The first Wong Kar-Wai movie to make an impression on North American audiences (the Miramax release was sponsored by Quentin Tarantino), Chungking Express is a fast, fluid, almost throwaway picture set in contemporary Hong Kong’s edgy Chungking Mansions district, and comprising two simple, short story-like through-lines, both involving forlorn policemen. In the first, Takeshi Kaneshiro makes an arbitrary promise to himself to find a new girlfriend before the expiry date on a can of pineapples. Then there’s Tony Leung, who becomes a project for Faye Wong who works at the noodle counter he frequents, and who takes it upon herself to clean and redecorate his apartment without his knowledge.
It was this fast, relatively small film that made Wong’s name in the West. After the studied inertia of Days of Being Wild, Chungking is a frenetic visual blur that’s been likened to an action painting. The rogue Australian cinematographer Chris Doyle does groundbreaking work here. Still the prevailing tone is wistful melancholy, whimsical and poetic: even a cop’s ragged dishcloth joins in the tears.
This is what Godard movies were once like: fast, hand-held, funny and very, very catchy.
Tony Rayns, Time Out
Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express is as fresh as falling rain, a pair of love stories full of pain and humor.
Kevin Thomas, LA Times
Chungking Express gets by and gets off on sheer innocence, exuberance, and cinematic freedom, a striking triumph of style over substance that give life to the grunge and chaos at the heart of contemporary Hong Kong.
Joshua Klein, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Media Partner
Wong Kar-Wai
Tony Leung, Brigitte Lin, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro
Hong Kong
1994
In Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Screenwriter
Wong Kar Wai
Cinematography
Christopher Doyle, Wai Keung Lau
Editor
William Chang, Kit-Wai Kai, Chi-Leung Kwong
Original Music
Frankie Chan, Michael Galasso, Roel A. García
Production Design
William Chang
Art Director
Wai Ming Yau
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Crash
Sex drive, David Cronenberg-style. The car-crash fetishists who orbit Cronenberg's metrosexual Toronto (they include James Spader, Holly Hunter, and Deborah Unger) obsessively seek a fusion of metal and flesh... Fender bender as the ultimate orgasm.
Trainspotting
Danny Boyle's blistering movie was a sensation in 1996: a kick in the teeth of old school British kitchen sink realism, it fearlessly transformed the dire circumstances of Edinburgh heroin addicts into an experience by turns exhilarating and devastating.
Fargo
Have the Coen brothers ever made a more satisfying movie than Fargo? This grisly comedy pits one of cinema's most pure-hearted cops (Frances McDormand's pregnant cop, Marge Gunderson) against the machinations of weak and mercenary men.
Lone Star
John Sayles's modern day Western is a murder mystery which draws sheriff Chris Cooper to investigate two of his predecessors, the notoriously corrupt Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), and his own father, Buddy (Matthew McConaughey).
90s Mystery Movie + Trivia Night
And now for a shot in the dark... We're not announcing the Mystery Movie in advance, so you'll have to take a leap of faith. We can say it was released between January 1990 and January 2000, and it's not already showing elsewhere in this series. As an added enticement we're going to throw in a 90s movie trivia night with your ticket — plus prizes!
Princess Mononoke
A mystical fight between humans and the Animal Gods of the forest. Ashitaka, the last prince of a dying race, struggles to find a way for both sides to co-exist. But the fighting only becomes more and more bloody and all hope seems to be lost…
Gummo
Harmony Korine was just 24 when he made Gummo. It's become a cult favourite as much for its singularity as anything else: it's a strange, misshapen beast, a slice of beat poetry translated into experimental film.
Jackie Brown
Take half a dozen characters who know they're in a fix, and give them half a million dollars to fight over. Tarantino's crime movie (his best) transcends genre in large part because in Pam Grier and Robert Forster it gives us people we truly care about.
The Big Lebowski
The Coens' whacky, warped slacker generation riff on Raymond Chandler, a shaggy dog story which delights in going sideways at every turn. Jeff Bridges is the Dude, and what he really wants is to get his rug back...
Out of Sight
Adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel about the mutual attraction between an escaped bank robber and the FBI agent on his tail, Out of Sight is sexy and romantic, cosmopolitan, and full of Soderbergh's sleight of hand, shuffling time like a card sharp.
Buffalo '66
Vincent Gallo's directorial debut is an eccentric, provocative comedy which laces a poignant love story with both a sombre, washed-out naturalism and surreal musical vignettes. This one is something different...
Run Lola Run
In the hyper intense world of pre-millennial Berlin, Lola has just 20 minutes to come up with a 100,000 Deutchmarks or her boyfriend cops it. He's asking the right woman: Lola won't stop til she's saved the day... It's Speed, in the multiverse...
Rushmore
Precocious Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is befriended by depressed industrialist Harold Blume (Bill Murray) until they both fall in love with first grade teacher Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). Anderson's second feature is an old favourite.
The Blair Witch Project
The rushes of a student-made documentary investigating the legend of the Blair Witch in Burkittsville, Maryland, a quest that led the three filmmakers deep into the Appallachian woods. Easy to get lost in there...