be still, my heart

we saw a hong kong film in class this time! it's called "chungking express", and it's definitely not how i expected a romance movie to be like. this one's more abstract. the blurred colors and flashing lights and unsettling tune on the accordion at the beginning of the film create an atmosphere that feels dangerous, yet exhilarating.

the film is divided into two parts, the first about cop 223 (played by the handsome takeshi kaneshiro), a sensitive, thoughtful, but naive young man who just had his heart broken. although he was unwilling to move on, he was very philosophical. i thought he was a likable character. his monologues in mandarin were poetic and romantic and i felt his pain, but the english translations made them sound totally cheesy.

anyway, one night, he meets a mysterious female drug dealer in a blond wig (brigitte lin), and seems to be enchanted by her. then she falls asleep and he kindly takes care of her. the next morning, after he goes out for a run, he receives a message from her wishing him a happy birthday. he then felt deeply touched that she actually remembered his birthday, and thought that perhaps someone cared about him.
then the first story ends....
it felt a bit incomplete. we were not rewarded with what happens between the two characters in the future. i can't see them becoming lovers , but maybe they'll be friends (kinda ironic, considering their jobs).

while the first half of the film lacks closure, the second half is more polished and developed. it's also funnier and less muted. the story happens within close proximity of the first story. it's also about a cop , 633 (tony leung), who is going through a difficult breakup. he then meets a girl named faye (faye wong) who works at the food counter he frequently goes to. faye's character is different from the blond woman's. faye is more innocent, open, carefree, and a little nutty. signs of her strangeness start to show when she falls for cop 633 and gets hold of his apartment key and starts rearranging his furnitures and other things without him knowing, to make his life happier. if it wasn't creepy, it would've been sweet. faye wong did a great job on portraying a crazy person. tony leung too.
the ending of this story is less ambiguous and faye and cop 633's relationship shows promise to blossom into something stronger.

i kinda enjoyed the film, because a big chunk of it is the characters' dialogs and thoughts. they're deep and peculiar, with a bit of sadness on the side. the words spoken and exchanged manage to maintain the film's subtle romantic streak without needing to add scenes of physical passion.

i would watch the film again just to hear the poetic lines and be artistically confused once more. it's a wondrous kind of confusion.