She is then given a can of sardines, also with the expiration date of May 1, 1994, by her employer, signifying the expiration date of her life unless she is able to rectify the situation. Yet, at the pivotal moment of the operation, the Indians, as well as all the drugs, disappear. At the same time, the Woman in the Blond Wig, a mysterious woman that wears a blond wig, dark sunglasses, and a long raincoat, at the beginning of the film, prepares a drug-smuggling operation with a group of Indian immigrants. Thinking of it as an April Fool’s joke, he lets it run for a month, marking each day by buying a can of pineapple, May’s favorite canned food, with an expiration date of May 1, 1994, the same expiration date that He Qiwu decides that his relationship with May will also finally expire. In the beginning of the story, He Qiwu has just recently broken up with May, his girlfriend of five years, on April 1, 1994. But 57 hours later…I fell in love with this woman,” foretelling his relationship with this woman. This occurs on April 28, at 9:00 PM, highlighted by a cut to an extreme close-up shot of a clock striking 9:00 PM at the moment He Qiwu bumps into her, at which point the film’s frame rate slows to a pause and he narrates via voiceover, “This was the closest we ever got. The first story of Chungking Express begins with Cop 223, He Qiwu, inadvertently bumping into the Woman in the Blond Wig, as he chases a criminal through the densely crowded streets around the Chungking Mansions. Wong Kar-Wai uses unsteady handheld camerawork, frenetic yet graceful camera movement, creative filming techniques, and kinetic editing, to craft two separate stories of love, each with their own distinct qualities, which converge in an expressive, cohesive single film. The film is divided into two separate stories: the first involves Cop 223, He Qiwu, and the mysterious, alluring, drug-smuggling beauty, known only as the Woman in the Blond Wig, who he falls for, while the second narrative also features a nameless police officer, known only as Cop 663, and Faye, the mysterious snack bar attendant that enters his life (as well as his home).
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It not only features two stories that speak to the unpredictable and transient nature of love and relationships, the film itself is a love letter to the urban jungle that is Hong Kong, the one-of-a-kind setting in which the events of the film unfold.
![chungking express sunglasses chungking express sunglasses](https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Chungking-Express/images/Chungking-Express-137.jpg)
Chungking Express, directed by Wong Kar-Wai, contains stylistic elements of noir, action, suspense, thriller, and slapstick comedy, but overall, it is truly a romance film at heart.