Chungking Express is often considered the first real evidence of Wong Kar-wai's full talent as a filmmaker. It was the third of his films to be released (although it was the fourth film he started), meaning that he was a confident and capable director by the time he made this work.
The major themes of Chungking Express are indeed the major themes that play out across all of Wong's films. We have his classic themes of romance: lost love, chance encounters, deep longing. Wong's films tend to focus on psychology and mood, exploring how characters grappling with these experiences, rather than following a traditional conflict/resolution structure.
There is also a lot of common ground between this film and the other ones that Wong set in his present day. Like Tears Go By and Fallen Angels, Chungking Express plays with the crime genre that has been a staple of Hong Kong cinema since the '80s. Additionally, like Days of Being Wild (and Fallen Angels, for that matter), this film deals with love and alienation in the midst of modern city life.
In Chungking Express, we see Wong revel in his signature visual style. Wong is a master of the subjective camera style, using handheld photography and point-of-view shots to put us right in the shoes and psyches of the characters. He augments this subjectivity through fitting visual effects. In this case, choppy slow motion reflects those moments when time slows down for our characters and choppy editing mimics the patchwork quality of memory. Pay attention, as well, to the expressionistic lighting and frequent use of blurring. These tend to impart Wong's films with an aura—either dreamlike, seductive, or hallucinatory depending on his needs.
The final signature in Chungking Express is Wong's used of pop culture. For one, this film is full of famous pop songs by the likes of The Mamas and the Papas and The Cranberries. But he also cast Faye Wong, one of the most popular singers in China, as well as the Chinese film icon Brigitte Lin and Hong Kong action standby Tony Chiu-Wai Leung. Wong loves to put familiar faces and sounds in his films, and in My Blueberry Nights, his only English-language feature so far, he cast pop singer Norah Jones.
