Chungking Express

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Movie
German title Chungking Express
Original title 重慶 森林
Chunghing Sam Lam
Country of production Hong KongHong Kong Hong Kong , China
original language Cantonese
Chinese
Japanese
Hindi
English
Publishing year 1994
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Wong Kar-Wai
script Wong Kar-Wai
production Yi-kan chan
music Frankie Chan
Michael Galasso
Roel A. García
camera Christopher Doyle
Wai Keung Lau
cut William Chang
Kit-Wai Kai
Chi-Leung Kwong
occupation

Chungking Express ( Chinese  重慶森林  /  重庆森林 , Pinyin Chongqing Senlin , Jyutping Cung 4 Hing 3 Sam 1 lam 4  - "Chungking Forest") is a film of the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai from the year 1994 . The film found its way to the West through Quentin Tarantino , who was enthusiastic about the work and brought it to the movie theaters through his company Rolling Thunder Pictures . The film was shown in German cinemas on March 28, 1996.

action

The first third of the film tells the story of policeman # 223, whose girlfriend May broke up with him on April 1st. He gives her a month until his birthday on May 1st before he lets go of her completely. Until then, he buys a can of canned pineapple every day with the expiry date May 1st. On this day he consumed all 30 canned goods and (after unsuccessful contact with former female acquaintances) went to a bar with the goal of falling in love with the next woman.

At the same time, the story of a woman with a blonde wig who tries to smuggle drugs with some Indian migrants is told. She is tricked by the Indians and left standing alone at the airport. After intensive efforts to track down the Indians, she enters the bar, which is also # 223, exhausted.

The policeman, who doesn't know anything about her criminal background, wants to get to know her better. She is reluctant at first, but due to her extreme exhaustion, she accompanies him to a hotel room and goes to sleep there while # 223 eats a chef's salad and watches a few films. After sunrise he goes jogging "to sweat excess water out of his body". Back at the hotel he is surprised to find that the woman with the blonde wig has left a message for him on the pager. She wishes him a happy birthday .

The other two thirds of the film are about policeman # 663 who buys his chef's salads in the same fast food restaurant and which his girlfriend also leaves. The new diner Faye falls in love with him. Then his ex-girlfriend, a flight attendant, leaves a letter with the key to his apartment at the snack bar. After # 663 refused to accept the letter several times, Faye decides to inspect his apartment "like in a dream" and to redecorate it subtly. But # 663 doesn't notice, even after meeting Faye in his hallway with a bag full of his goldfish and a CD from him.

When he actually catches her in his apartment, she escapes. # 663 is slowly getting dark and he invites Faye to the California restaurant. Without giving reasons, she does not come to the date, instead flies to real California , but leaves him a letter. # 663 Fayes throws away Faye's letter, greatly unsettled by the renewed rejection by a woman and a meeting with his ex-girlfriend, who seems to be happy in a new relationship. When he took it out of the trash shortly afterwards, the rain made it almost illegible.

A year later, Faye returns to Hong Kong wearing a flight attendant's uniform. She goes to the fast food restaurant, from which, although it is apparently closed, she listens to loud music. Inside she finds # 663, who has given up his job as a policeman. The takeaway owner persuaded him to take over the business. Confused and believing that # 663 has not read her letter, she wants to leave right away. But he asks her to wait and pulls out the soaked letter. A new meeting is proposed, but the place can no longer be recognized. Pleasantly surprised, Faye now also changes her mind, writes # 663 a new letter on a napkin and asks him where he would like to go.

backgrounds

While filming, Wong Kar-Wai decided to turn the last part of the script into a stand-alone film, Fallen Angels .

The first part of the film was shot in and around the Chungking Mansions complex , about which Wong Kar-Wai said: "For me the house has always been a mysterious place". He also remarked, "When I was a child, my parents strictly forbade me to go into Chungking Mansion." For him, this overcrowded and hyperactive place is a great metaphor for the city of Hong Kong. The second part takes place in Central and there mainly in a fast food shop called Midnight Express .

Chungking Express is visually a style-defining work. The film was shot with an extremely moving handheld camera. Additional light is largely dispensed with in the nocturnal street scenes. Many scenes are shot in slow motion or time lapse and a stroboscopic effect is used. Sharpness and blurring alternate, the colors are bright and bright. The film develops a visual pull that catapults the “simple” story onto a mythical level and thus gives it emotional depth.

The film Postman Blues (director: Hiroyuki Tanaka ) parodies a. a. Chungking Express , the character of the blonde woman with sunglasses is adapted. In one shot with the blonde woman, an airplane taking off is faded in without any apparent connection, in another shot the sound of an airplane taking off is played while she is raising her head.

Reviews

"With extraordinary sovereignty, the film transforms the vaguely sketched plot templates into seismographically precise descriptions of the mood: moments of longing, being lost and alienation masterfully capture the character of the city on the one hand, and condense the genre and life images into scenes of artistic poetry on the other."

- Lexicon of international film

“Two love stories, chance stories, underlaid with Western and Eastern music, with echoes of Godard, Oshima, Cassavetes - and again and again these blurred images in which time stands still and then flows even faster than before. The film flies and it also inspires the viewer. And then it doesn't matter whether it rains or the sun shines. "

- Andreas Kilb

Awards and nominations

Golden Horse Film Festival 1994

  • Golden Horse Award in the Best Actor category for Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Hong Kong Film Awards 1995

  • Hong Kong Film Award in the Best Actor category for Tony Leung Chiu Wai
  • Hong Kong Film Award in the Best Director category for Wong Kar-Wai
  • Hong Kong Film Award in the Best Film Editing category for William Cheng, Chi-Leung Kwong and Kit-Wai Kai
  • Hong Kong Film Award in the Best Picture category
  • Nomination for the Hong Kong Film Award in the Best Actress category for Faye Wong
  • Nomination Hong Kong Film Award in the category Best Art Direction for William Chang
  • Nomination Hong Kong Film Award in the category Best Cinematography for Christopher Doyle and Wai-keung Lau
  • Hong Kong Film Award nomination in the Best Original Film Score category for Frankie Chan and Roel A. Garcia
  • Nomination Hong Kong Film Award in the category Best Screenplay for Wong Kar-Wai
  • Nomination Hong Kong Film Award in the category Best Supporting Actress for Valerie Chow

Independent Spirit Awards 1997

  • Nomination for the Independent Spirit Award in the Best Foreign Film category for Wong Kar-Wai

Locarno International Film Festival 1994

Stockholm Film Festival 1994

  • Category Best Actress for Faye Wong
  • FIPRESCI Prize (Competition) for Wong Kar-Wai
  • Nomination Bronze Horse

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Justus Krüger: In the labyrinth of globalization. In: Berliner Zeitung. January 3, 2009, accessed June 20, 2019.
  2. ↑ Midnight Express is a 7-11 now. In: Canton Eyes. Archived from the original on October 13, 2010 ; accessed on June 20, 2019 .
  3. ^ Chungking Express. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Andreas Kilb: Out of breath. In: The time. March 29, 1996. Retrieved June 20, 2019.