAD THOUGH; we do sympathize for his loneliness. It is when he meets a blonde, mysterious drug dealing beauty with a raincoat and glasses, that his world (sort of) changes forever.The second part, and probably the more bigger story, is about another cop from the same part of China, who's name is not really said. The cast-list only refers to him as "Cop 663" (played by Wong's alter-ego, Tony Chiu Wai Leung), who patiently is waiting for love to find him; not as assertive as our first protagonist, but still carries a great story. When he finds Faye, a woman working at a stand for her cousin/uncle who is more a part of Cop 663's love-life than anyone else we see, he begins making conversation with her, unaware of her secret plan to personally mess with the belonging in his apartment; move things around, slip drugs his bottles, switch the labels for canned-food items, etc. etc.***It is so beautiful and visually unique how every time, Kar-Wai Wong takes a simple scenario and turns it into a metaphor for "broken-hearted and lonely" people. Such as a tree or a train (2046), or a legless bird (Days Of Being Wild), or keys (My Blueberry Nights), etc. In this film, we takes typical house hold items and turn them into "the dumped", such as A BAR OF SOAP, which starts out with a weight problem, but progressively get skinnier the more you (wash) use it. Or even A DRENCHED WARN OUT RAG, which needs to learn to contain its "tears" and over time will dry up and be happy once again.***ALSO, the camera-work is a show-stopper. The cinematographers of this project knew exactly how Wong likes his footage in post-production, and I believe they made great asset, especially for a film that "should be recognized worldwide" CREDITED by Quentin Tarantino).I give this film a PERFECT 10 out of 10 on IMDb, for personal reasons. I do NOT recommend this film to any *adrenaline-junkies who need fast cars and naked woman. Honestly, you will rarely find that in any of the films I review. Chungking Express is a perfect example of the typés of stories/pictures I like. And there are A LOT more where that came from.Thank you! -- Michael Mendez

Bale-Pearce-Oldman 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.

thediggens Wong Kar-Wai's most acclaimed and certainly widespread film, helped by showings to film classes everywhere, Chungking Express is a meandering meditation of loneliness in urban Hong Kong. Told in two separate stories of love, life and loneliness (a third branching off into a separate film, Fallen Angel), they follow two cops dealing with a break-up and a new love interest.The first, shorter and weaker segment follows a pineapple-obsessed cop falling for a blonde-wigged heroin smuggler. The second watches a depressed cop's ignorance as a girl with a crush revitalises his life.The first segment is certainly a visual marvel, and Wong Kar-Wai (alongside cinematographers Christopher Doyle & Andrew Lau, the latter of Infernal Affairs fame) blazes through with a frenzy of action in a confined space. The blur, the colours and the contrast are impressive. It's also a poetic segment, but ultimately falls short, emotionally hollow without developed characters to anchor it. One could suppose that your reaction to this segment will depend on your appreciation of the themes and feelings of the main character.One must spend more time considering the second, which more than makes up for the first ones failings. It adds a wry wit to the -better- romantic undertones, two incredibly charismatic leads (Tony Leung and Faye Wong), and one of the best repeated uses of a single song ever. California Dreamin' will forever for me be associated with this film. More importantly, the second part has a heart, a cute, quirky romance that bubbles, and the incredulity ebbs at its sweetness.The soundtrack as a whole is full of excellent choices, though 'full' may over-exaggerate, as it's better seen as a few choice selections being repeated. Nevertheless, through the cinematography and the soundtrack, the film develops a dreamlike atmosphere, which is probably its greatest asset. The film keeps itself firmly uprooted in the clouds, and it certainly drifts.Chungking Express is a unique film, and certainly not one for all occasions. It isn't designed to blow one away. One drifts through it, then thinks about it after its over. As a technical craft, it's a masterpiece. As a poetic piece of storytelling, its a bit more hit and miss, but it hits more than it misses.

thegreatshonen Randomly found this at a Barnes and Noble for only $30 with the online price going for close to $60 so I figured I should get it. I've always like Wong Kar Wai and his movies. Very indie, very 90's and very good. Chungking Express follows the lives of 2 police officers in Hong Kong and see their love lives. The first is love sick over an ex-girlfriend of his, and eats more diced pineapple than Rick Ross. He meets a blond headed woman at the bar he goes to and hits on her. She leads some kind of Indian drug ring. Midway through its switches viewpoint to another police officer who's in love with a waitress at a local food stand who listens to the song California Dreamin' constantly.This movie is well made and well structured. The acting is great and believable. The soundtrack doesn't distract from the movie. My problem with the movie is the lack of progress and the loose ends of the 1st story. Overall me memorable movie from Wong Kar Wai, and one of the best foreign movies of the last 20 years