What's in a name -- two different names of ChungKing Express (Lester Fu)


(This post was supposed to be a comment on Ms. Long's post Why Is ChungKing Express More Than A Stylish Music Video. Due to technical issues the comment was not able to be posted, and due to cerebral issues the ideas in the comment was not able to be fully expressed within 200 words. Thus the following --)


    It is interesting how the English translation of the movie title is "ChungKing Express", while the original Chinese title of the film is "ChungKing Forest". The English title indicates a sense of motion while the Chinese title delivers a sense of stillness, denseness, and lost. If we indulge ourselves to over-analyze these two different titles, we can see how the same film can be interpreted as two different stories, from two different perspectives of the Eastern and the Western mind.

    Speaking of the direction of motion, "express" moves in a horizontal manner while "forest" moves vertically. The former denotes a sense of moving on -- like an express train -- while the latter embodies a sense of moving deep within -- like roots growing deeper into the ground. In that way, the two titles tell two different versions of the story, which reflects the two different mindsets of the East and the West -- one version is a story about moving on, the other is a story about taking it in. There is one line in the recent Marvel film Shang-Chi that perfectly captures the difference between these two different mindsets: "'Moving on' is an American idea." Although it may sound stereotypical, there is definitely truth in that line. 

    On the one hand, if we take ChungKing Express as the title of the film, and see the story from a Western/American perspective, we can see how even though both cops are struggling with the past, they inevitably move on -- just like two particles following the Hamilton's principle of least action. No.223 finds the woman with a blonde wig wishing him happy birthday, while No.663 finds Faye and a dream of Californication. Both cops, like two single particles in a vast universe, reluctantly or otherwise, have no choice but to move on. In that sense, life is like boarding on an express train, always in motion, seldomly stops, before moving on once again.

    On the other hand, if we take ChungKing Forest as the title and view the story from an Eastern perspective, we see how the two cops taking things in, slowly and painfully, yet not without vitality. One of them takes the leap in a seemingly endless consumption of canned pineapples, while the other cannot help but to engage ceaselessly in unrequited dialogues with every single innocent objects in his vicinity, leaving both the audience and the objects speechless. Although situations change, people around them change, their physical surroundings even themselves change, there is still some deeply rooted sense of romance and nostalgia that does not change. In that way, they have no choice but to become part of their environment -- historically, culturally, physically, and poetically -- like waves formed by trees in the wind, following Fermat's principle of least time. In that sense, life is like living in a forest, always contemplating, always seeking nutrition, always reaching for the sun.

    On a side note, Wong Kar-Wai later on spent 10 years making a film about the spirit of Chinese Kung Fu. During which time he travelled across China, visited Kung Fu masters of different styles, and had all the main actors going through rigorous Kung Fu training -- one of them even earned a national chapion due to his training for the film. Finally the film The Grandmaster came into being. In the beginning of the movie, there is one line: "Kung Fu, two characters, horizontal, vertical", which, corresponds to the two titles of ChungKing Express/Forest. Taking a deeper look, the horizontal express and the vertical forest represent two fundamental aspects of life and the universe -- horizontal expansion for quantity, and vertical deepening for quality. Perhaps at the end of the day, just like the dichotomy of particles and waves, the two seemingly paradoxical aspects of existence are actually one, written on the bottom of each can of pineapples, signifying something that's both greater than us, and to which we belong.


P.S. Link to The Grandmaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q_-I5-UAsI

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshDecember 28, 2021 at 5:35 PM

    Very interesting post. The notion of "Forest" really does give a different feel: not motion but (for me) lostness, a bit like the nocturnal forest scenes of Midsummer Night's Dream. The characters are inseparable from the forest (the counters, the escalators, the glass, the vending machines, the shoes) but they are constantly missing each other and not connecting in various ways.

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