“CHUNGKING EXPRESS is a lyrical marvel, a JULES AND JIM for our anonymous time.” -- Georgia Brown, The Village Voice
“CHUNGKING EXPRESS functions magically as a modern love story divorced from time and space. DPs Christopher Doyle and Andrew Lau twirl and whirl the camera around our heroes, dipping and diving along with their dancelike movements, bathed in the sickly, fluorescent greens and blues of urban life.” - Clint Worthington, The Spool
Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China—a major bridge for the Communist nation's entry into the global economy—was just three years away. The plot is bare-bones, featuring two lonely policemen, Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Cop 663 (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), in various states of alienation—but the real fun is the world around them, which features potential love interests like a bewigged criminal (Brigitte Lin) and earnest snack bar worker (Faye Wong). Wong Kar Wai directed CHUNGKING EXPRESS from a treatment rather than a script, writing some scenes the night before, resulting in a fragmented energy. Cinematographer Christopher Doyle shot at a slow shutter speed to blur background figures; action sequences are disjointed via step-printing, recalling a graphic novel. The crowded, neon-lit streets of the city’s hubs, Chungking Mansions and Central, reveal a diverse mix of laborers and hustlers, denizens of a world in flux.
Contact Zones: Cinema of Globalization, 1989–2024
Fall 2026 Lecture Series
“We might have come to the end of something,” Adam Curtis reflected recently, referring to "globalization," which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But just how well do we know this world that we were, until recently, living in? Brief lectures before screenings and open discussions afterwards will cover background on local histories related to films in the series as well as theories of globalization, neoliberalism, migration, and digital culture. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. Lecturer: Professor Daniel R. Quiles. Select titles offered with Sunday encores; encores do not include lecture.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu