Sunday, January 22, 2017
022 - Chungking Express, 1994. Dir. Wong Kar-wai.
Yesterday, with Tokyo Story, we saw a movie where the camera sat on a tripod and never moved.
Today, with Chungking Express, we are watching a movie where the camera is handheld and never stops moving.
Kar-Wai Wong is one of so many directors who began as a writer. He wrote at least fifteen screenplays for other directors before directing himself. Once he began writing and directing, he never looked back. This is his third film to direct.
The title refers to two locations: The Chungking Mansions, which is an indoor mall filled with family-owned shops and restaurants, and The Midnight Express, which is a family-owned lunch counter where much of the action occurs.
The film is broken into two stories, each involving a lovelorn police officer who pines over the loss of a girlfriend.
What do you do after a breakup?
The first police officer is He Qiwu, Badge Number 223. He has had a breakup with a girl named May. They broke up on April Fool's Day, so he considers the break-up a joke. He will go for 30 days waiting and looking for her, and then on his birthday, on May 1, he will try to move on.
He Qiwu cannot move on.
He thinks about May constantly. He has an answering service, and he calls them constantly to see if May has left him a message. He has a pager, and he checks it constantly to see if May has called. He calls May's family. He calls her friends, to check on her and to let them know that he is available if she needs anything.
He Qiwu buys a can of pineapple a day with an expiration date of that day--because May liked pineapple. When he has thirty cans of pineapple, then he will know that it is over. He has to scour convenience stores throughout the area to find a can with such a late date, because the stores keep restocking fresher cans. The clerks wonder about him.
He Qiwu takes up jogging. He believes that if he sweats out the water in his body, he will cry less. When he finds that a woman is running a race, he is incredulous. Why would you run if you are not trying to sweat the tears out of you?
Meanwhile, a woman has been installed in the Chungking Mansions to move a large stash of drugs for a drug lord. She wears a trenchcoat, a blonde wig, and sunglasses, indoors and at night. She speaks English. She is tough.
She hires an inexperienced Indian family to carry the drugs. She tailors clothes for them. It appears to be the first time they have ever worn a suit. She hides drugs in the shoe heels, teddy bear, boom box, and baby bump.
The family betrays her.
They take the money. They take the drugs. They disappear.
She searches the stores and stalls for information. One man says he does not know, so she takes his daughter. She buys the girl ice cream, lots of ice cream, from another store, while calling him and demanding ransom. He caves. He gets his daughter. She tells us, in voice-over--all the characters speak to us in voice-over--that "some men might sacrifice their own kid for money, but he wasn't one of them."
The film begins with He Qiwu on the job, as a police officer. He is chasing a man with a brown paper bag on his head. (We Americans are thinking, "It's the Unknown Comic!") He brushes past the woman in the wig and sunglasses.
He tells us he brushed past her .01 cm away, and that 57 hours later he will fall in love with her.
On his birthday, May has not called. He eats all thirty cans of pineapple. He goes running in the rain. He decides to find someone else.
So he calls old friends. Lulu is asleep. He has awakened her. Sorry.
The next one has been married five years. Oh, you mean we haven't spoken in over five years? She has two children. Sorry.
We went to fourth grade together. You remember? You don't? It doesn't matter.
It is a humorous moment that evokes sympathy.
What have you done when you were desperate and lonely?
You may laugh at his behavior because it is familiar to you, and you ache with his loneliness.
He goes to a bar. The woman with the wig and sunglasses goes to the bar. He tries to pick her up. She rebuffs him.
Watch to see what happens next.
The other story stars the great Asian actor Tony Leung. He plays Badge Number 633. He frequents The Midnight Express, and orders coffee. A girl named Faye works there, cousin to the boss, and she plays The Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" loudly and non-stop.
The cop is dating a flight attendant. They play games together. They make innuendo involving flight terms. She leaves him.
She puts a letter and his keys in an envelope and leaves it with The Midnight Express, asking them to pass it on to him.
Have you ever had someone return your keys?
It hurts.
It hurts Cop Number 633.
The Cop does not read the letter. He does not collect it. The boss steams open the envelope. He reads the letter. Faye reads the letter. She takes the keys.
This could get complicated.
Watch to see what happens next.
Chungking Express stands out for its style.
People in the background move faster than the main characters, or in slow motion. The camera races down hallways, pans across rooms, looks up and down in rapid pace, and cuts quickly. We look through doorways, windows, around corners. The action may take place in one-third of the screen. The rest may be a wall, or other people, or a blur. Montages abound.
Music is important. A classic jukebox stands prominently in The Chungking Mansions, with CDs rotating in mesmerizing fashion. An old-school boom box sits behind the counter at The Midnight Express. Cop 633 plays CDs in his apartment.
Words are important. Wong's background as a writer is evident. The voice-overs are poetic. The two men are romantic. He Qiwu speaks poetically about expiration dates. Cop 633 talks to physical objects in his apartment. They handle their jobs with professionalism, but their hearts are aching.
When Wong gives interviews, he does not refer to other filmmakers so much as he refers to writers and literature.
Which is not to say that this movie feels like some kind of literary adaptation. It feels like an action movie, like a film of its time, like contemporary independent world cinema. It feels like youth. Indeed, Quentin Tarantino fell in love with it and picked it up for distribution in America.
If you want to check your messages, the password is "Love You for 10,000 Years."
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