La Femme's Movie Marathon…Hong Kong Films

Its time for another movie marathon with K and our friend S.  It was S's pick this time, and he went with movies from Hong Kong!  The first half of our marathon was a Tony Leung triumvirate featuring Hard Boiled, Chungking Express, and In the Mood for Love.

Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992):  Hard Boiled begins with a huge set piece in a dumpling house.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere a gunfight is breaking out and our hero, Tequila (Chow Yun Fat), is chasing after some baddies.  The scene is visceral and exciting but I have to be honest... after it, I fully expected to hate this movie.  I have never been a fan of violence for violence's sake no matter how cartoonish and silly it may be.  But, I was surprised to find that I was slowly sucked into this story of two cops, one deeply undercover (Tony Leung, more on him later), the other trying to avenge the death of his partner who is killed in that dumpling house scene and also trying to win back his ex-girlfriend, and their tentative partnership. The truth of this film and is that it is an action film and pretty short on characterization and even plot, but the action scenes are balletic, exciting, and over-the-top.   By the time we get to the so-ridiculous ts is funny shoot out at the hospital (complete with Tequila's girlfriend trying to save all the babies in the nursery and a baby putting out a fire on Tequila's leg with pee), I have to admit that I gave into the fun of the movie.  One can't help but marvel at the acrobatics, choreography, and the insane amount of work it must take to create a blowout like the end of the film.

I can pretty much guarantee California Dreaming is
playing in this scene. 

Chungking Express (Won Kar-wai, 1994):  First, a warning: After watching Wong Kar-wai's film Chungking Express you will have the Mamma's and the Pappa's California Dreaming in your head for approximately the next week, at least.  Kar-wei uses the song almost as a motif throughout the film, an audible cue that at once expresses longing, love, desire, sadness, and everything else in between depending on the moment it is played.  The movie is two stories, both taking place in the tangled concrete of downtown Hong Kong. The first, much shorter section, tells the simple story of a heartbroken man who gives himself one month to get over the break-up of his relationship. After sadly buying pineapple daily with the expiration date of May 1st, the day he will either be reunited with his love or get over her forever, one night, he runs into a mysterious, glamorous woman in a trench coat and sunglasses running from a drug cartel and they spend one enigmatic night together.  This story is told mostly through voiceover and imagery, and Kar-wai keeps the characters far from us, but uses his camera to draw us in.   Suddenly, the film shifts to another, longer story: Officer 633 (Tony Leung) is also going through a breakup, this time with a flight attendant.  Everyday he eats at the same restaurant and is served by the same lovesick waitress, Faye (Faye Wong).  As in so many love stories, he barely notices her until she begins to infiltrate his life in ways he doesn't even know about.  Faye Wong is kind of the original manic pixie dream girl in the film: she's enchanting, offbeat, and utterly natural.  Tony Leung has a natural screen presence, is charming and naively sexy in this role, and his chemistry with Wong is refreshingly easy and sweet. We see their chemistry growing in a way that seems realistic but also completely cinematic.  Wong Kar-wai's use of the camera is lush, romantic, and dream like.  He takes the chaotic setting of the city and transports us to a magical microcosm of a world.  In many ways, this film reminded me of what I love most about French New Wave; it felt alive, surprisingly energetic, and most of all, utterly irresistible.

In the Mood for Love: (Wong Kar-wai, 2000):  Another romantic stunner from Wong Kar-wai. Where Chungking Express was energetic and youthful, In the Mood for Love is elegiac and full of longing.  Plus,  Maggie Cheung has one of the most enviable wardrobes in cinema history (I sense a La Femme's top five!).  Mrs. Chan (the aforementioned, so beautiful it hurts, Maggie Cheung) and Mr. Chow (Tony Leung again, in his best performance yet in this marathon) live in the same apartment building, and are, in fact, next-door neighbors.  They soon discover that their respective partners are having an affair.  Angry and confused, the pair begin to engage in a tentative relationship of their own, at first playacting the beginning of their spouses affair. But as they keep running into each other in their lonely trips to the noodle stall and spending more time together, they, themselves, begin to fall in love.  In the Mood for Love is my favorite kind of romance, one in which the characters barely touch, let alone kiss and yet, you can feel the longing, passion, and lust radiating from them.  Leung gives his best performance I have seen yet, at once confident and full of verve and yet downtrodden over his current circumstances.  But I think Cheung is the real star; you can feel the passion in her performance even though it is very restrained.  I think the slower, languid pace also allows Kar-wai to paint a more complete portrait of these two characters and their burgeoning relationship. Here, the camera moves slower and the frenetic movements in Chungking Express instead become lazy and sensual.  I also love what he does with music in this film, again using the same music again and again, making each time you hear the song more and more meaningful. Also, can someone please give me some of Cheung's gorgeous dresses?  Seriously.

Julie