Chungking Express (1994)

Chungking Express (1994), directed by Wong Kar-wai, is a vivid, impressionistic portrait of loneliness and chance encounters in 1990s Hong Kong. The film consists of two loosely connected stories about lovelorn policemen whose lives intersect at a cramped, late-night food stall in the Chungking Mansions. Wong’s screenplay and Christopher Doyle’s cinematography favor mood over plot: quick cuts, handheld camerawork, saturated color, and a pop soundtrack turn small moments into electric, often bittersweet poetry. In the first story, Cop 223 copes with a recent breakup by buying a can of pineapples each day until May 1—his deadline for closure—when he unexpectedly crosses paths with a mysterious woman in a blonde wig who’s entangled in the criminal underworld. The second follows Cop 663, reeling from another breakup, as he slowly reconnects with life through the quirky, airy-voiced waitress who works at the same food stall and plays “California Dreamin’” on repeat. Both tales probe how ritual, chance, and fleeting intimacy shape modern urban longing. If you watch Chungking Express you’ll experience a film more felt than told: fragments of dialogue, tactile city sounds, neon-lit streets, and tiny rituals that reveal the characters’ inner lives. Expect a restless, romantic energy—moments of humor and oddity alongside genuine melancholy—delivered in a cinematic style that rewards attention to detail and mood. It’s less a conventional romance than a sensory exploration of desire, memory, and the strange comforts of everyday routine.

Actors: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung

Director: Kar-Wai Wong

Runtime: 102 min

Genres: Comedy, Crime, Drama

7.5 /10 78 /100 8.0 /10 7.8 /10