CHUNGKING EXPRESS, DIR. WONG KAR-WAI (1994)
CHUNGKING MANSIONS, YAU TSIM MONG DISTRICT, HONG KONG
The most intimate still between the Blondie and Qiwu. Scene from Jet Tone Production’s Chungking Express 1994, directed by Wong Kar-Wai.
Chungking Express¹ is telling two love stories without tangible connections among them. It was set in 1990s Hong Kong, which is overcrowded and fast-changing. Every day there were lots of people passing by each other, like the four main characters of the film. The two pairs of protagonists became either couple or remained as strangers, after the passing. The movie was entitled from Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is well-known as ‘small United Nations’². Many people from different countries and cultural backgrounds gather here and make here crowd and busy. It is the leading site of the story between Blondie and Qiwu, which has a crime and police atmosphere when compared to the other story in the film. It is believed that the feeling is provided by the messiness and disorderliness of the Chungking Mansions.
Left: Posterize Time Effect shows the hastiness of the city. Scene from Jet Tone Production’s Chungking Express 1994, directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Right: Freeze-frame shows the crowdedness of the city. Scene from Jet Tone Production’s Chungking Express 1994, directed by Wong Kar-Wai.
In the reality, the Chungking Mansions have been renovated twice in the 21st century. It is no longer a chaotic place that is now safer and more ordinary than that in Chungking Express. Once we get into the building, several exchange stores tell us there are still mostly foreigners living in this area, which remains unchanged as the film shows. By entering the center of the building, people can take the lift to the upper guesthouses or visit the stores with different national characteristics on the lower floors. The living spaces in the film are disordered while it is relatively cleaner now on the online pictures, while the shops are not selling any ‘luxury items’ as the film but daily products and services are provided in real life. It is not sure that if I was stereotyped by Chungking Express or the rumors of Chungking Mansions, I still felt a sense of fear when I was visiting the site as it came over as a disconcerting area. The overall atmosphere inside the building seems the same due to the unfamiliarity of different cultures, but it is actually different from the film under scrutiny. People working here can mostly speak Cantonese, lightings are powerful enough to show the environment clearly, and settings here are regular. Everything here is still based on intercultural interaction, but every detail is getting more order than the movie shown.
Different stores in 1990s Chungking Mansion. Scene from Jet Tone Production’s Chungking Express 1994, directed by Wong Kar-Wai.
The film is believed to be showing the real Chungking Mansions in the 1990s by adding a love story with a criminal background as Chungking Mansions did not allow Wong Kar-Wai filming in the building. Thus, the scenes inside the building are not arranged but documented. It is not a characterless idea. The story in the film is staging a crime in Chungking Mansions, where did happen many criminal cases in the early years, thus the film is incontrovertible recording the reality of society in that era. This setting corresponds to the clou of the film——the express city. As the frames of Chungking Mansions are showing the closeness in distance among people with limited space in Hong Kong, it is implying the alienation among hearts under the fast pace of the city. As society keeps shifting, even the relationships cannot be long-standing under the environment. Then, how about the city? The conditions vary quickly and constantly that the Chungking Mansions nowadays are altered and refreshed within thirty years. Luckily, we can compare the differences through Chungking Express and Chungking Mansions, but how about other losing memories of Hong Kong? To echo the loneliness theme and preserve the ‘present’ in the age of change, Wong Kar-Wai filmed the veritable scenarios as documentation. It is telling how the city is disappearing, by both the storylines and the mise en scene.
—— Hong Lam, Law, 3035935797
Notes:
¹ChungKing Express is a romantic crime comedy-drama film produced by Jet Tone Production’s Chungking Express 1994. The film was written and filmed by Wong Kar-Wai while starred by Brigitte Lin Chin-Hsia, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, and Faye Wong.
² Chungking Mansions was elected as the “Best Example of Globalization in Action” by Time magazine in 2007
I appreciate how you brought in ideas of disappearance and alienation in your analysis of the film. You also included some meaningful observations about how the space is experienced in-person and made comparisons with its representation in the film. The references to the field trip and your method could however be made more explicit (e.g. when did you visit?). Moreover, some visual records to compare with scenes from the film could make for an even deeper analysis. You are also reminded to cite any references used, such as the contextual information about Chungking Mansions’ renovation and news related to the building.