Chungking Express: A Unique Cinematic Masterpiece

One of the film's posters

The seminal film Chungking Express paints a wonderful, cinematic portrait of isolation in densely populated Hong Kong.  The urban jungle metaphor has an added layer because Chungking is the Cantonese word for Chongqing (a city in west central China) that also means jungle.  To be up front, I have been searching for a copy of this film for years.  I finally secured a copy from the New Orleans Public Library.  The film is split into two halves, each chronicling the recent break-up of a Hong Kong police officer’s relationship.  Don’t get confused, the two officers in the film aren’t the same person.  Luckily they don’t look alike, and their stories have almost no overlap.  Certainly an unusual structure, but for this film it works.   

The facade of the actual
Chungking Mansions

The film takes its name from the legendary Hong Kong slum Chungking Mansions, smack-dab in the middle of Kowloon’s Golden Mile.  The images of the building’s tightly packed corridors and improvised factories inside of cramped, converted apartments juxtaposes amazingly with the loneliness felt by the main characters.  It’s amazing how well the film conveys this feeling, and I can’t really express all the ways that it does it.  The director uses a lot of longshots, quickly turning the camera to capture the characters’ movements as they dart around small rooms filled with boxes, beds, and tables.  You just have to see it for yourself.  It gave me a claustrophobic feeling.    

The film’s amazing music distinguishes it from other “artsy” films of the 90’s.  The soundtrack features both instrumental and pop tunes to great effect.  One warning; get ready to hear the song California Dreaming more than you ever thought possible.  But the payoff from the song and story just make its repetitive use even better.  For the first time in years, I am considering buying a film’s soundtrack.  I was blown away by the music. 

Two of the film's protagonists

While my wife was not a big fan of the film, she enjoyed seeing the film’s stars at the beginning of their careers.  Many of the actors and actresses went on to have very successful careers in the Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Chinese film industries.  One of the actresses even does a song on the soundtrack, lending credence to the stereotype of Hong Kong cinema producing multitalented stars.  

  

I find it extremely difficult to articulate why I loved this film so much.  With film being such a visual media, it’s impossible to describe the tone and visual style of the film.  And that’s why the film is so amazing.  I can’t really describe in words why it’s so special.  The makers of this film produced something that only the magic of cinema can achieve. 

      

Stock Google image of 
Chungking Mansions' ground 
floor

Unlike other film’s set in the world’s most dynamic city-state, Chungking Express is a view of the city looking down on the lives of its people, instead of from street level looking up. 

Note: I previously wrote a blog about the actual Chungking Mansions from which this film takes its name.  Here’s a link

http://chofficespace.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-mansions.html

The Three Body Problem: Beleive the Hype

The Book's Cover Features the Pyramid
from the Novel's VR Game.

It seems like people can’t stop talking about The Three Body Problem.  Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award, this book details the well-trod topic of humanity’s first contact with aliens.  The book courted controversy from many outspoken science fiction authors and critics.  Many felt that the book simply won awards because of organizations shoehorning in diversity instead of its merit.  While I can’t speak to the other nominees for these awards, I can say that The Three Body Problem deserves great praise for its originality and scientific concepts.  Yes, the “diversity is super good and necessary” thing has probably gone too far, but this book deserves the recognition. 

The book’s author is Chinese and all of the main characters are too.  Thankfully this saves us the trouble of reading/watching aliens destroy New York City for 4,000,000^th time.  The story opens during the restless days of the Cultural Revolution.  According to the translator, who was featured on the Sinica podcast, the book’s publisher altered the progression of the story so that the flashbacks appeared toward the middle of the book. They though publishing a book on the 50^th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution and featuring the period as a backdrop might result in undue scrutiny.  Frankly, it’s amazing these parts made it into the book at all.  I’d bet that if the book was published today, just a few short years later, some of these flashbacks would have been cut. 

I enjoyed reading a book that approaches such a common plot from a new perspective.   In some ways it’s a retread of Childhood’s End and other similar stories, but the book is never held back by this.  The book’s true originality comes from the computer game featured in the story and the alien world.  The parts of the book set in these two settings stand head-and-shoulders above anything I have read recently.  The sections set in the “real world” are less interesting.  The characters are two dimensional and even China itself seems flat.  I understand not including things that might date the novel, but there is almost nothing that fleshes out the setting.  Other than a passing reference to the CCTV Building and Tiananmen Square, this novel could take place anywhere.  The main character, Wang Miao, passively observes the story.  We learn very little about him.

       

If the Chinese characters in the story are two dimensional, then the foreign characters are simply lines.  The stereotypical dialogue makes them laughable.  A British military officer who appears at a meeting utters only one line, “To be or not to be.”  This line caused me to laugh while I read the book.  It’s interesting that the author of the novel writes dialogue for extraterrestrials more realistically than foreigners. 

Despite some literal shortcomings, no reader should miss this book.  The ideas and interpretations in the novel never fail to amaze.  I think the ideas in this book will keep readers talking about it for decades to come, just like the works of Phillip K. Dick and Arthur C. Clarke.  It’s less about character development and prose and more about thinking of humanity in a new light.  And in the end, it’s the ideas that make a story worthwhile.  

P.S. - the second book in the series isn't good.  Don't waste your time on it.  Just read the Wikipedia page and move on to book three.