Ok, let’s go. These are the two films that I watched recently that really cut me. The express is entirely tangential, they are completely different films
Chungking Express
This is a film that you have seen. It’s a huge film but also not, even if you didn’t actually see the film, you have seen it.
It’s 1994 Hong Kong, apparently Wong Kar Wai was filming this huge Chinese film at the time and he just did this to have a break from being in a studio. It’s set in Chungking Mansion which was the maddest place on earth.
There are two stories and they kind of overlap but it was apparently made on the fly and Wong says that he just did it in 4 weeks with a camcorder, and kind of made it up while he was doing it, it’s believable.
The first story begins with this heartbroken guy, he’s a detective and he is obsessed with this girl, he is meant to be stopping drug trafficking but he is just getting drunk trying to find his ex at the bottom of his sadness. Hanging around a burger stand
This story is juxtaposed with a drug trafficker, she is this beautiful woman in a blonde wig and raincoat. She is in this operation where she gets all of these Indians, I think they are smuggling cocaine to Indian and getting pills back, but sh gets screwed over
There is also this bar with a hot white guy. It is very 1990s, aimless. She ends up running around a lot of empty corridors looking for the criminals, then she finds them, and they chase her.
Her and the cop end up drinking loads. They go to a hotel, she sleeps, he eats loads of food and cleans her shoes. It’s very melancholy. She send him a happy birthday message which is all you want in the city. To be recognised.
Then story 2 the cop turns up to the burger stand and the girl who liked him is gone but there is this new girl Faye
And then he says ‘but I never got to know her because she fell in love with someone else’ and he leaves the story.
And it’s Wong Faye and she falls in love with a uniform cop. And Wong Faye is not a masterful actor, but she just charms the shit out of you. And she is this Manic PixieHer character is a bit disturbed, she makes friends with the cop and breaks into his apartment and cleans it up while he’s at work. The exact opposite of what I would do.
The stories are very sweet but not particularly smart, it just has this power running through it, I’d imagine because he did it so quickly for fun, it’s just all so joyous and fun. . There are all of these lovely little tricks and stories, like it’s Wong Kar Wai he can make these tiny things mean so much, and always with a wry smile.
Like I said at the beginning, I had never watched it before but I had definitely seen it, it made me very nostalgic for 1994. I was of course not a Hong Kong cop, I was just a teenager in Northumberland, but there is this beautiful lack of cynicism. There is this beautiful kind of optimism about Hong Kong films from that time, I went there about 10 years ago, it is a unique place, I’d imagine that a lot of it has gone since it’s now a part of China, but there were still signs of the British, a lot of people drink tea British style and eat crumpets and toast and things.
Teeny little ramble. I may be wrong, but this might be one of the first ever ‘Manic Pixie’ archetypes. I think that Amelie is the one everyone sees as ‘thaat daddy’ but this was 5 years before Amelie, and Amelie has absolutely copied from it.
Anyway, highly recommend. A refreshing and whimsical meditation on loneliness and love, with some proper fit Chinese birds
8/10
Mars Express
This film came out last year and it seems to be one of those word of mouth films where people are seeing it and recommending it. It was quite a big film but not like one of those huge corporate things. It actually felt a bit like the old days, I saw it on a few internet discussions where everyone was saying how great it was, so I downloaded it and am now saying how great it is .
It’s very in the cyberpunk world. It’s in the kind of near future, robots are slaves to humans but it’s getting to a point where there are some really intelligent robots and they are kind of a threat to humans
The plot is the classic noir detective story, we have a cynical detective (and her overpowered robot partner) who has seen too much who takes on a case that sucks her into this huge and disturbing conspiracy. Robots are superpowerful but they have these blocks put on them so they can be controlled, someone starts hacking them so they go crazy, there is this big conspiracy, you’ll have to watch it to find out.
It’s called Mars Express because humans live on Mars but it seems to have turned out that Earth is kind of ‘the hood’ and Mars is the posh bit where the power is. It’s a very twisty plot and I’m not going to ruin it, but I highly recommend it because it is beautiful animation with hand drawn and CGI stuff blended well together. It has this lovely sensibility about it, it may just be my age, but the disillusioned aging protagonist is my favourite character, especially since they always turn out to be good deep down, but most of all it’s just the world.
The real beauty of the film is that there is very little exposition. There are a couple of times where they explain the plot but generally they just put you into the world and you kind of accept it.
8/10
Sorry I’m not going to do a long ramble on this one, I’m tired today. Both of these films are highly recommended though, tell em Truant sent ya
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