Circle K
The director shows Cop 223 framed inside of a window at the Circle K convenience store. He holds a box of expired canned goods in his hands. It's April 30th, the last day of hope for him that his girlfriend will be coming back to him. The image shows how closed-in he feels, and the box of expired goods represents all of his hope being packed up and needing to be thrown out.
Escalator
We see Cop 223 sprinting up an escalator that isn't working, a sign of his uphill battles. Later in the film, we watch Faye shout from the window of Cop 663's apartment at people on the escalator outside of his home, blurring the line between the intimate space of the home and the encroachment of strangers.
Mirrors and Windows
Often, mirrors and windows act as panes for viewing characters in specific ways throughout the film, often associated with Faye. In one memorable shot, Faye scrubs at a dirty window that slowly reveals Cop 663 as she deals with her disappointment that he has a girlfriend. Later, we watched her lean against a mirror, creating a perfectly symmetrical double, in another flight of angst.
The Jukebox
Wong Kar-wai has an especially memorable insert shot of CDs rotating in the top of a jukebox. At first, this is just a dazzling little piece of eye candy, but over the course of the film we realize that this is how pop music works in Chungking Express. It's always spinning in place, always coming back around.
Kittens
Right before the woman in the blonde wig shoots the crime boss, he leans down to observe some stray kittens in the street. His seedy enterprise is provided a visual counterpoint with the innocent, furry kittens. That juxtaposition makes his murder all the more gruesome and shocking.
