Filmmaker reacts to Chungking Express (1994) for the FIRST TIME!
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Hope you enjoy my filmmaker reaction to Chungking Express. :D
Full length reactions & Patreon only polls: / jamesvscinema
Original Movie: Chungking Express (1994)
Ending Song: / charleycoin
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Brat (1997) 👍👍👍
Fallen Angels is another must-watch from Wong Kar-wai. Such a rich filmography, him. Fallen Angels has always been my personal favorite of his films in terms of cinematography.
that was the third instalment of what Ch Express was planned to be three stories, but ended up only two sories. He went back to it later and the final of the three became Fallen Angels. The photography is stunning
@@mango4ttwo635 I'm aware of that, yes. The photography in it is indeed stunning.
It makes me sad to think the film industry in Hong Kong will never produce artistic masterpieces of this high caliber ever again...
Just because the film industry in Hong Kong (and all over the world to be honest) is in a crisis now doesn't mean it will never change. Art changes as humanity changes. There will be something else that's amazing in a different way.
@@please_im_a_staaaryeah man! a lot of people are "losing their faith in humanity" and "getting sad" because things are not going the way they would like, and mostly things they have no control of anyways 😂 the fun of life is that it can change at any minute, yet people choose to feel down because somehow it's fashionable to be a cynical nowadays
When CCP took over HK in 1997, HongKong film industry lost its biggest financiers from Southeast countries.
@@ChoicelessAwarenessYou are joking, right?
I do think the current political climate of HK will change things artistically, but "never" is a pretty huge word. It will be interesting to see how things change in the next 20 years or so.
Interestingly enough Wong Kar Wai has made a TV show, "Blossoms Shanghai," about Shanghai in the 1980s, which is quite a sensation in China.
Please watch Fallen Angels, the follow up film to this one. It's got a darker tone, but the music and camera work is again incredible. It's in my all time top 10 list.
Word! Fallen Angels is an absolute gem of a film and definitely my favourite Wong Kar-Wai.
Chungking Express is the film that first gained Wong Kar Wai international recognition, thanks to Quentin Tarantino who used his name to get the movie widespread distribution. It is Wong's collaboration with the gifted Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle that give his films such a distinct visual style. They used a process called step-printing, where you shave a couple of frames off per second within the shot the give the image a staggered kinetic dynamic. a dynamic they used in Wong's next film Fallen Angels, which was supposed to be Chungking Expresess' third act. Great job on the channel--I enjoy your videos very much
Chungking Express is based on a building in Hong Kong with the same name “Chungking Mansion”. Your comments on the merge of different cultures are very on point because the building is famous for housing people from all over the world. For instance in the building you will find restaurants with African, Indian and many more different cuisines. The building is also a cultural phenomenon studied academically, the place was described as a reflection of “third-world globalisation” as you will find many from “third-world” countries staying in the building, doing legitimate (and illegitimate) transactions and opening up businesses. (Note: just recalling what I learned from taking Hong Kong history related courses in university lol)
Fucking cool ass comment, really puts everything in perspective honestly!
HONG Kong is basically a place like that. Mixed bag of people from all around the world.
I remember Quentin Tarantino saying when he saw this he just cried for hours after the credits rolled - not b/c he found the movie sad, but just b/c he loved it so much
Fallen Angels is essentially the thematic sequal to this film, and a must watch. I think I might even prefer it slightly more.
I definitely prefer it. I enjoyed Chungking Express and it's a great film but thought Fallen Angels was just a better version of it in nearly every way. Delightfully darker, better shot, stories more interesting, I could go on. One of my favorites of all time.
I said it before and I will say it again: only you can react to Wong Kar-Wai properly! This is definitely my favorite from him, so beautiful, dreamy and chaotic all at the same time! Now that you saw In The Mood For Love and Chungking Express, the next on the line has to be Happy Together. These three are Kar-Wai’s holy trinity in my opinion! Thank you veeery much for this ❤️
Ayyy that’s super appreciated. Seriously made my day with this 🙏🏽♥️
Agree to everything you said but you should add Fallen Angels to that
@@JamesVSCinema Having seen his work in general, his body of work really has this re-occurring theme of longing and love that starts with As Tears Go By and apexes in 2046. PS: I looks like the new color timing remaster for the film. It's a notable, controversial change recently from the collection that came out a year ago (the most egregiously obvious ones being Fallen Angels and In The Mood For Love).
I feel like he should watch Fallen Angels next since it was originally supposed to be apart of Chungking Express
@@aaronshouting588 Fallen Angels does feel very much like a darker reflection of Chungking Express at times.
Late comment, but the shot of Tony Leung gently removing the napkin from the envelope so it could dry on the hot dog rack might be one of the most intimate gestures I've ever seen captured on film. It makes me swoon!
Thank you for continuing to project filmmakers like WKW into the mainstream, honestly in today's world of cinema consumption you're doing a public service. And you genuinely love it too which is of course paramount.
PS James please get on Letterboxd!!
Finally I’ve been waiting for you to watch this ever since you reacted mood of love please continue wkw categorie like fallen angels Days of being wild and 2046 it’s Peak‼️
A must watch director to watch is Edward Yang. He was an absolute master at his craft and is not talked about enough.
I would recommend to either watch Yi Yi or A Brighter Summer Day, both masterpieces :)
Only in movies like Chungking Express can a person break into an apartment, not get called creepy, and gets asked out for a date by the person living there lol
Life is on easy mode when you look like Faye Wong!
My favorite movie of all time! Recently i had the opportunity to watch this in a theather and i was such a emotional ride! Great to see you watching this masterpiece and getting to know the amazing work of Wong Kar-Wai here with us ☺️
Please do more Wong Kar Wai reactions. Fallen Angels is one of my favorite films from him and I'd love to see your reaction and overall thoughts on it.
YES!! One of my favorite movies ever! Once in a while i've always used to look up to see if anyone had reacted to it, glad you did.
Happy to hear that I may be of the few to get to this one! :)
Faye Wong, the girl in the 2nd story, is my favorite singer of all time. She sang Eyes on Me from Final Fantasy 8!
Very good song in very good game!
I love the message that people should watch more films that are not from the US. I see so many American reviewers and reactors that watch almost exclusively American films, and I'm so sorry, cuz they are missing out on so much diversity and beauty. Even people who consider themselves film experts, often end up gravitating towards American cinema. I think even Kursten Ranquist was surprised he watched 80% US made films in last year. I guess cuz of marketing and availability, but it's really worth the effort to seek other films out. As someone living in Europe, I'm so thankful to have government funded cinemas that can afford to show mostly independent or just smaller films from around the globe.
I wish there was someone coming in and cleaning up while I was gone. Our university library had this film and I remember watching it many times. There was something...enchanting...about it.
Yes, finally! Also seeing a lot love for Fallen Angels - not my favourite but it's worth it for the ending alone.
Too many comments to go through, but I'll assume someone else - or many others - have also raised his masterful film, 2046.
You *have* to watch *2046* as well to see a complex, beautifully-shot film - with a killer soundtrack - that is also a critical darling, and is seen by some as a kind-of sequel to this film, in some ways, at least tonally.
Please check out more of WKW films like "Happy Together" "Fallen Angels" and "Days of Being Wild" You will not regret it! No one moves a camera like Christopher Doyle.
The only thing you missed out on is getting to watch it with the wacky Tarantino introduction, which is avails on the UA-cams.
This and Fallen Angels are my top two films (after 50 years of watching films).
Please watch 2046, its probably my favourite wkw film.
Faye Wong she is such a good singer.
This movie is one of my favorites!
Wow! Can't believe you reacted to this! One of my favorite movies by one of our greatest directors! His kung fu movie The Master is gorgeous too.
Chungking from the title refers to Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. It is a large apartment building with mixed use residential and retail establishments.
Some folks probably said this. The main characters in "Story Two" make cameos in "Story One" - Faye is coming out of a store with the Garfield with the smuggler lighting a cigarette out front, Tony is on an upper level looking down somewhere. Faye also sung the Cranberry song - also Hero, not our version unless the credits or something but she recorded a song for it (pretty good one .. search faye wong hero). Again if you want to hear them both really sing - the soundtrack for Chinese Odyssey 2002 they both sing - I have used a ringtone of the la-la-la version of one of the songs for years (you are welcome to it - sounds fantastic) - she was training him to sing a duet - so they just did la-la-la instead of the words, so that he could figure out the timing and tone - BUT it was recorded and the director heard it and incorporated it a lot into the movie.
Great movie, love WKW's films, he filmed Happy Together here in Buenos Aires, a sad but lovely film and also a document of the last days of a city that soon after lost its mysterious charm in favour of this distilled render of a city that most mayors (in most countries) insist in try to convince us "it's for the best". Must watch it, it has a Call me by your name vibe, except that it was made many years before.
Added to the list
Hey James, did you ever watch 2021 Dune?
omg! So surprised and happy to see this lovely movie on the channel
Love WKW. Fallen Angels is my fav tho. Foreign films are lit bro. Let’s get some Jodorowsky on the go. Maybe some Von Trier or Gaspar Noe. Or some Fellini
You gotta check out some Haneke eventually bro
oh wow. first run lola run then this? it's like i'm back in freshman year film school. this was the VHS that always got passed along by film students in my uni.
"If memories could be canned, would they have expiration dates? If so, I hope they last for centuries."
-My High School Yearbook quote. Yes, I was that pretentious, sensitive kid you thought was annoying af.
Also to note: I would say that Tony Leung (actor in second half) and Wong Kar Wai (director) arguably have one of the greatest actors/director work, comparable to Scorsese/De Niro, Scorsese/Di Caprio, and PTA/Day-Lewis, off the top of my head
Or Kurosawa and Mifune.
@@melanie62954 Ah absolutely! I can't believe I forgot them.
I would say Tony Leung is always great, no matter the director.
@@RyoMassaki I've never seen a bad performance from Tony.
fun fact: it was filmed in 25 days
The small theater I work at has massive old movie posters in European size for decor, most of them are French but we have one for Chungking Express and it’s always everyone’s favorite poster (myself included)!
About time man! Wong Kar-Wai is one of the most fascinating and visually moody filmmakers in Asian Cinema. Definitely check out his body of work, especially Happy Together (one of the most real and heartbreaking love stories to grace cinema, with two prolific Asian stars belting out performance highs in it being Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung).
happy together is a really good film by any standard, but Wong's work is so strong overall I think it's one of his weaker films. It seems to exist somewhere in transition between the dynamic experimentation of Chungking Express/Fallen Angels and the formal grandeur of In the Mood for Love, feeling like it doesn't have a strong identity of its own
I watch and rewatch this regularly. In part, cos I used to hang around that part of Tsim Sha Tsui when I first started working in Hong Kong (eating too many Chef's Salads!), but also cos it seems to bring together so many of my other favourite film styles. The colour itself reminds me of the 80s cinéma du look movement (Beneix, Carax) as well as some Wim Wenders work. And of course, "Little Tony" Leung is kinda royalty, acting-wise.
Not sure if you anyone in the comment section mention it yet. You briefly mentioned "Lost In Translation," in your reaction. Wong Kai Wai influenced Sofia Coppola and Barry Jenkins in winning their Oscars.
Days of Being Wild - In the Mood for Love - 2046 are 60s' trilogy. Chung-king Express and Fallen Angels are 90s' city love stories. Wkw also has Wuxia genre - Ashes of Time and last film he's done 10 yrs ago, Grandmaster. Among these, there is Happy Together, a queer love story shot in Buenos Aries, achingly beautiful. I think this 90s' pictures are the most joyful ones. They were shot in the least days, unlike the other masterpieces from Wong.
Wow, I never expected anyone with any significant number of subscribers to react to this movie. It's one of my favorite movies. Tampopo is another one I'd love to see you check out.
"Tampopo" is wonderfully odd. I have the Criterion Collection DVD.
hahahahha yeah 663 is played by the same actor as the leading male in In the Mood for Love. Tony Leung is in nearly every film especially major masterpieces of Wong Kar Wai. They worked on 7 films together. You can't go wrong with Tony Leung, such a great actor in our time.
I really like the end shot of the blonde woman dropping her wigs and showed her long black straight hair
FINALLY ive been voting for this on the polls since forever!! such a beautiful movie
You've done In the mood for love and Chungking Express,my guy now we need Fallen Angels ! :)
James are you going to react to a few other Wong Kar Wai films:
Ashes Of Time
Fallen Angels
2046
Ashes Of Time Redux (2008) is the best Wuxia movie by Wong Kar-Wai.
Please watch Wong Kar Wai films
Ashes off Time, Fallen Angels and 2040
U should do a reaction to this movie called undisputed 2 prison kick boxing movie good asf trust me
fallen angels has the most unique & stylized camera work i’ve ever seen plz watch it
Yo should watch Angel-A if you haven’t it’s a a French film
Millennium Mambo is also worth a gander
love this film! thank you for reacting !!
Only 3.5k ish views is a shame. I hope this does not stop you from reacting to foreign films. I‘d really like to recommend „Enter the void“ by Gaspar Noë and „For flies on grey velvet“ by Dario Argento.
Forget in the mood for love, I'm in the mood for fries.
Please don’t stop with Wong Kar Wai
Dude, you'll love John Woo's The Killer
One love for Wong Jar Wai. There’s a special place in my heart for this director. Chris Doyle also, omg what a god…
Must react to contact with Jodie Foster!
watch more John woo movies pls
Remember being amazed with the cinematography of the movies (Hero 2002 and in the mood for love), This is the same cinematographer! ( Christopher Doyle), he shot most of wong kar wai's films and he was never into films and doesn't even watch them to this day!, yet makes these masterpieces. Checkout (fallen angels 1995) next for this duo, with even more majestic cinematography and crazier frames and shots!.
Faye Wong pretty much only appeared in movies with Tony Leung. The directors said he paired a very experience actor with Faye but that Tony ended up tossing out his initial intention and decide to basically react off her instead. She has a fantastic role with him in 2046 - which is more disjointed structure, and I tell people "remember it is kind of like a soap opera in jumping around". They also did a very good comedy with surprisingly profound storyline, "Chinese Odyssey 2002" (I would say the 20 minute shorter version is best, released by Kino) which was produced by Wong Kar Wai and is a spoof of his films. It also has the woman from Shaolin Soccer in it - Wei (Vicky) Zhao; and the mother from Days of Being Wild, and neighbour from In the Mood is the Emperor).
I haven't seen this film yet, just clips of this and other WKW movies, so I'm going to wait to watch your reaction. When I get around to upgrading to Blu Ray (hopefully soon), I have the Criterion Collection "World of Wong Kar Wai" box set (Blu Ray only), which will probably be the first thing I dig into (either that, or Criterion's Bruce Lee box set). Another beautifully filmed Asian movie, also released by Criterion, is "Flowers of Shanghai." Everything about it is absolutely gorgeous. I cannot recommend it enough.
this ois nostalgia for me, reminding me of the freedom of post living with parents and getting yto know moves alone: Reservoir Dogs, Three Colours Blue, Before Sunrise, Clerks, outside of the blockbuster types, and Ch Express was my intro to Won Kar Wei, and still my favourite. Great photography, unusual story of loneliness in a heaving city of millions, and I think I fell in lust with Faye Wong.
Tony Leung became one of my favourite actors. As well as a regular with Won Kar Wei (check out In the Mood for Love and only a small part in another great on some similar themes: Ashes of Time), but also starred in Hard Boiled and Infernal Affairs, playing the Leo di Caprio role in the US remake, The Departed. Both more action flavoured, bust he doesn;t miss a beat, understated style with real range
I looked up Chungking one time. It was the name of a residential block - Chungking Mansions (ironic??), if memory serves. A packed residential block with people living on top of each other in very little space. It was eventually torn down, again if memory serves
Chungking Express is about the ever changing environment of Hong Kong. If you pay attention, you notice the diversity and bustling of the city in the background. You also notice the main characters of both stories crossing paths and also how they speed up the background while the main characters are still moving regularly.
For love stories, I often like those that don't end so well. So, In the Mood for Love fits with that. The director was motivated by a favourite film of his, a 1940s British film: Brief Encounter. But his films have echoes of each other. Stylistically consistent with neon, slow mo's, those claustrophobic frames in frames. But forbidden love, or lost love, or love postponed can be seen between this and In the Mood.
For an old Love movie, another favourite of mine oft overlooked as it's from the 40s, I think, is Waterloo Bridge. Scarlet O Hara actor Vivien Leigh was the female lead, and later said it was her favourite film role
i never recommend Wong Kar-wai to any other movie reactor. only you james, only you. i knew you’d pick up the right things.
this is my favorite movie of all time.
some notes: tony leung was indeed in “in the mood for love”. he’s one of the best actors ever. he’s also the villain in shang chi
wong kar wai has a great filmography, one of the best. you already watched “in the mood…”. try looking up next “fallen angels” and “happy together”
wong kar wai’s favorite cinematographer is john doyle. who also photographed “in the mood…” and zhang yimou’s “hero”
side note: wong kar wai creates his scripts while he shoots the film. he makes it up as he goes. and yes, lots of shot scenes ends up on the cutting room floor 😄
another recommendation: the korean film, “burning”. or another korean film “train to busan”
the slow-mo scenes used a step printing technique and i read somewhere they shot on agfa XT320. there are lot of cool video essays about chungking express, they talked about the technique, the story, the acting. you should check out Fallen Angels (1995) next!
The is a version of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle that uses shots from this movie as the video. Specifically the shop girl and the cop.
It is incredibly well edited to the music. For a long while I thought it was an official video for the song until I saw this movie. When I saw the movie my jaw dropped to the floor. I had been bamboozled for years!
It's also my second favorite New Order song. Some freaky talented editing fiend put it together on their own.
In a way that video is even more impressive now that I know. If you're in the mood (wink), check it out.
"Happy Together" is one of my all time favorite gay films. Which is incredible coming from a straight Director/Writer.
Fallen Angels please
That intro scene always gives me chills. That track in the background and the whole vibe of it all is forever burned into my mind.
I feel like the reactions to WKW movies can be counted by fingers of one hand. Props to you for making reactions to this and In the mood for love! Kar-Wai is one of the greates movie makers of our time, its sad to see that not many people intrested in him or in asian cinema in general. Wish you did others too, Ashes of time in particular (my favorite from WKW).
I would love to see you react to some of the older absolute classic films. Maybe work your way through AFI's 100 years, 100 movie list.
You should react to "Dark Skies" by Scott Stewart. Pretty competent alien horror movie.
I love the way Wong Kar-Wai intertwines stories and follows his characters through their environments. I think he was my first exposure to real art-house cinema.
Another beautiful exploration of characters in HK by Wong Kar-Wai - Fallen Angels (1995)
Kudos on doing very diverse (and not always obvious) movies. I really hope someday you do Videodrome!
Of course! At the end of the day I enjoy these films! :)
One of my favourites! Also check out Happy Together.
i love this movie , the style, the repetitive music , the quirky honest characters. i can still remember it was a sunny afternoon and i watched it after i came home from school in the 90s. its crazy that i still know it was a sunny day. (still liking Fallen Angels a bit more)
Watched Chungking express for the first time couple months ago, fell in love with the movie
I love Chungking Express. I always have a hard time deciding which is my favorite Wong Kar-Wai film. This, In the Mood for Love, or Fallen Angels. When he and cinematographer Christopher Doyle got together, they made magic.
Great to see your experience with HK films!
By the way, this is the same cameraman who shoot hero with Jet Li. He is one of a kind
FALLEN ANGELS PLZZZ❤️
YES! My second favourite movie. Glad to see someone actually reacting to it!
Anytime! :)
What’s your first?
@@luke9947
My top 5 have been the same for years (after that it get's more hazy)
5 - Platoon
4 - Amelie
3 - Jaws
2 - Chungking Express
1 - Seven Samurai
@@pitmatix1457 thanks!
One of Tarantino's favourite movies. He even did a breakdown of it, you can find it on youtube
I definitely recommend watching Fallen Angels as it's basically the "part 2" to Chungking Express!
Love this film, it needs more attention
Magic in this film.
Man i love this movie so much. Wan kar wai is an artist. Pretty much every one of his movies are visually breathtaking
Visuals on another level. Thoroughly enjoyed this!
FALLEN ANGELS NEXT!!
that's my personal favourite of Wong's. It was originally conceived as sub-stories for this movie - it's like Chungking's Express darker twin, yet it's also by far his funniest movie
I think it’ll be great if you check out Crazy Stupid Love (2011). Very fun movie. Love the reaction as always.
You might like to cast your eye over the music video for 'Halo' by Texas. It's a love letter to this film. You might also like 2046, a sort of sequel to 'In the Mood For Love'.
I doubt this has any relation to Pineapple Express?
Haaaaaa, with all the multiverses now..who knows homie
Both are about crime, law enforcers, drugs and are comedies!
Yay more Wong Kar-wai!!! I love this movie, especially the second story! Tony Leung is so great 😍. I love Wong Kar-wai’s style!
Edit: He has an excellent eye for color. You should check out My Blueberry Nights. It’s not his best, but it’s still really enjoyable. I believe it’s his only English language film.
Edit 2: The guy in the first story is in House of Flying Daggers, which is a must-watch if you’ve never seen it.