Home :: DVD :: Art House & International :: Asian Cinema  

Asian Cinema

British Cinema
European Cinema
General
Latin American Cinema
Chungking Express

Chungking Express

List Price: $9.99
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 .. 8 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not your typical HK flick....
Review: This movie (directed by Wong Kar-wai) tells two separate stories. In the first one, a lonely cop who has just been left out in the cold by his girl-friend May, buys and eats expired cans of pineapple and meets a woman who turns out to be a ruthless heroin dealer (Brigitte Lin) who wears a blonde wig. In the second story, a cop who has been dumped by his girlfriend is really unhappy, moping round his apartment all day. Then he meets the waitress at the local fast food joint (Faye Wong), who dreams of going to California.

I really liked watching this film. The imagery and camerawork is stunning, and it is amusing and sad in equal parts, telling the story of how lonely the people are. Another striking thing is the inventive use of music within the stories which is used to illustrate certain points - listen out for songs like "What A Difference A Day Makes" and the Mamas and the Papas classic hit "California Dreamin`". I didn`t expect to hear English songs in a Hong Kong movie.

I think it's a nice change to see another type of Asian movie, one which isn`t all shooting or kung-fu. It has an experimental style, lots of energy, and is not afraid to be different.

I highly recommend this tape to people who want to check out a different sort of HK film. If you pass it up, you`re missing out on a gem.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A perfect screenplay and my favorite Film
Review: Chungking Express will always be my favorite film of all time. It includes my favorite actor, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Faye Wong, who has a very successful career as a pop star. But, this film I originally watched in Cantonese subtitled. It is about Two differet police officers, and two woman who all work during the evening in Kong Kong. The special thing about this movie is, it tends to be a drama, not an adventure. It is like reading a book and wanting the characters to do something you want them to do, and feeling what they feel in their hearts. And yet, you are constantly suprised and happy with the plot. It realistically depicts people who are in unusual situations, and you suddenly feel very close to the actors, like you look inside their life and know their secret. If you buy this DvD, you will not watch it just once. You will watch it many times over, and the ending has the best dramatical scenario I have ever seen in any film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A top-notch movie
Review: I love this movie. It has a little bit of everything, love, humour,sadness and adventure. This is a really enjoyable movie about us (humans) and what we are like when no one is watching. Much better than other movies in this genre ie. Lost in translation. This movie always leaves me feeling optimistic. It is a film that is smart and dares to be different. All this is directed with a confident and assured hand that never loses it's focus on what this film is saying. Flawless editing with a great soundtrack. You will not go wrong with this movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Different? Yes. Good? Well...
Review: This overrated film by hip oriental director Wong Kar-Wai manages to be mildly intriguing and interesting at times but for the most part it just misses its target. Yes, there is some stylish and neat directing to find here, as well as some weird and offbeat scenes once in a while, yet the movie is ultimately too long and it seems to lack a point. What begins as an appealing story (or stories) about urban alienation and the isolation of some japanese youngsters soon turns into a repetitive, tiresome and, at parts, irritating cinematic experience ("California Dreaming", anyone??). The characters range from frustrated daydreamers to annoying and erratic losers who can`t seem to find a goal for their lives. "Chungking Express" is quircky and kind of amusing here and there, still overall it fails to convince.
Average.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A sudden blast of energy.
Review: Wong Kar Wai's previous effort "The days of being wild" was a film which actully gave some warning about the CK Express in advance. CK Express is a film that opens with high energy camera shots and continues to blast its way with an MTV style atmosphere with all the necessary camera work and wisely chosen tunes. Story (or beter, the stories) are built on main characters loneliness and one's search for salvation which will be brought by a very very interesting soul mate for a short period of time. Brigitte Lin was already a famous actress who successfully portrayed a drug smuggler with a blond wig, trying to make her way out of the mess caused by the betrayal of the loved one. Real surprise of the film was Faye Wong who managed to pour even more energy to the film with her restlessness and childish innocence. Camera work captures all the emotions especially with the night time shots and Wong Kar Wai builds his stories brilliantly on these ,portraying HongKong as the original neon city with lots of lonely hearts. This film is a real art house treat to asian pop cinema lovers and a referance movie for the students of cinema and movie makers world wide.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful inside view of Hong Kong
Review: Hong Kong is often a study of the absurd, but it always has a way of captivating you. This movie manages to capture much of both sides of this. While those who know Hong Kong find some of the continuity a little jumpy (how do they get from Hong Kong to Kowloon and back so fast?), it is a gem of a visual introduction to living in the real Hong Kong. Filmed almost entirely within a few blocks around Wellington Street, the escalator and Lan Kwai Fong, you can almost smell the streets as they were 10 years ago. The 2 stories that make up the film are also contrasts - between the sheer pace and mayhem of one to the simple minded childishness of the other. Brilliant.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love and obsession....
Review: This movie brings together a great cast, including the legendary Brigitte Lin, and the indelible Faye Wong. Loosely speaking, Chungking Express is the unraveling of two not-so-separate stories about love and obsession. The connection between the two stories is like a subtle undercurrent. At more than one point we see the characters of the two stories cross path, much like anyone of us cross paths with hundreds of unknown faces everyday. They are unaware of each other...why should they?

The film explores the nuanced boudaries of love and obsession, of fantasy and reality. The characters are cops, a drug dealer, and a fast food clerk. Their lives occur against the backdrop of the urban jungle that is modern day Hong Kong, where escalators are built so close to apartment buildings that when you look out your second floor apartment, you see shadows of strangers riding up and down your neighborhood. In this postmodern and unreal landscape plays out the primal desires of love and obsession where hope, disappointment, rationality, irrationality, reality, and fantasy plays tricks on our minds. All this is well put together in a tantalizing and sexy film. (spoiler alert) It pits one conventional love story ending with one not so conventional. I've watched this film numerous times, and every time I come away with a reminder of how my desires is a delicate balance between sense and non-sense. Check this film out!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cute Love Story!
Review: A cute and purdy love story, It was really good and I loved it! Its one of my favorite movies :).I loved everything about it and I loved the music they had in their, It was great! It has a good story line and had a cute ending ,really liked it. Reccomend it for everyone to watch. Cute movie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well, It looks good
Review: It has Faye Wong in it. Enough said...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fun and beautiful
Review: If american filmmakers to the time to show the complexities of human through the everyday things like Wong does I wouldn't have to avoid so many u.s. films.


<< 1 2 3 4 .. 8 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates