Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Anthony Iessi This little film by Wong Kar-Wai has made some kind of movement in the states, but only when Quentin Tarantino, straight off of the success of Pulp Fiction, decided to catalog it in a selection of international deep cuts known as "Rolling Thunder pictures". He introduced to us a very simple- minded, un-pretentious, giddy Hong Kong film about love. There's a lot of funny little things here, having to do with canned goods. Also, this film arguably holds the record for the most times California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas is played in a motion picture. It was played so much, that I now hate it. But in retrospect, it added to the gentle, playful nature of the film.

Mobithailand I doubt whether many of you have heard of this film. It is a Hong Kong movie made by and starring Hong Kong Chinese, with English sub-titles. For any of you out there who are tired of the mainstream hogwash churned out by the major Hollywood studios, then I suggest you track down this movie. It will make a very pleasant, entertaining change to your regular movie diet.This film is, in fact, two separate stories about two Hong Kong cops back in the mid 90's who have both been ditched by their long term girlfriends. Doesn't sound like much in the way of story lines, but trust me, they are both fascinating contemporary dramas. The second story, in particular, is full of unpretentiousness, humour, warmth, with just a very small dose of pathos.The humour, in both stories, is so original and funny that it actually had me laughing out loud, and believe me, it takes something very funny for me to do that. (This is not slapstick humour – it is real humour.)The cinematography is truly innovative, and the performances by the ensemble cast of Hong Kong /Chinese actors is absolutely riveting.If you want to see parts of Hong Kong that you probably have never seen before; see how the working classes and the aspiring 'upwardly mobile' classes were living in the 1990's; watch a couple of charming, delightfully endearing and amusing stories without any of the tear- jerking, syrupy drivel that Hollywood rom-coms attempt to drag out of you, then you could do far, far worse than watch Chunking Express.According to IMDb, a dreadful piece of junk like "Angels and Demons" grossed 133 Millon dollars, but Chunking Express only grossed 650 thousand.That's sad, or maybe it's me that has bad taste.

Bale-Pearce-Oldman Chungking Express is a tale about connectedness, coincidence, old habits and love. The movie dives more into the idea that people can be in the same place at a different time. There are even scenes where characters are in the same place at the same time, but they are completely unaware. This is the theme of the film. The director cleverly showed the distance between people and capturing the moments of spontaneous contacts. The setting is 1994 Hong Kong where the urban streets and buildings seem to be part of the story as silent witnesses on the characters. The mood has a note of nostalgia on it, like you know this feeling before but you cannot pin point why or how. And as the title of the film is derived from two places in Hong Kong – Chungking Mansion and Midnight Express – so is the movie presenting two stories of detached cops and how they cope up with their lost love. The two stories are unrelated, however, and are presented one after the other.It is truly majestic. There is a certain charm about this film, a sort of dreamlike quality.

gsygsy The first half of this movie is excellent. It is carried by two charismatic stars - Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro - who act very well. It's a fun mix of detective story and wry romance. The second half is a whole other movie, thematically linked only by the most tenuous of threads, featuring the great Tony Leung, but ultimately dependent on the narrower talents of pop star Faye Wong. Her gifts are stretched very thinly indeed by the large amount of screen time she's given. I'm sorry to say I was so bored after twenty minutes of her whimsy that I started to doze.Wong Kar-Wai makes visually stylish movies. From what I've read about them, their peculiar energy seems partly to stem from scenes and story-lines being cobbled together at the last minute. It's a risky strategy, but clearly it can succeed. Sometimes, as in HAPPY TOGETHER, this improvisatory approach can sustain a whole picture. CHUNGKING EXPRESS is only a half-full glass. It's the second half that's empty.