Why Chungking Express is My Favorite Movie of All-Time
“We split up on April Fool’s Day. So I decided to let the joke run for a month. Every day I buy a can of pineapple with a sell-by date of May 1. May loves pineapple, and May 1 is my birthday. If May hasn’t changed her mind by the time I’ve bought thirty cans, then our love will also expire.”
For a long time my favorite movie have been a Clockwork Orange, none of any movie have ever even come close to taking the spot, even though I have probably seen a lot of arthouse aesthetic masterpiece movies ever since I’ve watched it, none speaks to me as personal as a Clockwork Orange. For a disclaimer though, picking my favorite movie is very subjective, if you ask me what is the best movie of all-time I would’ve gone more objective, but this one it’s personal so allow me to give an honest analysis that comes directly from my heart. The night before I wrote this article, the magic happened, this early Wong Kar-Wai movie in his career broke the spell and took the top spot in my heart, this article will be an eulogy from me to this wholesome movie.
Chungking Express is a movie about 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 frequently visit. Even before I watched it just by seeing the screenshot of the movie, I already knew I’m going to like it. The late night Hong-kong atmosphere in it, the short-haired perky Faye Wong, fit nicely to my expectations. Even after all of the expectations I had, it somehow managed to exceed it anyway.
What is the first parameter for me to make a movie my personal favorite?, That would be the amount of art that it has. I know, I know, art is abstract, but still I will attempt to describe it in my own way. I think the art in this movie mainly revolve around, first the would be the soundtrack, choosing the soundtrack of California Dreamin’ by The Mamas and the Papas was not just for the sake of it, there was a clear intention to show one of the character in this movie is in fact, wanting to go to California and see what it’s like in there, moreover that soundtrack in and of itself also fits nicely to the nuance that his movie have, other soundtrack that this movie has, also compliments the nuance such as Dreamlover that is sung by Faye Wong herself.
Second thing the art revolves is around the acting of the actors and actress themself, the act of Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung Chiu Wai as a lonely person and lover if you feel so inclined is perfect, unlike other romantic movie where the main character potrayed as cool-headed fuckboy, this movie just simply shows the main characters as a lover that need somebody to accompany them, moreover the portrayal of the psychological damage that they feel when they had just broke up is another reason why the acting is exactly perfect. Don’t even get me started on Faye Wong’s performance in this movie, everyone and I mean everyone that watched this movie must at some point had a crush on Faye Wong because of how elegant she and beautiful she is in this movie, the cute dance and manner that she has is just a whole nother level of gorgeous. The third thing and the most important thing is the cinematography, the camera movement is just perfect, it give a personal feeling of Wong Kar-Wai style explosive yet calming cinematography, the lighting and also the filter that they use to film in Hong-Kong just give a personal touch to show the beauty of Hong-kong, exactly like what Jean-Pierre Jeunet did to the movie Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain.
Second parameter would be the story, interestingly the story in this movie is not complicated whatsoever, it’s a romance movie, it doesn’t have to be complicated, what is needed in a romance movie is a nice chemistry between the characters and a perfect world building to compliment it. Wong Kar-Wai understands this, he is said to be one of the greatest romance movie directors of all time for a reason, and he shows. The kind of interaction that the couple had, the lost opportunity that they had to be together, the sign that they give to each other make the audience can’t help but to simply root for the characters to be together. The spotlight of the story is as to how it managed to give you two different parallel stories, but rather than making the audience confused in the process, it made the audience love it even more because of how nicely both of the stories compliment each other. The kind of weird but interesting things that are happening in the movie are also a strategic set-up for the movie to make the background of each character solid rather than one dimensional.
Lastly and the most importantly, would be how personal the movie is to me, this is where a lot of masterpieces by Stanley Kurbrick and Paul Thomas Anderson that I have watched have failed to become my personal favorite movie. But this movie just somehow managed to be personal to me. For context, I was watching this movie when I had a one week break with my girlfriend and being in pandemic where you have to stay at home where you will likely to feel lonely and depressed, then I watch this movie, listening to the song that is played, the kind of weirdness act that is happening, the over the top cinematography that feel hectic, the psychological exploration of the main character, it just speaks to me like it was made for me at that time. As I watched it in one sitting, with the vivid colors that Wong Kar-Wai use and the perfect atmosphere for a lonely night, even after watching it, it gives me a vibe that the movie is so beautiful it is so hard for me to sleep at that night, can’t stop remembering each scene and frame that is well-putted, made me think to myself, if this is not my favorite movie then I don’t know what is.
Overall, it’s a great movie, there is a lot that you can get from watching this movie such as: feeling, cinematography technique, or even philosophy. However no matter what reason you watch the movie, no matter whether you like it or not, I think we all can agree on one thing, Faye Wong is an absolute goddess in this movie.
