Kevin Phipps on Wong Kar-wai’s hypnotic 1994 film Chungking Express at The Dissolve:
Much of the melancholy beauty of Chungking Express—and later Wong films, for that matter—comes from missed connections, mad love, and soured romances, pairings with little chance of working out, however much heat they might generate in the moment. In many of his later films, the bitterness started to overwhelm the sweetness. (There are few movies more romantic than In The Mood For Love, but also few as inescapably sad.) Shot quickly and loosely in the middle of a place staring down enormous change, Chungking Express ultimately feels more sweet than bitter, defined by a tone of long-shot hopefulness and a sense that maybe it might all work out for those heartbroken young people—the ones whose beautiful faces and sad eyes Wong casts in the neon glow of a terrible, wonderful, forever-changing city, as they watch the first acts of their youth draw to a close.
I loved Chungking Express the first time I watched it. I had never seen anything like it, and was probably the perfect age too. It’s hard to believe it was nearly 20 years ago.
And now you too can have California Dreamin’ stuck in your head for the rest of the day: