(beware: some spoilers follow)
"Chungking Express" is all about love, apparently, but I don't think it can rightfully be called a romantic movie. The characters are all so obsessive, neurotic and downright oddball that the film makes love seem more like a bizarre illness than something to be cherished.
The narrative is awkwardly split into two distinct stories, both involving mopey guys who are mooning over girlfriends they've lost. The two guys are pretty similar - they're both nice, passive, quirky, and cops - so I wonder why the film-makers felt the need to tell two separate stories in the first place. Why not flesh out one or the other more thoroughly? Or do a proper anthology with lots of "shorts" about love?
Despite their weirdness, the characters are endearing, but their behavior often veers away from realism and into the realm of what I call "movie-land." It seems implausible, for example, that a woman would fall in love with a complete stranger, and then decide to gradually clean and refurbish his apartment, when he's not home and without his knowledge, over the course of several weeks. That kind of behavior is sort of insane, isn't it? In real life, it'd get you arrested. It stretches credibility even further that it appears to take this guy forever to notice the changes to his surroundings, and when he finally does notice, he discusses the matter with a bar of soap. That's what I mean by "movie-land."
Compounding my irritation, the characters sometimes decide to wax poetic about their personal philosophies, in that mock-deep movie way, saying things like "people remind me of expired cans of pineapples" or some such rubbish. Is this really deep, or is it just like that old Saturday Night Live sketch, "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy"?
Thankfully, "Chungking Express" is somewhat elevated by interesting shots of Hong Kong and energetic (but occasionally tiresome) hand-held camera work. The narrative has a disjointed feeling that is both a plus (it forces you to watch events closely, which is good) and a minus (because sometimes it's too confusing). In the first story, for example, I quickly lost track of exactly what on earth the woman in the blonde wig was up to, and who she happened to be shooting at each particular moment.
It sounds like I really hated this movie, but I didn't. I just think it fits into that category of art-house movies that really aren't so great. I applaud it for being experimental and daring, but I don't think it really sheds a lot of light on the human condition. It's too slick and self-consciously over-the-top to achieve that particular goal.
"Chungking Express" is all about love, apparently, but I don't think it can rightfully be called a romantic movie. The characters are all so obsessive, neurotic and downright oddball that the film makes love seem more like a bizarre illness than something to be cherished.
The narrative is awkwardly split into two distinct stories, both involving mopey guys who are mooning over girlfriends they've lost. The two guys are pretty similar - they're both nice, passive, quirky, and cops - so I wonder why the film-makers felt the need to tell two separate stories in the first place. Why not flesh out one or the other more thoroughly? Or do a proper anthology with lots of "shorts" about love?
Despite their weirdness, the characters are endearing, but their behavior often veers away from realism and into the realm of what I call "movie-land." It seems implausible, for example, that a woman would fall in love with a complete stranger, and then decide to gradually clean and refurbish his apartment, when he's not home and without his knowledge, over the course of several weeks. That kind of behavior is sort of insane, isn't it? In real life, it'd get you arrested. It stretches credibility even further that it appears to take this guy forever to notice the changes to his surroundings, and when he finally does notice, he discusses the matter with a bar of soap. That's what I mean by "movie-land."
Compounding my irritation, the characters sometimes decide to wax poetic about their personal philosophies, in that mock-deep movie way, saying things like "people remind me of expired cans of pineapples" or some such rubbish. Is this really deep, or is it just like that old Saturday Night Live sketch, "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy"?
Thankfully, "Chungking Express" is somewhat elevated by interesting shots of Hong Kong and energetic (but occasionally tiresome) hand-held camera work. The narrative has a disjointed feeling that is both a plus (it forces you to watch events closely, which is good) and a minus (because sometimes it's too confusing). In the first story, for example, I quickly lost track of exactly what on earth the woman in the blonde wig was up to, and who she happened to be shooting at each particular moment.
It sounds like I really hated this movie, but I didn't. I just think it fits into that category of art-house movies that really aren't so great. I applaud it for being experimental and daring, but I don't think it really sheds a lot of light on the human condition. It's too slick and self-consciously over-the-top to achieve that particular goal.