Chungking Express (1994)

Two melancholy Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant he frequents.

Director:

Kar-Wai Wong (as Kar Wai Wong)

Writer:

Kar-Wai Wong (as Kar Wai Wong)

Stars:

Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung

8 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Brigitte Lin	...	Woman in blonde wig (as Ching-hsia Lin)
Tony Chiu-Wai Leung	...	Cop 663 (as Tony Chiu Wai Leung)
Faye Wong	...	Faye
Takeshi Kaneshiro	...	He Zhiwu, Cop 223
Valerie Chow	...	Air Hostess
Jinquan Chen	...	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:

hong kong | expiration date | flight attendant | food | interlinked stories | 

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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:

Comedy | Crime | 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:

Chungking Mansions, 36-44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Box Office

Gross USA:

$600,200

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jet Tone Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min 102 min (international)

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Takeshi Kaneshiro, whose character turns 25 in the film, was barely twenty when the film was shot.

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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

[633 on the previous owner of his restaurant]
Cop663: He has great business sense. First he sold me fish and chips, then the whole thing.

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Alternate Versions

The original Hong Kong release ran 98 minutes. 'Kar Wai Wong' made several changes to the international version, bringing the running time to 102 minutes:

• The international version expands the scenes where The Blonde prepares for the smuggling trip and later searches for the smugglers.
• Indian music plays during the smugglers' arrival at the airport in international prints; in the Hong Kong version, the title theme plays.
• The international version includes the kidnapping of an Indian girl, which does not occur in the Hong Kong version.
• The sequence with Zhiwu loitering outside his girlfriend's window appears earlier in international edit.
• In the Hong Kong version, the Faye Wong cover of "Dreams" plays over the shot of 663 drinking coffee. The international version strips out the music (leaving only ambient noise), although "Dreams" still appears at the end of the film. The international cut is Wong's preferred version and has been used for most home video releases. The Hong Kong cut was released on VHS/laserdisc by World Video and on VHS/LD/DVD by Mei Ah.

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Connections

Referenced in Rush Hour (1998)

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Soundtracks

Things In Life
Written and performed by Dennis Brown

User Reviews

Wong Kar-Wei's Best

Flawless tale of brief encounters and abstract moments. Far superior than most of Hong Kong's bullet ridden action fests, Chungking Express takes you on an emotional journey of love, loss, and chance excursions. Cinematography and editing is groundbreaking as this drama unfolds soap-opera-like stories without all the overacting and melodrama. Wong Kar-Wei has sealed his place in cinematic history with this tour de force.