CHUNGKING EXPRESS, DIR. WANG KAR WAI (1994)
Chungking Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Yifan ZHANG 303577281
Wong Kar Wai released Chungking Express in 1994. The film mainly tells two love stories that took place in Hong Kong.As mentioned in the title,one of the centerpiece is Chungking Mansions.At the beginning of this film, the female escapee get a group of Indians together in Chungking Mansions to do drug trafficking.Later,the Indians betrayed her and she had to face everything alone.My primary impression of Chungking Express is aloneness.When I got into this place which is full of foreigners ,when I smelled unfamiliar perfume and food,when I heard incomprehensible language,I feel lonely and afraid.And because the building is not well ventilated and there is little natural light intake,the building was stuffy and oppressive,also isolated.It is an old building ,everything in it looks old and insecure.The film try to show the aloneness using the special background of Chungking Mansions(full of South Asian and African).Although there are many people around the female escapee and they keep making noise and trouble,she is still lonely because they can’t understand each other and they are not friends.
(Female fugitives and Indian men are buying bags at a shop in Chungking Mansions for delivery of drugs.)
(Old decor in Chungking Mansions.)
And this lay the groundwork for the following text that she kill some indians and the man ,and make it easier for audience to understand her character and action.To save space,the aisles are very narrow .When actor and actress were running through ,audience can feel the chaos and get caught up in the movie quickly.
Another important place in this movie is the escalators from center to middle-mountain ,Ah Wu ran on the escalator after being crossed in love, the escalator can be saw in policeman 633’s home , his ex-girlfriend,he,the girl who like him(Ah Fei), they all use this escalator.When I visit it ,I hit the evening rush hour ,there are many people on escalator so it is impossible to run.We can know that Ah Wu pass through escalator at midnight.Midnight is a fantastic time ,the whole world become quiet so many thoughts come into people’s brain and the surrounding is dark so we don’t need to hide ourselves anymore .And the escalator near policeman 633’s home always appears in movie during the day ,there are always some people on it like what I saw,so it is hard to walk backwards on the escalator , and we can only see someone fade away.633 saw his girlfriend fade away,Ah Fei saw 633 fade away……Escalator,as a space in motion ,is under human’s control but also not under human’s control .It takes people away from some people while brings them to some people.And the escalator help people to understand what the director is trying to express — “People can change,maybe Ah May don’t like pineapple anymore.”
(Ah Wu ran on the escalator after being crossed in love.)
(This is what I saw on the escalator.)
In the film, there are also places such as vegetable markets, food stalls and tea restaurants, most of which have disappeared due to reconstruction.
(A lot of stories happened in the tea restaurant.)
During your fieldwork, you exposed yourself to all of the senses to better relate to and understand what the character had perceived. Would you think the perception and appropriation of space in Chungking Mansions are at least part of the reasons why it was chosen as the film set? With regard to the mid-level escalator, one of the ways of strengthening your argument would be to expand more on how the mid-level escalator is both within and out of human’s control. Why is that so? What aspect would make it within human’s control and what is out of human’s control? Taking more space to elaborate on how it is portrayed in the film would also worthwhile. Also, remember to put a proper reference to your writing. All cited text and images which are not yours must be referred correctly to the original sources.