Understanding Chungking Express (1994) | What Does Love Mean to You?

Chungking Express is Wong Kar Wai’s third feature film.

Following the characters of Ho Chi Moo, Cop 663, and Faye. These three have one connecting theme and that is love.

Both Ho Chi Moo and Cop 663 are heartbroken by recently being dumped by their girlfriends, whilst Faye falls in love but doesn’t know how to deal with that kind of emotion.

It’s a film that deconstructs the cycle of love. From starting with the grief of losing someone you once thought will stay by your side forever to the magical moment of finding another person to love again.

It is a story about the complications of one simple emotion.

An emotion that affects every single one of us. And an emotion that can get very confusing to understand.

And that concept is shown through our three characters that all have ways in coping with the loss of love to falling in love again.

Which makes this film such an interesting watch as we delve in the power that love can hold on people.

Everyone has a different experience on what love does to them.

And through the story telling of Wong Kar Wai, it is shown to be a whimsical yet frustrating emotion to have.

Through the characters of Ho Chi Moo and Cop 663, they both get dumped by the people that they thought loved them back.

But what’s interesting about the two stories is how they are told. And through that Wong Kar Wai shows us a different perspective of what a heartbreak can look like.