Chung Hing sam lam (1994)

Director:

Kar Wai Wong

Writer:

Kar Wai Wong (writer)

Release Date:

8 March 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

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

Plot:

Wong Kar-Wai's movie about two love-struck cops is filmed in impressionistic splashes of motion and color...

Plot Keywords:

Flight Attendant | Hong Kong | Pineapple | Ambiguous Ending | Ambiguity

Awards:

8 wins & 9 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

Also Known As:

Chungking Express (UK) (USA)
Chongqing senlin (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Chung King Express (Hong Kong: English title)
Chungking Jungle (literal English title)
Hong Kong Express (Europe: English title)

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

Hong Kong:98 min | 102 min (international version)

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | English | Japanese | Hindi | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-11 (re-release) | Philippines:PG-13 | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | South Korea:15 | Singapore:PG | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Jet Tone Production

Trivia:

Kaneshiro Takeshi spoke four languages himself in this film. His narrations were all in Mandarin, most of his live lines are in heavily-accented Cantonese, he spoke Japanese when he called one of his ex-girlfriends, and had one line of English when he apprehended a suspect (he said "hands up!" to him). He used all 4 when he approached Bridgett Lin's character.

Quotes:

Cop663: You like noisy music?
Faye: Yes. The louder the better. Stops me from thinking.
Cop663: You don't like to think? What do you like?
Faye: Never thought about it.

Movie Connections:

References Midnight Express (1978)

Soundtrack:

Dream Person

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.