CHUNGKING EXPRESS SOUNDTRACK BLOG MOVIE

CHUNGKING EXPRESS SOUNDTRACK BLOG MOVIE

I also find myself feeling nostalgic as I watch the film-as a Chinese-American who spent many of my summers in my parents’ hometowns, the familiarity of the Mandarin spoken in the beginning, the lights, and even the street food stands evoke memories of my childhood.įilm critic Roger Ebert noted in his review of Chungking Express that “This is the kind of movie you’ll relate to if you love film itself, rather than its surface aspects such as story and stars,” and though this rings somewhat true, the movie remains, for me at least, existent even beyond those categories, standing on its own as a work profound in feeling above all else.

Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic. The soundtrack furthers the wistful atmosphere of Chungking Express, as songs like “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” and “California Dreamin’” have a certain romantic, dreamy sound that perfectly encapsulates the mood of the entire movie. Discover Chungking Express by Original Soundtrack released in 1996. When I think about the movie, I think about the emotions that it draws from me – I fall in love with the characters themselves: the audacious Faye Wong, who blares “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas And The Papas at the late night snack stand she works in, the lovesick Cop 223, and his obsession with expiration dates and sentimentality, and the heartbroken Cop 663, who Tony Leung breathes life into with his sad gaze and air of mystery.Ī feeling of longing and searching pervades the film, as the characters struggle with forming meaningful relationships while lost in their own inner worlds, and Wong Kar-wai’s ability to depict isolation so well in the densely populated city is both testament to his skill as a director and cinematographer. The two narratives melt into each other, but they share common themes of disconnection, loneliness, and love in the concrete jungle of Hong Kong. The movie is set in a modern Hong Kong, centered around two policemen, each in love in their own way. (As a side note, there’s also a fantastically wacky video of Quentin Tarantino explaining his love for Chungking Express and Wong Kar-wai on YouTube). Chungking Express is one of Wong Kar-wai’s smallest projects, as he worked on it while taking a break from editing Ashes of Time.

Upon watching Chungking Express during my yearly exodus through Wong Kar-wai’s oeuvre (my favorite director!), though, I felt compelled to write about it, so I will somewhat loosely title this post as a review rather than an homage (but it is more the latter than the former). I’m lying when I say that this post is a review, since I already loved this film when I first watched it.

Chungking express soundtrack blog