Sympathy for Inanimate Objects in Chungking Express Anonymous College

Chungking Express (Hong Kong, 1994) is a film directed by Wong Kar-Wai, with a narrative that is divided into two different stories. The first part of the film follows the life of “Officer 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro)” while the second one follows the life of “Officer 633 (Tony Chiu Wai Leung).” Although the two stories are separate and consist of distinct characters and events, there are a few elements in the film that show their similarities and differences. In the film, both officers are upset since they are dealing with heartbreak due to recent breakups. This short essay compares and analyzes two specific scenes – one from each story – to emphasize how the two stories are “the same but different”. In both of the scenes, the two protagonists use their loneliness to sympathize for inanimate objects.

In the first story, at approximately thirteen minutes into the film, Officer 223 expresses how he buys a can of pineapple everyday– particularly ones that expire on May 1 st . The reason that he buys a can of pineapple everyday is because his ex-girlfriend, May, loves pineapples and May 1 is his birthday. On the night of April 30, Officer 223 gets frustrated when he cannot find any cans of pineapple that are expired on May 1 on the...