1. Chungking Express and the East Asian New Wave

2. Aims:
Chungking info
Narrative Structure
Hong Kong in context
What makes it Postmodern?

3. 1. Chunking Info
Chungking Express
1994
Director and Writer - Wong Kar Wai
Cinematographer - Christopher Doyle

4. Cast:
Woman in blonde wig - Brigitte Lin
Cop Tony Leung
Faye - Faye Wong
He Zhiwu (Cop 223) - Takeshi Kaneshiro
Air Hostess - Valerie Chow
Manager of Midnight Express Chen Jinquin

5. Low budget
Shot very quickly over a few weeks
Made while Wong was having problems editing Ashes of Time (1994)
Has been compared in style to a music video

6. Uses many techniques associated with New Wave filmmaking
-Handheld camera
-Jump Cuts
-Challenges conventional techniques

7. Also adds new discontinuities through slowing down and speeding up of the film stock
These, along with the narrative form (two stories in one film) help foreground the film language
-form over content?
-style over substance?
Reminds the audience that they are watching a film

8. Task:
Do the two separate stories follow Todorov’s five stages?

9. 2. Narrative
Chunking:
-is experimental (in the narrative)
- disrupts conventional narrative structure -challenges mainstream conventions
How does it achieve these?

10. However…
There have been mainstream films that have also experimented with narrative structure
Can you name any?

11. Love Actually (Curtis; 2003)
Crash (Haggis; 2004)
Pulp Fiction (Tarrantino; 1994)
Memento (Nolan; 2000)
Answer the questions on page 243

12. 3. Hong Kong in context
A combination between Eastern and Western culture
Has been a British and Chinese colony
Britain invaded in 1842 during the Opium wars with China
Held sovereignty with a liberal economy until 1997 when it was ‘handed back’ to China

13. As a result it is seen as a space that…
-is constantly changing postmodern society
-influenced by many different, contrasting cultures
-leaves it’s inhabitants unsure of their national identity and culture

14. Ackbar Abbas in Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (1997) claims that the people of the area are in a state of “reverse hallucination”
They are unsure / cannot see what is in front of them
Because of how Hong Kong is constantly changing

15. Merging of east and west in Chunking Express
Blonde wig and trench coat
Corporate logos (Coca Cola, Del Monte etc.)
American pop songs
Foreign food (fish and chips, pizza etc.)
Different languages (Cantonese, English, Japanese, Hindi, Mandarin)

16. Hong Kong is represented as a conflicted city - part British, part Chinese
Hong Kong lacks identity and is a place of anxiety (of the hand over to a communist state)
Also infects the characters…
-Both policemen long for something which has gone
-Can’t think or act rationally
-Self-absorbed and isolated
-They are in a state of “reverse hallucination” and are a metaphor for Hong Kong at the end of the 20th century

17. Hong Kong as a conflicted state with an uncertain future can also be seen in other East Asian films of the time…
Made in Hong Kong (Fruit Chan; 1997: Hong Kong)
The River (Ming Liang-Tsai; 1997: Taiwan)
Schuzou River (Ye Lou; 2000: China)

18. As well as Wong’s other films…
As Tears Go By (1988)
Days of Being Wild (1990)
Ashes of Time (1994)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Happy Together (1997)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
2046 (2004)

19. 4. What Makes it Postmodern?
-Style over substance
-Hong Kong itself and the characters within the film cannot see what is in front of them (deja disparu)
-Mix of eastern and western culture (boundaries blurred)
-Unconventional narrative structure
-Intertextuality (song refs)

20. Context…
Hong Kong had more liberal attitude to filmmaking before the hand over
China more repressive (state controlled and heavily censored); see Raise the Red Lantern (Yimou; 1991: China)
Scripts need to be okayed by Chinese government
Wong often does not write scripts
Wong makes first Hollywood film in My Blueberry Nights

21. Read page 247 and answer the questions on 247-248