Chungking Express Reviews

With its sprung rhythms and pop sensibility, Wong Kar-wai's genuinely inspired pastiche of early Godard and late Hitchcock could be dismissed as another bit of stylishly pomo navel-gazing -- if it weren't so obviously about something. This visually electric film consists of two loosely connected but cleverly rhymed stanzas: Part One traces the intersecting paths of a lovelorn Hong Kong cop (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and a beautiful drug smuggler (HK superstar Brigitte Lin); Part Two is about a slightly cracked counter girl (Faye Wong) in romantic pursuit of a second cop (Tony Leung Chiu-wai). It all takes place in and around Chungking House, a sprawling apartment complex cum shopping mall that houses many of Hong Kong's rootless young professionals. As rendered by Wong, it's a place where distinctions between people and products are rapidly disappearing. Relationships have expiration dates; household objects are cajoled, seduced and abandoned; interchangeable lovers are identified and valued according to the quality of their packaging. Indeed, like no previous film, CHUNGKING EXPRESS captures the historical moment of capitalism's international triumph: Right now, all over the world, you can have anything you're prepared to buy, and none of it is worth having.