The image of the changing digital clock signifies a moment frozen in time, a memory captured in motion. As fate would have it, Cop 223 comes face to face with the woman he would later fall in love with at exactly 9:00 pm.
Secondly, Cop 223’s past-tense voice-over gives significance to each passing frame by drawing attention to their importance in the grand scheme of the film’s narrative. Firstly, the low frame rate establishes an unconventional yet cinematic approach to time and movement that develops throughout the film. But 57 hours later… I fell in love with this woman.” This opening sequence is significant for a number of reasons. Simultaneously, Cop 223’s voice-over states, “This was the closest we ever got. As their bodies meet, the sequence cuts to a close-up of a digital clock changing from 8:59 pm to 9:00 pm, and then back to the two characters. Suddenly, both characters paths intercept, and Cop 223 almost collides into the woman whilst giving chase. The frame rate during this opening sequence is lowered, resulting in a disorientating display of movement and colour as Cop 223 and an unnamed woman wearing a blonde wig navigate this chaotic space. The film begins with Cop 223 introducing himself via voice-over narration as he chases a perp through Chungking Mansions.
For Cop 223, who is recovering from a recent breakup, his perception of time is governed by the date in which his girlfriend left him: April 1st. Both Cop 223 and Cop 663 take on a subjective significance, as viewers share in their experiences of life in 1990s Hong Kong, with the film bringing one closer and closer into the characters’ interior worlds. From the offset, the decision to introduce both central protagonists by their numbers is significant in that it establishes them as but one of many police officers in Hong Kong whose stories the audience could potentially know. Both officers frequent the same locations (Chungking Mansions) and interact with the same characters whilst never crossing each other’s paths. The complex presentation of time in Chungking Express raises questions as to whether cinema as both a visual and a temporal medium is an effective remedy for the modern condition.Ĭhungking Express is split into two distinct yet overlapping stories: the first focuses on Cop 223 played by Takeshi Kaneshiro, and the second focuses on Cop 663 played by Tony Leung. The frame rate is manipulated to the point of confusion, mimicking the characters own subjective experience of time, whilst voice-over narration gives significance to seemingly insignificant dates and numbers. Certain formal techniques, such as editing and voice-over narration, are employed in order to give this experience a distinctly cinematic. Chungking Express presents time as something inherently unique to each of its characters: a subjective experience of the dates and memories that constitute their narrative. Life is captured in motion, and reality is transfixed into an interior notion.
As in many of his later works namely, In the Mood for Love and 2046, Wong demonstrates an acute awareness of cinematic time and temporality - the here and now of the filmic apparatus. Considered by many to be Wong Kar-wai’s magnum opus, the film that best encapsulates his unique style and sensibility, Chungking Express is a charmingly profound work imbued with the cinematic wonder of a truly masterful auteur.
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