Dirty Movie Club: Chungking Express

[Dave]

Movie
Chung hing sam lam (aka Chungking Express)
Director: Kar Wai Wong
Year: 1994
Country: Hong Kong

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Synopsis (taken from Netflix)
Hong Kong director Kar Wai Wong i established a unique style with this cerebral film that tells two somewhat similar but unrelated stories about loneliness and disconnection in the big city. In the first story, a policeman pines after his former girlfriend and gives himself 30 days to find another woman; in the second story, another policeman catches the eye of an attractive waitress, who's intent on completely rearranging his life.

Why I chose it
I haven't actually seen this film yet (that's not a requirement is it?). Anyways, In the mood for love by the same director is one of my favourite films. When I first watched it I was blown away, it's one of those movies which makes you appreciate cinema as a absolute art form, not just entertainment. I've read nothing but good things about Chunking Express since then, but never got round to watching it, so I thought I'd use this opportunity to force myself (and hopefully others) to do so.

Dave

[Tom]

Nice pick. I loved In the Mood for Love as well, so I'm looking forward to this

[gambit]

Hey hey, the DMC is back! lol

Just added it to my Netflix queue.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

I'm cancelling my membership, but I'm keeping my membership card, you cannot have it back it's mine.

Jo Jo Dancer would have been my pick.

Cheers!

[grady]

Ah, it's nice to own this week's choice. I think I will watch later this evening. Such a tasty film. This was WKW's first kind of big splash onto the international scene. The film was released state side in the mid 90s under Tarantino's Rolling Thunder banner and even featured a little video intro and outro discussing the film.

Wong Kar Wai has a new film coming out this year(hopefully) that will be his first English language film, proper. Should be interesting.

Tom, you see 2046, the sort of sequel/continuation of In the Mood for Love?

[kid cue]

i've been putting off seeing this for years and years. i have issues with watching Wong Kar Wai for some reason. Happy Together was my first and favorite, In The Mood For Love was beautiful but somehow left me unmoved, and i literally tried to get through Days Of Being Wild about 5 times before giving up. hopefully i'll have more success with this one.

[gambit]

Hmm, well, I watched this over the weekend, and I didn't much care for the first story. The Cop 1 and Woman 1 were rather uninteresting in and of themselves, and there wasn't any real chemistry between them once they met. I guess I didn't like Cop 1 because I saw some of myself in him, but even past that, the pineapple bit and calling every girl he knew since grade school was kinda pathetic.

The second story was better since Woman 2 was energetic and lively providing a good contrast to Cop 2. She held my interest more than anyone in the film, but even this story began to drag on until the (anti)climax of the non-first date.

[b.miller]

I've been going back and forth on whether or not to watch this again. I saw it about a year ago and, since it's now been about a week of me putting it off, I'm deciding to just remember it.

This is a great example of a movie that the intellectual part of my brain knows is really great but just doesn't do anything for me. I completely attribute it to my particular tastes and not the film however. I remember the photography being really daring and visually exciting, WKW's treatment of character and romance are both realistic and poetic, and his film easily achieves what I think he set out to do. It's just not for me. Maybe I'm not old or mature enough or just in the wrong place to appreciate his work, but as good as part of me knows his work is, I still can't bring myself to get excited by it. I've actually been putting off 2046 for some time (sorry, Grady) because I know I'm not going to like it as much as I should, and that frustrated me. His work is just too slow and langurous for me, too steeped in subtlies and tone. I actually hate saying that because usually those are things I love... but what can I do. I blame it on too much Schwarzaneggar as a child.

I hoped you liked it though, Dave.

[justy]

Just gotta say: the Tony Leung/Faye Wong story is my favorite of the two. They're both effortlessly funny and sexy (though "California Dreaming" getting played over and over again gets a little tiring on repeat viewings).

[GforGroove]

Originally Posted by b.miller

This is a great example of a movie that the intellectual part of my brain knows is really great but just doesn't do anything for me. I completely attribute it to my particular tastes and not the film however. I remember the photography being really daring and visually exciting, WKW's treatment of character and romance are both realistic and poetic, and his film easily achieves what I think he set out to do. It's just not for me.

jajajajaja..
This is my favorite movie all time. Myab emy intellectual part doesn't work that well and i just catch the mood! Think in WKW like Murakami.
You don't really know what is behind but the mood and the feeling is so great that it doesn't matter. WKW don't make such things as "linear" stories and that why i love of him is just a bit of that and bit of the other.. different situations and moments that together just shapes incredible emotions. If you aren't into how Chungking Express works mayeb 2046 is a bit too much for you, however try In the Mood for Love first so you can "follow" .

I serioulsy think that this movie has the more incredible lines and characters ever: emotionally charged towels, to apartments crying and
a lovely Faye.