Chungking Express was Wong Kar-Wai’s third film to be released and his international breakout feature. Neither of those facts should have been the case.
Wong Kar-wai decided to follow up his second film Days of Being Wild—-a critical sensation but commercial flop—with a wuxia film, the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese samurai film but with more focus on the chivalric aspects of the story. Ashes of Time was a high-budget epic that would fit perfectly into the wuxia revival taking place in Chinese cinema during the ‘90s, but editing hit a snag when the crew had to wait for a specialized piece of sound equipment to arrive before they could fix garbled audio recorded during windy desert scenes.
In the intervening two months, Wong decided to take his camera to the streets of Hong Kong and shoot Chungking Express. With its dazzling photography, hallucinatory editing style, and consummately ‘90s combintion of ennui and quirk, it would become one of the key art films of the decade. Much like with Wong’s previous features, reception at home was underwhelming, but Quentin Tarantino would raise the film’s international visibility significantly. The enthusiastic Tarantino would often remark on having a crush on the Taiwanese pop star Faye Wong, who plays the “California Dreaming”-obsessed May in the film.
Like many of Wong’s other films, Chungking Express revolves around longing and missed opportunities. The character’s stories aren’t driven by the types of conflicts and obstacles typical of the more standard narrative film, but by a restlessness that sets them wandering through the streets and drives them to seek comfort in strangers. The film also boasts an audacious visual style that would prove to be Wong’s signature, with kinetic camera movement, dreamlike editing, and bold lighting.
Scholars of the film have noted that the film's English title neatly corresponds with the two halves of the film. “Chunking” refers to the Chungking Hotel where the first half of the film takes a place, a booming set of towers with commercial and residential property that are often considered to be their own bustling, diverse city within the city of Hong Kong. “Express” refers to the fast food chain Midnight Express where much of the second love story plays out. The film’s Chinese title, though, translates to "Chungking Jungle," which draws attention to the massive, dense nature of the film's setting.
