Chungking Express (1994)
"Chung Hing sam lam" (original title)

Wong Kar-Wai's movie about two love-struck cops is filmed in impressionistic splashes of motion and color. The first half deals with Cop 223, who has broken up with his girlfriend of five ... See full summary »

Director:

Kar Wai Wong

Writer:

Kar Wai Wong

Stars:

Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Faye Wong

9 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Brigitte Lin	...	Woman in blonde wig (as Ching-hsia Lin)
Tony Leung Chiu Wai	...	Cop 663
Faye Wong	...	Faye
Takeshi Kaneshiro	...	He Zhiwu, Cop 223
Valerie Chow	...	Air Hostess
Chen Jinquan	...	Manager of 'Midnight Express'
Lee-na Kwan	...	Richard (as Guan Lina)
Zhiming Huang	...	Man
Liang Zhen	...	The 2nd May
Songshen Zuo	...	Man

Storyline

Wong Kar-Wai's movie about two love-struck cops is filmed in impressionistic splashes of motion and color. The first half deals with Cop 223, who has broken up with his girlfriend of five years. He purchases a tin of pineapples with an expiration date of May 1 each day for a month. By the end of that time, he feels that he will either be rejoined with his love or that it too will have expired forever. The second half shows Cop 663 dealing with his breakup with his flight attendant girlfriend. He talks to his apartment furnishings until he meets a new girl at a local lunch counter.

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Plot Keywords:

girl | hong kong | love | expiration date | date | 

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Taglines:

If my memory of her has an expiration date, let it be 10,000 years...

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some violence, sexuality and drug content

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese English Japanese Hindi Mandarin

Release Date:

8 March 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Chungking Express

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Gross:

SGD 167,000 (Singapore)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jet Tone Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min 102 min (international)

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film's split structure came from the need to whip up the movie in short order.

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Goofs

The woman in the blonde wig had no apparent opportunity to get the beeper number except from Cop 223 himself the night before, and he wouldn't have started to abandon his beeper as useless if he had just given someone new the number.

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Quotes

He Zhiwu, Cop 223: Do you... like pineapple?

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Connections

Featured in The Truth About Jane and Sam (1999)

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Soundtracks

"What a Difference a Day Makes"
by Dinah Washington

User Reviews

Achingly beautiful film-making

Masterful Hong Kong film-maker Wong Kar Wai understands that love is about the unspoken moments between people, the hidden gestures betraying loneliness. Chungking Express is a unique expression of such notions of love. The film doesn't pretend that love is all-embracing and constant, in the way so many predictable films would suggest. Love, for the protagonists of this film, comes and goes between subtle glances - always elusive. Indeed if a level of contentment can be reached at all for these characters - it is a fleeting moment, a memory of a song, the way that somebody smells. There are so many essential moments in this film - when Dinah Washington's 'What a difference a day makes' plays over two lovers cavorting, the moments when characters talk to inanimate objects to overcome their loss of love, the brief glances between the second policeman and the waitress across the counter of the fast-food restaurant. It has been dismissed as an exercise in style over substance by many, mainly due to the hypnotic way in which the film is shot and the lack of a real story as such. I don't feel the need to defend it from these accusations because the beauty of the film is there on the screen and nothing I have said or could say could really do it justice. It breaks my heart every time.