She asks him where he wants the destination to be, to which he replies, "Wherever you will take me." As Faye is about to leave, he presents the boarding pass, wrinkled and water-stained, and she writes him a new one. He asks her to stay for the grand opening, and asks her to send him a postcard if she leaves. She finds that the man has bought the snack bar and is converting it into a restaurant. She leaves him a boarding pass drawn on a paper napkin dated one year later.įaye, now a flight attendant, returns to Hong Kong. Faye does not arrive, and the snack bar owner, her cousin, goes to the restaurant to tell him that Faye has left for the US state of California. He finds Faye coming to his apartment and realizes that she likes him he arranges a date at a restaurant named California. Faye uses the keys to repeatedly enter the man's apartment to clean and redecorate. She learns he is on his day off and leaves a letter for him with the snack bar owner containing a set of keys to the officer's apartment.įaye tells him of the letter, but he delays reading it and asks the snack bar to keep it for him. One day, the flight attendant visits the store and waits for the man. He visits his usual snack food store where he collides with a new staff member, Faye.Īnother police officer is also dealing with a breakup-with a flight attendant. Qiwu goes jogging and receives a message from her on his pager wishing him a happy birthday. She leaves in the morning and shoots the drug baron who set her up. He shines her shoes before he leaves her sleeping on the bed. However, she is exhausted and falls asleep in a hotel room, leaving him to watch old films and order food. On 1 May, Qiwu approaches the woman in the blonde wig at the Bottoms Up Club.
Meanwhile, a woman in a blonde wig tries to survive in the drug underworld after a smuggling operation goes sour. Every day he buys a tin of pineapples with an expiration date of 1 May, because May enjoyed pineapples. To verify her earnestness in breaking up with him, Qiwu chooses to wait for a month. DOLLY SHOT Cop 223 running on track field -> RUNNING TO THE LEFT suggests temptation of running back into the past.Taiwan-raised cop He Qiwu is dumped by his girlfriend named May on 1 April. EXTREME LONG SHOT filmed from a crane of Cop 223 crossing main road + 2 HIGH SHOTS of sky -> BOTH EMPHASISE THE USE OF SPACE contrasts intensity and suffocation of urban city life that both protagonists experience on daily basis. WKW persuaded Lin to act in Chungking Express with an offer to base her character of Blanche DuBois (Tennesse Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire').ĬAMERA ANGLES/CAMERA MOVEMENT EYE LEVEL SHOT with hand held camera movement -> hotel room (personal // emphasises feeling of audience observing the scene). Character of drug dealer played by Brigette Lin -> Final appearance in film (end of successful acting career from 1973). WKW cast Kaneshiro based on appearance and his potential // pleased to discover more about Kaneshiro's personal experiences and used them to build on character of Cop 223 (his fluency in Catanese, Japanese, Mandarin and English).
Character of Cop 223 played by Takeshi Kaneshiro -> newcomer actor on Chungking Express.
Emphasises the hollow nature of human beings and the behaviour we show to comfort ourselves through a struggling time.ĪCTING/CASTING: Character focus in scene: relationship of Cop 223 and drug dealer. protagonists unhealthy nature of a liminal lifestyle: reoccuring theme of watching protagonists sleep and eat but they never appear satiated by the food (portrayed by the four chef salads and Cop 663 getting fast food to go).Cop 223 refuses to accept the fact that his girlfriend May has left him -> direct parallel to Cop 663: his unwillingness to read the letter left by his ex-girlfriend. identity and our reluctance to show, or to accept, who we truly are: Brigiette Lin's character wears a wig and sunglasses to hide her true self.Themes in extract that relate to rest of film: He leaves early in the morning + goes jogging next morning to relieve emotions he feels about knowing his ex-girlfriend won't call him on this day as it's his birthday. Drug dealer falls asleep on bed and Cop 223 left with four chef salads and old Canatese opera films to watch. Summary of extract: Cop 223 and drug dealer go back to a hotel room together to rest. Chosen extract: 31:10-35:40 (Story 1 of the film)
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