Chungking Express

I've been trying to watch all of Kar Wai Wong's films, and I just recently finished Chungking Express. The film was released in 1994 and takes place in Hong Kong. The story is divided between two cops dealings with relationships near the same late night market. I really liked how everything was interwoven, and how neither story was a complete head-over-heels type of romance. One story was just an ironic exchange between two people that never would have really interacted, and the other ends in a way that lets the viewer decide whether the two characters make more of things. At times, the cop characters seem to have these cheesy inner monologues that they use to coach themselves. At first, this really through me off because I thought it was really out of place, but then I realized that it worked with their naive ideas about love. I thought that the flaky, quirky waitress and the blond, mysterious drug dealer were really great too.

In terms of the visual aspects of the film, I really enjoyed how well Wong used hand held techniques. The camera really nicely follows the movements of the actors and the shakiness works here. Also, it gives the whole film a sense of motion and fluidity. I feel like I become much more aware of the space and the actual time of the film. Wong also uses an affect where he slows down the character's action and then speeds up either the foreground or the background. To me this effect has been so overused in certain movies that its hard for me not to get wrapped up in that, but the scenes in Chungking express aren't an over the top Matrix action sequence, but just a guy sitting at a bar or someone waiting. That's why I think of this effect a little differently. Additionally, I think this affect abstracts the shot and I really enjoy that. He plays with focus to further abstract things and I think that it works well with the repeated sounds and the movements of the film. Finally, I thought some of the sounds were kind of nice too. The weird reggae, the chinese version of "Dreams" by the cranberries, and "California Dreaming" were all nice touches to the color and emotions of the film. It was really fun to watch and I'd recommend it to someone who just wanted to watch an easy movie.