Movie Loner

I have to thank Quentin Tarantino for this find. He brought director Wong Kar Wai’s brilliant film to the states through his Rolling Thunder Pictures video releases. I put this in the Obscure category because Wong Kar Wai is a relative unknown in the U.S.

The movie is about two lovelorn cops in Hong Kong. One falls in love with a drug dealer, the other with a girl who works at a lunch stand. Shot in a vibrant palette of color, Kar Wai captures Hong Kong’s inherent beauty and mystery. The city comes alive, as if it were another character. The camerawork is fast, hand-held, often choppy, which works, but it’s when Kar Wai slows the image that makes ChungKing Express special. His use of long, steady takes deftly reveals the characters’ sadness. Amidst all the loneliness there is hope, embodied in the young, playful Faye (Faye Wong). There is a knowing glint behind her innocent eyes.

Her naive sense of wonderment and angelic face crack Cop 663’s (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) bitterness. Heartache is not permanent. The hope of love is sometimes all a wounded soul needs.

This is one of the few movies I watched again right after it ended. I couldn’t take my eyes off its images. Wong Kar Wai is a truly gifted filmmaker, an expert at creating atmosphere, which isn’t easy to do in movies. One last note; memorable use of “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and the Papas.