Summer Nights Film Series: Chungking Express

An abstract exploration of lost love and the artform genre, Chungking Express delivers an unexpecting bifurcated narrative of two heartbroken cops and the women they fixate upon to lessen their pain. The first love story loosely follows a drug noir storyline with policemen no. 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) following a lead on a blonde mystery woman (Brigitte Lin) while drowning his sorrows of his ex-girlfriend in canned pineapple (her favorite). The second story offers a more straightforward boy-meets-girl narrative, but it quickly veers off into benign fantasy. Policeman no. 663 (Tony Leung) is left by his flight attendant girlfriend and dives so deep into depression he fails to notice the night counter girl (Faye Wong) and her huge crush on him. Uncertainty (both diegetically and non-diegetically) suffuses Chungking and yet director Wong Kar-Wai never waivers in his ability to engage with film texture and syncopated rhythms of genre.

Directed by Wong Kar Wai, 1994, 102 minutes, PG-13.

Film presented in Cantonese, English, Japanese, and other languages with English subtitles. 

Content Warning: This film contains potentially triggering content.

Tags: profanity, drinking, drug trafficking, smoking, murder, blood, and gun violence

The National Bank of Indianapolis Summer Nights Film Series features 15 films this year. To see the full lineup, click here.