Film review- Chungking Express. Theme: Passion

07May10

After watching the film I was a bit confused about the characters and the plot. Where the same people at the beginning of the film the same people at the end? Now I have read about the film I have realised that the film was split into two different stories with different characters.

Chungking Express is about two hong kong police men and their relationship with a woman. The first story starts with Hi Qiwu who’s girlfriend broke up with him on april fools day. Holding on for hope that she may return he waits one month before he can finally move on. He becomes a little obsessed with the date, 1st May, and buys every tin of pineapples with the expiry date with the 1st of May on. A little weird but yes, but the expiry date would represent the end of his relationship with his ex, with the 1st of May being one month on from when they split.

The 1st of May approaches and his ex love hasn’t returned so Qiwu goes out looking for love. He approaches a woman who is trying to pull through in the drug underworld after a smuggling operation goes wrong. Nothing happens between the two, as she ends up falling asleep in the hotel room and he stays up watching movies all night. They go their separate ways and never see each other again. This first story was very confusing, not leaving it clear as to what happened to Qiwu or the lady he met and then quickly moving onto the second story.

The second story now starts as Qiwu goes to his favourite snack bar where we are introduced to a girl called Faye. The second police man enters the snack bar, which is where I got confused thinking it was the same guy in the first story. This unnamed police man known as cop 663 has also been through a break-up. Faye secretly falls in love with the guy. However you’re not really sure if cop 663 likes Faye or if he is even looking for a new love, as he still believes that his ex will turn up one day. His ex does turn up at the snack bar leaving a letter for cop 663, Faye then reads the letter and with it is a set of keys to his flat.

Faye then keeps the letter and uses the keys to go into his flat when cop 663 isn’t there and tidying up and changing slight things. Cop 663 doesn’t notice that Faye is going into his flat every day, however he does eventually realise that Faye has fallen for him and arranges for a date. Faye stands cop 663 up and doesn’t arrive at the date. This is quite a shock to the viewer as we know she is so passionate about him so we wonder why would she do this?

Faye has always had a dream of going to California and that is where she went on that night. She had left a letter herself for cop 663 but he never opened it, which left you wanting to watch more as you wanted to know what was in the letter…..

He eventually opens the letter and finds a boarding pass which Faye had drawn, with a date a year from then. Faye then returns to Honk Kong and arrives back at the snack bar to find cop 663 has taken it over. You can see that the love is still there and you assume that they eventually got together but it is not entirely clear whether this is the case, as that is where the film ends.

Overall I was left very confused about who was who and what was what. Now looking back and thinking over the film and writing this review it makes a lot more sense. The film has excellent cinematography and was an enjoyable watch.