Why Is ChungKing Express More Than A Stylish Music Video (Danping Long)

 HongKong, especially ChungKing Mansions, where Wong Kar-wai chooses as the main filming location and references in the title, is not your usual choice of a romance background. It lacks soothing landscapes and private space. You can't find an equivalent of Ozu's household in ChongKing Mansions, because it is crowded, modern, and diverse. And while Ozu's characters sharing the same traditional dilemma of taking care of parents or getting married under the same names, many of Wong Kar-wai's characters are nameless, and "eccentric." 

I call them "eccentric," not because they are wierdos in nature, but based on the fact that they are excluded from the ordinary social storytelling. They are so used to be ignored by the mainstream, that somehow they have to camp it up a bit to be recognized, instead of simply living their lives. They have to act, not for the fame of being superstars, but for a chance of living as everyone else. They are drug dealers, polices, waitresses, stewardess. They are people who haven't find their own names. Such outcasts seek refuge in ChungKing Mansions. 

It is unfair to say Wong Kar-wai doesn't know how to shoot a story because ChungKing Forest is not ordinary. In fact, from 05:55 to 12:31, Wong Kar-wai showcases an exciting drug-dealing story with few lines and lots of actions. But he chooses to focus on day-dreaming and sleep-walking, even though "nothing" seems to happen in these categories. 

This makes me wonder in which way am I remebering people, by their numbers, or by their dreams? Just as the opening lines tell me, "We rub elbows with a lot of people every day. You may not know anything about them. But they might become your friends or even confidants one day. I am a cop -- No. 223. My name's He Zhi Wu." 

As a cop, He is no more than a number; but as a person, He Zhi Wu can have a broken heart, although the latter cannot be revealed by any action scenes, but only through the illusions of having his girlfriend back in his narrative. In ChongKing Forest, people live in their dreams instead of in reality. Their dream of romance connect them together, despite in the concrete jungle, they may never come to know each other, no matter how close they can be physically. 

"we are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep." If people can share the same dream, then why would different Californias matter? In appearance, he is No. 663, a nameless, faceless number. But through the dream of Faye, I come to know him as a person, just as he comes to know Faye. For they who live in dreams, one year of separation is no more significant than a long nap.  Because they have the ability to dream, they will never be trapped by physical reality. They can start over at any second, because whenever they wake up from the sleep-walking of reality, their day-dreaming of romance begins.


Comments

  1. HHDecember 23, 2021 at 7:22 PM

    I really like your interpretation of the characters in Chungking express - people living in a mundane reality but with colorful and romantic dreams. The concept of dream penetrates this movie, from its expression to its soundtrack (the two songs on repeats are California dreaming and Dreams). The two cops are hopeless romantics, dreaming of having someone to love while Faye dreams of going elsewhere, the only character whom I can't read is the woman in wig. But she provides the movie with such excitement and enigma tho.

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    1. Danping LongDecember 26, 2021 at 3:08 PM

      The woman in wig is so fascinating! I think she falls in love with the western drug dealer. She wears golden wig and transports drugs to please him, but in the end she figures that the drug dealer was using her as sex doll and scapegoat. I remeber the Indians hiding in the western drug dealer's place, and he instead of caring for the woman whom he put in danger, finds another Chinese woman to wear the same wig and to have sex with seamlessly. She pretends to be stone-hearted and chooses killing her old lover as her desperate way to break up. But perhaps she was wearing sunglasses to hide her broken heart (and tears) after all.

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  2. Krishnan VenkateshDecember 28, 2021 at 2:06 PM

    Beautifully observed. The whole film is like a dream; indeed, grimy street reality has never looked dreamier. It's about people trying to connect through their dreams.

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