CHUNGKING EXPRESS, DIR. Wong Kar Wai (1994)
Central-Mid-Levels Escalator, Central and Western District, Hong Kong
The ChungKing Express is the story of two policemen who were just jilted by their girlfriend bumped into two girls. In the first story, He Qiwu uses the expiration date of pineapples tin counting down his breakdown after one month. This heartbreaking situation marked an end when he bumped into a mysterious smuggler in the blonde wing. While in the second story, Cop 663 was dumped by a flight attendant and meets a waitress, named Faye in a restaurant. Falling in love with Cop 663, Faye broke into Cop 663’s apartment and help him for cleaning up and redecorate.
Scene showing Qiwu running up the escalator from ChungKing Express, 1994, directed by Wong kar Wai.
Although the two stories happen separately, dir. Wong Kar Wai uses the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator to run through the whole story. The escalator is set in the scene of Cop 663 seeing Qiwu walking out from the shop which is the only encounter of them in the two different stories. In addition, it marks the heartbreaking moments of the two stories, that is the collapse of Qiwu when he failed to call her girlfriend and ran up in the escalator, and is the last moment Cop 663 see his girlfriend waving with him in the escalator.
Screen capture of Google map shows the 800m long outdoor escalator linking over 16 streets.
The film fully utilizes the feature of the escalator to present the messages. Being a long platform linking the whole Central as we can see in the map, it is used to strengthen the message of linking different passing-by together. Meanwhile, the uniqueness of the escalator built with narrow separation with the building along is used to set the plot for Faye gazing at Cop 663 along the escalator from his home.
Scene showing the colour tone of the escalator from ChungKing Express, 1994, directed by Wong kar Wai.
Apart from using the existing context of the escalator, The ChungKing Express also uses various camera techniques to strengthen its narration. For the tone, the escalator in the film was revealed in green light to contrast with the warm tone of the surrounding building, which is rarely seen in reality as given the fact that the pale green colour is hardly noticed by the pedestrian and the escalator was closed normally at midnight. This is widely used to highlight the sense of loneliness and isolation of Qiwu when his feeling changed from looking forward to her girlfriend’s reply in the warm building and ending up collapsing at the escalator when he failed the call.
Left: Scene of Cop 663’s girlfriend waving at him from the escalator in ChungKing Express, 1994, directed by Wong kar Wai. Right: View in pedestrian perspective in the escalator in reality1.
For the angle of the camera, different from how people view the escalator normally, low angle view is introduced in the movie. In the first story, this angle is used to strengthen the length of the escalator as Qiwu is running up which acted as a metaphor for Qiwu’s long journey of forgetting his ex-girlfriend. In the second story, this angle is used to create a peaking of Cop 663 apartment along the escalator. The point of voyeurism marked the break of privacy of Cop 663 when Faye is planned to sneak into his home. It is also a place for Faye to determine when Cop 663 is coming back home to escape before he is aware. With all the techniques used, the movie turned the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator into a place of sadness and uncomfortable.
Notes
1 The Cable News Network. (2017). Hong Kong’s amazing outdoor escalator system. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/gallery/hong-kong-central-mid-levels-escalator/index.html
— Ho Ka Wing Chloe, 3035934535
I appreciate how you analysed the scenes in detail and pointed out the various visual techniques used. You also drew meaningful links between your observations and the emotions evoked by the film. While you did include some materials from a virtual field trip and consistently referred to the space in reality, perhaps you can try to find more images of the space in reality which match the stills you selected to better support your points. In general, you can collect more information on the Central-Mid-Levels escalator and draw from a greater variety of sources.