CHUNGKING EXPRESS, WONG KAR WAI (1994)
Chungking Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
This is the building that Brigitte Lin entered at the beginning of the film. Built-in 1961.
The film consists of two stories about two frustrated men and women, how to get rid of their past love and start a new life again. The film embodies the eternal themes that director Wong Kar-wai is concerned with loneliness and the alienation of people. The characters in his films are always trapped in the past, unable to see the future, and unable to grasp the present. This is also reflected in Chungking express. The locations of these two stories are Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong and a fast-food restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong. In this report, we will pay more attention to the Chungking Mansions. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XOx2ye49OSVw5SZq_LPWLSuePL7jJIK9/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/13f7RVNivDaCRuWvL18f_cHtw2YOw77n4/view?usp=sharing
From the first 44 seconds of the movie, we follow Brigitte Lin, clothed in bizarre attire, through the small and congested passageways of Chungking Mansions, amid shaky cinematography of the different exhibition environments and horrific music, at the start of the film. Wong Kar-wai presents us with chaotic, congested, and mixed Chungking Mansions through these “shaky pictures.” We can see that there are several restaurants, stores, and inexpensive motels here and that it is a compacted world populated by individuals of various skin colours from various nations. Brigitte Lin’s motivation for entering Chungking Mansions is explained from six minutes ten to seven minutes seventeen, accompanied by fast-paced Indian music, a group of low-level Indians living in low-cost accommodation who had moved across the ocean to Hong Kong to make a livelihood. We can see the chaotic, dirty slum in the image of existence. Although Chungking Mansions was originally intended to be a residential structure, it has now evolved into a mixed-use development with several low-cost hotels, stores, restaurants, foreign exchange offices, and other service sectors. The building’s around 4,000 occupants are mostly Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities, with the biggest number of persons of South Asian heritage, such as India and Pakistan, and people from various African nations. Due to the building’s dispersed ownership, no one has been able to properly unify the ownership and reconstruct it. Some will relate this structure to Hong Kong’s “Kowloon Walled City of Ethnic Minorities,” which is a different worldwide monument with local peculiarities. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XOx2ye49OSVw5SZq_LPWLSuePL7jJIK9/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lOGIh3GbgURv74bl2ZbcZc7xxPVvTvMq/view?usp=sharing
Wong Kar-wai has resided in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, since he was a boy, and it is here that he acquired his passion for the city. It’s highly possible that he began to contemplate, question, observe and test the environment and the emotions around him at Chungking Mansions. Quentin Tarantino commented on Chungking express “This film has a wonderful wonderful romantic comedy flavour to it while at the same time being in capitalized in this crazy frenetic Hong Kong world.” After seeing the French New Wave under the shadow of Wong Kar Wai Godard, and according to Wong Kar Wai himself, the major goal of Chungking Express is to “We move too quickly to be human, and you miss a lot of things. It may have been extremely essential to you while it was by your side, but you were not paying attention at the time.” So Wong Kar-wai picked Chungking Mansions, a small Hong Kong City where people come and leave all the time, the gap between them is crowded, close at hand, but the distance between hearts is out of reach. Just like the narration that appeared in the opening film, “Every day you have the opportunity to pass everyone, you may know nothing about them, but they may become your confidants or friends in the future.” https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M1GhmFElB-tlvqLK4uWL2xrzOao-9doK/view?usp=sharing
— Lu Liyu, 3035946291
You described how the space is portrayed in one part of the film and also gave a description of the building in reality, including some information about its history. However, the comparison between the two (film and reality) can be made clearer to the reader. Some accompanying visuals (film stills as well as materials from virtual fieldwork) would also have been helpful in supporting your analysis. Unfortunately, I am unable to access the google drive link included in your report. You are also reminded to cite any references used properly.