Chungking Express (Hong Kong: Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)

 Chungking Express (Hong Kong: Wong Kar-Wai, 1994: 102 mins)

The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung Chiu Wai), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out food stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in Wong’s gloriously shot and utterly unexpected charmer, which cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of romantic longing. -- Criterion Collection

Bordwell, David. "Narrative Symmetry in Chungking Express." Current (March 26, 2018)

Chow, Vivienne, et al. "Chungking Express — Wong Kar Wai puts "Dreams" on the menu." MUBI Podcast (April 27, 2023) ["Shot on a shoestring in six wild weeks, CHUNGKING EXPRESS is the movie that put legendary Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai on the international map—along with his star, pop diva Faye Wong...and her Cantonese cover of The Cranberries's hit "Dreams." Host Rico Gagliano learns how the song, the director, and the singer all came together to capture Hong Kong at a moment of anxiety and hope—and how the tune still unites people in karaoke bars across Asia. Featuring Cranberries guitarist Noel Hogan, Hong Kong-born indiepop star Emma-Lee Moss (aka Emmy The Great), Variety and Artnet writer Vivienne Chow, "Chungking" score co-composer Roel A. Garcia, and NPR critic-at large John Powers—the author, with Wong Kar Wai, of "WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai.""]

Flores, Steven. "The Auteurs: Wong Kar-Wai." Cinema Axis (January 5, 2014)

Jenkins, Barry. "What Wong Kar-wai Taught Barry Jenkins About Longing." Current (November 29, 2016)

Kotzathanasis, Panos. "Film Analysis: Chungking Express (1994) by Wong Kar-wai." Asian Movie Pulse (April 7, 2022)

Martin, Emily. Lonely Cinema: Urban Alienation, Solitude, and Longing in Wonk Kar-Wai's Chungking Express." The Daily Fandom (December 28, 2021)</

Reinhard, Fabian. "Liminality in a Microcosm: “California Dreaming" in Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express (1994)." Senses of Cinema #95 (July 2020)

Taubin, Amy. "Chungking Express: Electric Youth." Current (Movember 16, 2018) 

Tsui, Curtis. "Cop 223 Gets Lucky." Current (October 24, 2018)

Wang, Oliver. "A Cantopop Dream Girl’s First Film Reverie." Current (October 21, 2019)