Chungking Express, directed by Wong Kar-wai: what makes the 1994 Hong Kong film great
The film, which stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Faye Wong and Takeshi Kaneshiro, was shot over two months, with writer-director Wong Kar-wai penning the script as he went along
Chungking Express is one of the most romantic films ever made in Hong Kong - and certainly the coolest.
Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro
Wong Kar-wai
Shot over two months with writer-director Wong Kar-wai penning the script as he went along, is one of the most romantic films ever made in Hong Kong - and certainly the coolest.
It's really two films stitched together with parallels between the two stories. In each there's a lovesick policeman who has been jilted by his girlfriend and both cops hang out at the same takeaway food stall, Midnight Express.
This was the very early days of Wong's collaboration with Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle and they are a great team, the avant-garde direction a perfect match for Doyle's stylised camerawork. Sometimes dazzling, sometimes dreamy, it's an intoxicating take on the city. Scenes are sometimes fast-forwarded - clouds racing across the sky or a cop running full tilt - and others slowed down so that light and colour are blurred.
