Hi Keane. I happen to be kinda new too.
Chungking Express is one of my all-time favorite movies, and Wong Kar-wai’s best. (I haven’t seen Happy Together, As Tears Go By and Ashes of Time yet, though) I desperately need to get the Criterion DVD.
Cool. Nice to meet you. I’m very excited to watch it!
It’s a very charming, delightful film about misdirected love. You will never look at canned pineapple the same again.
Or “California Dreaming.”
You’re lucky. You get to see easily one of the most enjoyable films ever made.
Whoa, really? Awesome. I’m even more excited.
Very flashy, colorful and romantic, albeit a little sloppily done, imo. This film was put together quickly as a money-making venture while Kar-Wai was finishing up a martial arts epic he was doing at time, so it comes off as hasty. There’s two stories, the first one starts off really cool, but seems as though Kaw-Wai dropped it and left it unresolved to focus more on the second story, which is more evenly played out. It kind of leaves you wondering “what?” Still, a very innovative and memorable film, if you can stand to watch the guy shovel all that pineapple in his mouth.
Pineapples. I need those now.
Hey Keane. It’s worth knowing that the movie was made about three years before the repatriation of Hong Kong. Not that that’s relevant to the plot, but it gives context to the motifs of expiry dates, calendars, and count downs. Quite pointedly, no explicit references to the looming hand-over are ever made.
Part way through, one story line hands over to another. When I saw it, I kept expecting the first story to re-emerge. I think it helps to know in advance that it’s a two-part movie with storylines that intersect only once.
Enjoy! It’s an original movie.
Thanks. That’s helpful to know.
Well, Keane, what did you think of Chungking Express?
“….You will never look at canned pineapple the same again.”
and jogging will never be the same too
lol, true. And if you come home and find your house cleaner than it was when you left it.. well, now you know why.
This movie rocks! I missed out on the first story, though. What the hell happened? Did I miss something?
I really liked it. The whole thing was a marvel to look at. It’s kind of hard to review, but I gave it an 87/100.
whats up new guy! welcome!
no numerical reviews here. we’re not mathematicians. we expect to hear your thoughts and sensations regarding the film, as well as you can express them. we dont do quantifiables. thats imdb stuff.
Keane, I hope you’ll watch Fallen Angels some time by Wong Kar-Wai.
“no numerical reviews here. we’re not mathematicians. we expect to hear your thoughts and sensations regarding the film, as well as you can express them. we dont do quantifiables. thats imdb stuff.”
Yeah, we only do personal attacks on other members of the board. Ad hominem for life.
Chungking Express is a beautiful movie. So easy to watch and yet so much fun.
“no numerical reviews here. we’re not mathematicians. we expect to hear your thoughts and sensations regarding the film, as well as you can express them. we dont do quantifiables. thats imdb stuff.”
Haha, are you from IMDb? That is where I come from. Alrighty, well, for the next film I watch I’ll try and do it your guys’ way.
People really like their Latin. This is like the fifth time I’ve seen Ad hominem in the forum.
Intra limpidus obscura
Limen ex nihilum Opacitas
Trux omnillustrare
Ex regnum de exsanguis
Lux absentia, funditus
(Sorry, I enjoy my Latin)
Just finished watching my first Kar Wai Wong movie ever and in Blu-Ray too! I can see why Quentin Tarantino loves this film. They both have that French New Wave Godard style. How beautiful was Valerie Chow and Faye Wong!
Favorite scenes:
-Expired Pineapples
-Love scene with stewardess
-Dancing to “California Dreaming”
-Cover of Cranberries “Dreams”
Time to check out his other movies….
I absolutely love this movie! It’s my favorite Kar Wai Wong film and it makes me smile everytime I see it. So beautiful, exuberant, and energetic!
I watched it tonight and I loved it… Wong Kar-Wai’s colours and camera captures me every time I see.
It’s a pretty good film. I don’t really see the fascination with Kar-Wai’s films to be honest, but they’re all well made. The camerawork in this particular one is very sloppy but nevertheless interesting to watch and the characters are not really that complex, but I’ll concede that that’s most likely the point. The story seems a collection of thinly stringed together scenarios than any real narrative flow, so it seems a little lazy to me, writing-wise. It’s a strange film I think because it’s one of those “kind-of anthlogy” films where the unrelated characters are “connected” by a ubiquitous chance meeting.
And I wasn’t entirely impressed (as a lot of other people on here apparently) by the famous “pineapple” or “California Dreaming” sequences. I mean they were enjoyable but nothing really that creative about them, just very aestheticly pleasing.
Anyway, it’s has a nice look to it, as do all of Kar-Wai’s films.
Some stream-of-counsciousness thoughts upon just having seen this:
First half: Idealistic (unrealistic) hope
“When did everything start having an expiration date?”
Love doesn’t last; life doesn’t last; your country doesn’t last (I’m aware this was shot just before China took over).
50 cans of pineapple
4 chefs salads
Damn, people eat a lot in this movie.
The hope that love will find a way is as flaccid as the hope that freedom will endure.
====
second half:
She doesn’t like to think (hong kong has been taken over—free thought is no longer important)
California Dreaming:
Dreaming of freedom; dreaming of escape; dreaming of love
escape—the song is just background noise, but she’s compelled to listen; speaks of freedom of religion (pretend to pray).
the flashback scenes were shot more smoothly. The present is disjointed.
He leaves the letter, he doesn’t want to accept the truth.
She pretends to hide and he pretends not to find her.
Later he confronts this: Why were you hiding? I’ve been trying to find you." but he’s talking to an empty shirt.
Toy airplanes embark on journeys they’re not ready to take.
In the end, no destination is reached, but another journey is beginning.
A beautiful film that I’ll need to see again very, very soon.
Cheers.
I think the California Dreaming leitmotif is more of misguided escapism than a dream of freedom. Similarly, I do not think Wong Kar-wai is deliberately inserting politics into his films aside from the expiration date thing. (“free thought is no longer important” – I do not think there has been a huge shift in freedom during the change of rulers)
Those two sentences aside, some nice thoughts you have there.
Focus on:
“50 cans of pineapple
4 chefs salads
Damn, people eat a lot in this movie.”
Exactly. I think I would throw myself off a building and cut off my tongue if I were to eat 50 cans of pineapple. (I think it represents trying to get rid of one’s past feelings/get over one’s previous relationship)
When directors must use their limited resources in a short time frame, their talent is truly tested because it’s harder to make a great movie with little resources than with abundance. Martin Scorsese showed the world his intellect & his fierce imagination through Mean Streets. And WKW showed the world his visual imagination from Chungking. It’s visually stimulating (as always) but he doesn’t break new ground because none of his cinematic inventions (use of slow motion, use of source music) is there to support the narrative. It’s simply there as an abundance of style that revokes mood, atmosphere and feeling instead of driving the narrative. It’s a movie that you appreciate if you appreciate film, not because of what it knows on experience.
Amazing and sad that this film’s thread hasn’t yet produced two pages. Everything I felt about it on first-glance is still true—it’s a beautiful movie.
Chungking Express is a whimsy and tender romance of lives caught up in frantic times.
The film’s speciality apart from fine acting lies in WKW’s decision to put style and content in parallel tracks, this technique while not helping to further narration, provides a visual dazzle and puts the film in a category miles away from the usual quircky feel-good films.
CE made me stop and think about the little things that whiz past in life’s frenzy, I was in awe, I was inspired, I was entertained.
Jimmy B.
First off, hey guys, my name is Keane. I’m new here, so I thought I would say hi.
Second, I am watching Chungking Express tonight (1st time). What are your thoughts on it?