Chungking Express
- Sat, Feb 15
Director: Wong Kar-Wai Run Time: 103 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1994
Starring: Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Valerie Chow Kar-Ling
The whiplash, double-pronged “Chungking Express” is one of the defining works of nineties cinema and the film that made Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in Wong’s gloriously shot and utterly unexpected charmer, which cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of romantic longing.