Hello movie lovers! It’s been a while since I shared a review, and looking back at those, I kinda realized that the movies I watched were really random. Like, I thought I was following a pattern or theme, but when I traced my reviews, the movies are diverse, if not for a couple or three that are similar in some ways. So, for the movies I’m going to review, I’m gonna set a common ground. I’m not gonna delve into the details for now because I’ll see where this goes…so much for that, here’s the movie I recently watched and it was—Chungking Express.
If memories ever come in a can, I hope that can never expires. If it has shelf life, I hope it’s 10,000 years.
This 1994 movie was set in the busy city of Hong Kong, where heartbroken cops and mysterious women mingled. The crowded streets, the busy marketplaces, and diverse people—seeing those immersed me on how it feels to be in Hong Kong. It’s like I’m stepping inside someone’s memory because the shots were from the actor’s point of view. The blurry chase scene definitely hooked me because I thought it would be just romance and slice of life like movie, but lo and behold, it has crime on its genre. I didn’t check it out first, so I didn’t know much about it except for the selected shots I saw from my feed. The visuals are definitely giving nostalgia and whimsy vibes because of how familiar the set is and how unpredictable the transitions get.
Ok moving on from that, the story was pretty interesting as well. Honestly, I was kinda spoiled about the pineapple part because it always appears on my timeline every first day of May. I don’t want to spoil why it did, but that date and the pineapple were quite symbolic to the movie. It’s pretty much its distinguishing symbols because just give me May 1 and pineapple, I’ll immediately identify it’s this movie. Moreover, I like how this movie didn’t explicitly narrate or put in the dialogue the character of the woman that those lovesick cops got involved with. The first one especially was tricky to figure out because of how vague her point of view was. Plus, she doesn’t really talk a lot, which is the opposite of how talky cop 223 is. I spent the first fifteen minutes of this movie figuring out her work, and I quite felt dumb when I realized what it was.
There are two parts of this movie; the first one is all about cop 223, who’s really fascinated with pineapple and May, and the mysterious blonde woman who always seems to be on the run. I don’t want to give away the plot, but it’s pretty much about how they move on from their past, which coincidentally involved cans—pineapple and sardines. The next one is about another cop who also just got out of a breakup. It’s also about moving on, but the difference is that the woman in this second part is much more involved with him. She’s like head over heels for him, and I find it unusual at first, but yeah, I soon got used to it. The end of the second part is much more satisfying because, for me it’s much more hopeful than the first one.
Now for my favorite aspect of this movie…its soundtrack! The soundtrack of the second part is definitely better because that’s where I rediscovered the songs that I’ve been humming at the back of my head. The first one was nice, especially that cool reggae music…I’m gonna search for its title once I finish this review. As for the second part, California Dreamin’ and Dream Person (which is a Cantonese cover Dreams by The Cranberries) are definitely my favorite songs among the track. I already downloaded them, and until now I’m still listening to them because they’re really beautiful. And what’s more interesting is that the Cantonese cover was performed by Faye Wong, the actress who played the love interest of the second cop. Definitely didn’t expect that, but it’s not that surprising because she did give off that artist vibe even though she’s in her character.
Overall, I found the movie much better than I anticipated it to be. I like the whimsy and quirky vibe of the set, as well as the characters. Both the heartbroken cops are weird like the way they cope up are different, but both are equally odd and at times funny. Both stories were nice, but I kinda wished that the first one has more closure, like another meet up would suffice. Anyway, it didn’t hurt that it maintained its melancholy until the end because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t have heard cop 223’s iconic line about memories and expiry date. I find it memorable because even though it’s like a silly wish, it holds much more meaning. Also, this made me realized how little encounters can at times lead to ones that would make lasting effects on your life. It’s creative how they’re able to show that, and I’ll definitely rewatch this next year on the eve of the first day of May.
My Rating: 4.5/5
And by the way...before I end this review, here’s the trailer:
That’s all for today, movie lovers! See you in my next movie review~
The pictures used were screenshots from the movie.
