Chungking Express Analysis

Healthy relationships are the key to prospering in life. However, sudden changes can affect one’s emotional health and invite loneliness. These changes can drastically affect a person’s life and everything around them. Wong Kar-wai examines the effects of relationships in his film, Chungking Express. Utilizing cop #223 in order to portray that isolation fosters depression and loneliness, Kar-wai presents the viewer with many squandered attempts at finding meaningful connections and emotional intimacy. His exhilarating depiction of cop #223 cultivates feelings of empathy in the viewers. In Wong Kar-wai’s film, Chungking Express, cop #223 is constantly shut out of any emotional bonds and, in turn, this affects his ultimate connection with the outside world. This is especially evident in the convenience store and stadium track scenes.

Cop #223’s characteristic loneliness, set on by the breakup of a five year long relationship, is his ultimate downfall. His unrelenting effort in trying to find the smallest hope that his girlfriend will return to him is not only admirable, but meaningful as well. The scene in the convenience store suggests that cop #223 truly believes in those small sentiments that characterize true love. When he says, "with you people, it's always out with the old, and in with the new...", his inability to accept change is made clear to the viewer. He would like every aspect of his life to remain the same in order to feel secure. Emotionally, he is unaware that his girlfriend has left him for good and because of this, his entire life is being dictated by a past love

and a notion that eating pineapple only good until May 1st will solve everything. Any attempt at a meaningful human connection is squashed. In pursuing a meaningful conversation with the store clerk, cop #223 is metaphorically shoved aside again. The disaffection he is shown toward his concerns of the pineapple’s feelings breaks him down completely. He is shown no compassion and is...