Film Review: In 2021, Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express is still effortlessly cool

Photo from IMDb

At IFC Center’s series “The World of Wong Kar-Wai,” audiences flocked to the theatre to witness new restorations of the director’s films. Showings of his 1994 Chungking Express garnered large, diverse audiences: elderly friends attending the 10 a.m. showing, mother-daughter duos, lovesick couples, college friend groups who discussed the film in the lobby afterward. Chungking Express’s treatment of loneliness and the sacredness of human interaction holds a timeless appeal that has transfixed audiences for decades.

Written and directed by auteur director Wong Kar-Wai, the film follows two Hong Kong cops dealing with heartbreak and the women they meet on their night shifts. The Cantonese film tells two stories that intersect at a Midnight Express snack stand.

Chungking Express’s appeal is largely due to its cast. Brigitte Lin plays the nameless woman in a blond wig. She wears a raincoat and sunglasses because she doesn’t know when it will rain or when there will be sunshine. Mixed up in the underworld of drug smuggling, she plans for everything and refuses to be vulnerable.

She is matched with He Zhiwu, Cop 223, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro. He gets the most laughs with his almost childlike musings. He Zhiwu is sweet, innocently idealistic. He chases criminals and unwittingly falls in love with a drug dealer, but goes on runs after his breakup so that he won’t have enough water in his body to cry.

In the second half, Tony Leung plays Cop 663 with an understated suaveness, contrasting with Faye Wong as the quirky, daydreaming Faye. He hates change; she’s a catalyst for it. These characters mirror and balance each other: the woman in the wig and Cop 663 are at a standstill in life, He Zhiwu and Faye Wong are searching for more out of it.

Wong Kar-Wai is known for making dark, depressing films. Chungking Express is no exception. Even so, he sprinkles throughout little moments of happiness — Cop 223 smiling and clutching his chest after a woman wishes him happy birthday, or Faye realizing Cop 663 opened her letter. For a second they feel less alone.

The film’s visuals are bright and inventive, establishing the unique cinematography as more than just a relic of the Nineties. The jerky, fast-paced camera movements masterfully capture movement and light. They are used intentionally to convey the chaotic psyche of the characters or to show their withdrawal from the collective chaos around them.

The soundtrack is iconic. The film features four or five very different songs that somehow effortlessly match the characters, mood, and plot. They are played multiple times throughout the film, instantly establishing the scene's atmosphere through the audience's familiarity with the songs. The transition between the two stories to Cop 663 strolling down the street as “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & The Papas plays in the background is nothing short of cinematic genius.

Chungking Express is at once effortlessly cool and deeply moving. It speaks to audiences’ loneliness and ennui while offering glimmers of hope. It is a weird, brilliant, chaotic film that has affected audiences since 1994 and will continue to do so for generations.