[FIELDWORK]: CHUNGKING EXPRESS, MID-LEVEL ESCALATOR

Chungking Express, Wong Kar Wai, 1994 

Mid-level Escalator, Central District, Hong Kong

Eujin: In this podcast, we will discuss how the Central-mid-level escalator acts as a critical element in the movie Chungking Express. Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express is a film that captures the transitional period of Hong Kong in 1994 within the urban landscape of loss and rejection. The title itself explicitly represents Hong Kong, as it is a combination of two distinct locations : Chungking Mansion in Tsim Sha Tsui and Midnight Express in Central consisting of Lan Kwai Fong and the Mid-level escalators on Hong Kong Island. The two locations act as microcosms of Hong Kong, where the local and the global come together inextricably. In particular, through our podcast we will shed light on how the Central-Mid-level escalators were portrayed in the movie and what we actually felt when we visited it in reality.

Minsoo: Basked in melancholic green lighting, the escalator evokes a sense of confusion and sentimentalism of Hong Kong in the 1990s. In the film, the Mid-level escalator represents radical change and the instability among citizens after the handover of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China. This is again displayed by the construction of a mid-level escalator in 1993, which led to a radical shift in the scenery of the nearby areas. Even the pre-existing cultural heritage such as the original residential areas of Hong Kongers were demolished for the construction of this escalator, and this conveys a significant symbolic meaning. The consequences followed by the construction of a mid-level escalator symbolize how being a part of mainland China made major changes, thereby creating a dubiety in Hong Kong’s identity. By presenting the mid-level escalator in the film, Wong Kar Wai, the director of the movie, tries to express the loss of love and the loss of cultural identity.

Eujin: The first role of the escalator is to be presented as a catalyst that activates the female protagonist’s curiosity and love, with the use of sentimentalism. Cop 663’s house is located right behind the escalator. As Faye, the female character, passed by the escalator, she became more curious about the cop 663. Therefore, looking at the film, we can notice that the director used the escalator as a device to show the romantic desire even in this chaotic phase.
On the other hand, the escalator also delivers a symbolic meaning, since it serves as a figurative metaphor for Hong Kong’s political situation. In 1898, Hong Kong was leased to Britain for 99 years by Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory. In this aspect, escalator not just serves as a spatial backdrop of showing Faye’s love for cop 663, but the symbolic meaning goes beyond that. Although the mid-level escalator is a lengthy one, it, undoubtedly, has an end at some point. This reflects Hong Kong’s national uncertainty in its identity, in which the regime under UK is destined to end in 1997 and no one can be ever sure of what will happen to the political identity of Hong Kong after the period.

Minsoo: Furthermore, the escalators serve to showcase the distinctiveness of Hong Kong’s metropolitan architecture style. When we step on the escalator, the great length and height allow us to see the scenery of the city. The buildings are densely packed, and the high-rise buildings and towers stand so high that they even cover the sky to some extent.
When we see the escalator in real life, it is both similar and different from what we saw in the movie. What is sure is that the place is not simply a filming location of a famous movie, but we felt several more things beyond that while visiting the space in real life almost 30 years after the movie was filmed.

Eujin: To begin with, through all the high-rise buildings and packed scenery, which even gave confined feelings, we were able to spot the consumerist characteristics of Hong Kong city. All the residential complexes and the mixed arrangement of residential areas and shopping centers looked like a gigantic piece of evidence for promotion of consumerism. I think this is a unique spatial quality of cities in Hong Kong, which people find undesirable but attractive at the same time.

Minsoo: Next, what we found similar between the movie and real life was the symbolic meaning that the escalator conveys. As we mentioned earlier, the fact that even the mid-level escalator, which is the longest escalator in the world, has an end to it reflects Hong Kong’s vulnerability to international political sway. Still, even after 30 years since the movie was released, the international situation is precarious, and the mid-level escalator there stands still, up to now conveying such symbolic meaning and much unchanged from what it looked like from the movie. The escalator seemed much more meaningful to us, because we were already equipped with the understanding of such implicit significance through prior research.
Thirdly, The urban solitude and loneliness felt by Hong Kongers depicted in the movie was amplified when we visited the site. This loneliness does not come from a complete seclusion from other people, but it rather comes from emotional isolation that one feels from daily lives. The night scenery of Hong Kong’s densely packed city seen at the moving escalator made it look even lonelier, with the mechanical moving sound of the escalator, which almost sounded like the heartbeat of the city.

Eujin: What is different from the movie, however, was that we tend to incorporate our personal experience of solitude as a foreign student to that of movie characters. As the scenery of Hong Kong city’s night view created the mood of loneliness for the characters in the movie and as we felt that while watching the film, visiting the site in real life made us relate to the same mood and connect it to our personal experiences. This perception of our own was one of the things that were different from what was presented in the movie and how it was experienced in reality.

MINSOO KIM (3036050491), EUJIN LEE (3035993701)