Tony Leung

(Criterion streaming, September 2019) Considering that I had a look at Chungking Express solely because it showed up on several (longer) “best movies of all time” lists, I’m left a bit nonplussed at its critical acclaim. Oh, I do think it’s a good movie: As an unconventional romantic comedy following one policeman, then another as they recover from painful breakups, it’s stylishly executed, often very likable and portrays mid-1990s Hong Kong effectively. Both male leads are depicted with disarming detail—it’s one thing to see Takeshi Kaneshiro eat thirty cans of pineapples in romantic grief, but have one lived until seeing Tony Leung talking affectionately to inanimate objects in his underwear? In comparison, the female characters are far less approachable: Brigitte Lin comes from a Hong Kong crime drama as a blonde underworld assassin, while Faye Wong pushes the quirky-girl thing up to eleven. But there’s a fair case to be made that this is a film of mood and atmosphere, as the two stories revolve around a small fast-food restaurant (the eponymous “Express”) in a busy Hong Kong area. Writer-director Wong Kar-Wai is typically careful with his use of colour, film speed, mood and reflections—there’s a lot to see here in his use of the camera, and the film remains interesting to watch even if some of what he was doing in 1994 has now fallen into cliché or dated material. As an atmospheric piece, it remains quite good (reminding me of the two dozen HK films I watched at the end of the 1990s)—and it feels faster paced than many of Kar-Wai’s later features. Still, there’s a leap from good to great movie that I don’t quite see when Chungking Express shows up on those best-movies-ever lists. But that’s just expectations management—the film remains worth a look even without inflated expectations.