Chungking Express is a 1994 Hong Kong anthology[5] crime[6] dramedy film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai.

[7][8] The film consists of two stories told in sequence, each about a lovesick Hong Kong policeman mulling over his relationship with a woman.

The first story stars Takeshi Kaneshiro as a cop obsessed by his breakup with a woman named May and his encounter with a mysterious drug smuggler (Brigitte Lin).

The second stars Tony Leung as a police officer roused from his gloom over the loss of his flight attendant girlfriend (Valerie Chow) by the attentions of a quirky snack bar worker (Faye Wong).

[11][12] The film premiered in Hong Kong on 14 July 1994 and received critical acclaim, especially for its direction, cinematography, and performances.

He finds Faye coming to his apartment and realises that she likes him; he arranges a date at a restaurant named California.

Wong Kar-wai made Chungking Express during a two-month break from editing his wuxia film Ashes of Time.

Originally, Wong envisioned the stories as similar but with contrasting settings: one in Hong Kong Island in daylight, and the other in Kowloon at night.

[17] He developed a third story, about a love-sick hitman, but felt it would make Chungking Express overlong, and produced it as a separate film, Fallen Angels (1995).

He was drawn to Chungking Mansion for its many lodgings, mix of cultures, and significance as a crime hotspot; he felt that, as a "mass-populated and hyperactive place", it worked as a metaphor for Hong Kong itself.

[19] The second story was shot in Central, including Lan Kwai Fong, near the fast food shop Midnight Express.

[24] The song "Baroque", by Michael Galasso, is heard twice during the first story: during the opening and when Brigitte Lin's character takes the gun in the closer.

[25] The song "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & the Papas plays in key scenes in the second story, which also features Faye Wong's Cantonese cover of "Dreams" by The Cranberries, which is also played over the end credits (titled "Mung Zung Yan", it is included in her 1994 album Random Thoughts, while her next album, Sky, includes a Mandarin cover).

[26] "California Dreamin'" is played numerous times by Faye Wong's character, indicating "the simultaneity of her aversion to and desire for change".

Bands featured in the soundtrack, including The Cranberries and Cocteau Twins, saw significant commercial success in Hong Kong after Chungking Express came out, and contemporary Canto-pop stars such as Candy Lo began adopting a more dream-pop sound, such as in Lo's 1998 EP Don't Have to be... Too Perfect and subsequent album Miao....[30] On 8 March 1996, the film began a limited theatrical run in North America through Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder distribution company under Miramax.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Even if all it had to offer were writer-director Wong Kar-wai's thrillingly distinctive visuals, Chungking Express would be well worth watching; happily, its thoughtfully drawn characters and naturalistic performances also pack a potent dramatic wallop.

Many of today's younger filmgoers, fed only by the narrow selections at video stores, are not as curious or knowledgeable and may simply be puzzled by Chungking Express instead of challenged.

His hypnotic images of love and loss finally wear down your resistance as seemingly discordant sights and sounds coalesce into a radiant, crazy quilt that can make you laugh in awe at its technical wizardry in one scene and pierce your heart in the next.Janet Maslin of The New York Times criticized the film's MTV-like "aggressive energy":[42] Mr. Wong has legitimate visual flair, but his characters spend an awful lot of time playing impish tricks.