Chung King Express has been celebrated for its innovative use of popular cinematic formulas. This is because of Hong Kong new wave film movement. This movement derived from the French new wave is to rebel against conventions. It is to experiment with new equipment and styles, making a social and political statement at the same time. Wong Kar-Wai tries to make a statement about Hong Kong at the time as Hong Kong was being handed back to Peoples republic of China. Wong Kar-Wai experiments with plot, characters, objects, light and equipment to tell a story while making a political statement about Hong Kong. In this film, the viewer experiences that even a simple film with a small budget and shot in a small amount of time can greatly change what
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It is because of this that his films are so controversial and innovative. Throughout his career he has been creating problems “of determining how Wong Kar-Wai’s films should be categorized” Stringer (2002, p. 400). Kar-Wai has become so well known for his experimentation with genre conventions that other filmmakers have made a new genre “The Wong Kar-Wai parody movie” Stringer (2002, p. 400). This shows great respect to Kar-Wai as it is astonishing to have a genre because of the impact he has made in film culture. In Chungking Express Kar-Wai plays with genres when he experiments with different story lines in one film. “Chungking Express blends the genres of romantic comedy and film noir in two adjacent tales” (Cameron 2007), the stories go back and forth between different genres such as in the first story that there is romance between Cop 223 and Woman in blonde wig but we also see the noir crime genre with Woman in blonde wig and the drug smuggling operation. The contrast between the two characters is what Wong Kar-Wai experiments with genre when he has two intersecting stories he makes it very hard to pick a one main genre and critics which is why Chungking Express has two to three …show more content…
282) calls “spliced plot”. This is due to the bizarre narrative structure and how it was created. The structure arose because of Kar-Wai’s need to step away from this main film Ashes of Time which had an excruciatingly slow production and help to both take a break from the other film but also fulfil his obligation to direct another film. Chungking Express was stitched together from ideas he had over the years. He wanted to do this film very quickly and use it as a break from his big project to help him think. As he did not have a finished script Kar-Wai wrote scenes the night before or during the day of a shoot and shot the film in a linear fashion which is why the films plot and structure is what it is. The narrative of the film works as Kar-Wai plays with the lose structure instead of having one story he has two. To keep these two stories relevant, he has almost the same theme of Love through both stories with officer 223 being still in love with his ex-girlfriend and growing feelings for the woman in the blood wig. Also, officer 633’s flight attended girlfriend leaving him and him falling in love with the Faye. Each time the stories intersect the viewer is given a better view what and where each story was taking
It is because of this that his films are so controversial and innovative. Throughout his career he has been creating problems “of determining how Wong Kar-Wai’s films should be categorized” Stringer (2002, p. 400). Kar-Wai has become so well known for his experimentation with genre conventions that other filmmakers have made a new genre “The Wong Kar-Wai parody movie” Stringer (2002, p. 400). This shows great respect to Kar-Wai as it is astonishing to have a genre because of the impact he has made in film culture. In Chungking Express Kar-Wai plays with genres when he experiments with different story lines in one film. “Chungking Express blends the genres of romantic comedy and film noir in two adjacent tales” (Cameron 2007), the stories go back and forth between different genres such as in the first story that there is romance between Cop 223 and Woman in blonde wig but we also see the noir crime genre with Woman in blonde wig and the drug smuggling operation. The contrast between the two characters is what Wong Kar-Wai experiments with genre when he has two intersecting stories he makes it very hard to pick a one main genre and critics which is why Chungking Express has two to three …show more content…
282) calls “spliced plot”. This is due to the bizarre narrative structure and how it was created. The structure arose because of Kar-Wai’s need to step away from this main film Ashes of Time which had an excruciatingly slow production and help to both take a break from the other film but also fulfil his obligation to direct another film. Chungking Express was stitched together from ideas he had over the years. He wanted to do this film very quickly and use it as a break from his big project to help him think. As he did not have a finished script Kar-Wai wrote scenes the night before or during the day of a shoot and shot the film in a linear fashion which is why the films plot and structure is what it is. The narrative of the film works as Kar-Wai plays with the lose structure instead of having one story he has two. To keep these two stories relevant, he has almost the same theme of Love through both stories with officer 223 being still in love with his ex-girlfriend and growing feelings for the woman in the blood wig. Also, officer 633’s flight attended girlfriend leaving him and him falling in love with the Faye. Each time the stories intersect the viewer is given a better view what and where each story was taking