The Kingdom of Shadows

What can really be said about this film, which can be considered one of the cornerstones of modern cinema.

Well first of all, as much as Quentin Tarantino bothers me, his commentary on the DVD is really quite good for getting a background on the film. As Tarantino mentions, this film was made during a lull in making Ashes of Time, Chungking Express though really became the model for all the films Wong Kar-Wai made after this: stunning cinematography, playful characters, a focus on the strange, lovely things one does while in love, (in 2046 he takes this to an extreme).

The film is above everything else fun to watch. Given that the other two directors usually mentioned in the "best living directors" list (Abbas Kiarostami and Hou Hsiao-Hsien) are slow meditational directors, it is good to occasionally see how much can be done with cinema at a high speed. Add to that Christopher Doyle's flashy camera work, and its hard not to enjoy this film. All the actors are charming, especially Faye Wong, but Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung are quite enjoyable to watch as well.

The real charming thing about the story is all the little quirks. The film contains two completly seperate stories about policemen falling in love, but in order to give you a full sense of the story I would have to describe all the little pointless things that happen in the film, like one of the policeman eating 30 cans of expired pineapples in one night, or the other policeman talking to his dishrag.

I'm not going to say anything else about this movie. If you haven't seen it, I insist that you do so right now. It is not one of those films that should be described in words.

Though I do want to add to Tarantino's commentary, that Faye Wong is not only a huge pop star, she's the only Chinese pop star who can really wail. I suggest buying her self-titled CD if you get the chance.

Buy Chungking Express here

Buy Faye Wong's self titled CD