Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express: The #Poetry and Pain of Making Connections
The film's first moments begin with He Zhiwu running through the streets of Hong Kong, talking about chance. On the run, he bumps into a woman with a blonde wig (played by Brigitte Lin), who he says he's going to fall in love with over the next few hours. When the plot kicks off, it's been almost a month since he was dumped by his girlfriend. May broke up with Zhiwu during April Fools' Day, so the protagonist thought it was just a silly prank. Hurt and completely lost, he sets a deadline for her to come back to him and "end the game". If by May 1st (her birthday) she doesn't come back, their relationship is officially over. Throughout the first part, he compares his love affair with canned pineapples that would also win on this date. He feels helpless as he realizes that, just like the pineapples he's been eating, he's also going to "go out of date" as he seeks to "can" all the memories he had with his ex-girlfriend.
“If memories could be canned, would they also have an expiration date? If so, I hope they last forever.”
As in many Wong Kar-Wai films, memories are a fundamental part of the mix that make up the work and in Chungking Express this is seen by the way Zhiwu seems to cling to the memories he has of his ex-girlfriend to delude himself, thinking that he still there is something real and palpable between them. When he finally realizes that it's really all over, he makes it his mission to find another date for the night. Call ex-girlfriends, who are already married and have children; Desperate to recreate some of what he had with May, he looks for anyone who is as lonely as he is.
