Chungking Express and the East Asian New Wave

Chungking Express and the East Asian New Wave

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

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

Cast: • Woman in blonde wig - Brigitte Lin • Cop 663 - Tony Leung • Faye - Faye Wong • He Zhiwu (Cop 223) - Takeshi Kaneshiro • Air Hostess - Valerie Chow • Manager of Midnight Express Chen Jinquin

• 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

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

• 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

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

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

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

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

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

• 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

• 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

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)

• 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 20 th century

• 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)

• 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)

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)

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 2007 - My Blueberry Nights

• Read page 247 and answer the questions on 247248