[FIELDWORK] Chungking Express, Central to Mid-Levels escalator

CHUNGKING EXPRESS, DIR. WONG KAR WEI (1994)           

Central to Mid-Levels escalator, Central District, Hong Kong

Chungking Express, directed by Wong Kar Wei in 1994 and shot in Hong Kong, told two romantic stories set in the 1990s Hong Kong. Two policemen fell in love respectively after a hurtful breakup. In the movie, Central to Mid-Levels Escalator is a significant witness of the story between Cop 663 and Faye. Covering over 2000 feet, it is the worlds’ “longest outdoor covered escalator system,” connecting the central business district with the Mid-levels residential district. Moreover, it functions as an essential path for commuters (including 663, Faye, and the flight attendant). With the features of infrastructure, it is also a place for beautiful encounters and love adventure.

Left: The poster of Chungking Express,1994, directed by Wang Kai Wei. Right: Faye peeping at 663 through his apartment’s window. A scene from Chungking Express, 1994, directed by Wang Kai Wei.

Film director Wong Kar Wei stated in an interview that he played many things related to speed, using many techniques to change the movie’s pace and stretch or squeeze audiences’ perception of time. An example is a scene in which the narrator says, “at our closest point, we were just 0.01 cm apart from each other”, where a minute is extended, a sensitive mood is amplified, and endless details are highlighted. The trick of Montage is used here to show the passing of time under Faye’s secret love. Audiences are given different views of the escalator-seen from the apartment window, seen from the protagonists’ back, seen through the glass. All these things, along with the bold use of cold-tune colors and the description of the escalator’s slow movement, create a sense of indifference, even alienation. Seen from the escalator, one may find the private life of the residents is easily exposed. However, the surroundings would keep indicating the distance between the one in the department and the one standing on the escalator (Cop 663 and Faye in this film).

Nevertheless, in a sense, it is the distance itself that creates the fascination of love. The loud music “California Dreamin” drowned out their dialogue, just like the narrow window, dirty glass, and dense buildings between them, keeping them separated spatially but somehow attracted to each other. It seems that since the 1990s, young people have developed a kind of “urban syndrome.” Life’s pace is too fast for a normal relationship to develop: their possession of the apartment at different periods in a day is like communication of space itself. This idea is also indicated by both the Chinese and English names of the movie. In the former case, “forest（《重庆森林》）” reflects a dense cluster of newly rising skyscrapers in the 1990s of Hong Kong, and the latter one, Chungking Express, is not only a literal combination of Chungking Mansion and Midnight Express but also a metaphor of the hasty lifestyle in the city. Even the code name “663” transfers a feeling of insignificance of an individual’s existence in this metropolis.

Wong have said that all the places in the film functioned as a witness of the protagonists. As Marc Augé stated, “identity and relations lie at the heart of all the spatial arrangements classically studied by anthropology.” To my understanding, a place must have its unique characteristics, yet these characteristics are developed through the process they interacted with humans, precisely the successive production of spaces. The story of Faye falling in love with 663 endows this city infrastructure with “relations, history, and identity,” changing it into a real place and many real spaces. Wong tried to deliver that the charm of love lies in the randomness. Despite the feeling of isolation, love is so true and proximate, that may be the reason why Hong Kong is more like a “forest” rather than a “desert.”

Shot at Sheung Wan MTR Station，an imitation of the movie (reflection of oneself in transportation infrastructure).

1.Augé, Marc. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. verso, 1995.

2.De Certeau, Michel, and Pierre Mayol. The Practice of Everyday Life: Living and cooking. Volume 2. Vol. 2. U of Minnesota Press, 1998.

3.DeWolf, C. 2016. Stories behind Hong Kong districts: SoHo before the escalator. South China Morning Post, Sept 29.

4.Desser, David. “Chungking Express, Tarantino, and the Making of a Reputation.” Companion to Wong Kar-wai. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell (2016): 319-44.

— Wu Shuang 3035772767