The film Chungking Express has two story lines that use reoccurring events such as the use of expiry date and the name May to represent the date of birth of the Cop 223. The dialog being used in the film is a mixture of Mandarin, Japanese, Cantonese, and Indian This paper reflects on the film Chungking Express and what the numbers, dates, and measurement represent and its purpose.
The film uses many numbers, dates, and measurements to be distinctly unique. For instance, the names cop 223 and cop 663 are used to represent the two police officers to avoid the use of actual names. The use of birthdays, expiration dates, and deadlines shows how influential dates can be. The cop 223 is a police officer who was born on May 1 and he is soon celebrating his 25th birthday. The age 25 is significant because it makes a man to stop being theoretical and to start being practical to accomplish everything in life that he or she desires. This day, May 1 also represents the day May, his girlfriend needs to complete her major drug smuggling operation or face extreme consequences .
The cop 223 had a girlfriend called May, who breaks up with him on 1 April, which was April fool’s Day. This date created a perfect moment for break up. The cop 223 being dumped, it makes him live in denial. To show the use of expiration date on the film; the cop 223 buys a tin of pineapple every day with an expiration of date May 1. This shows that the cop 223 has a feeling of being in a reunion with his girlfriend or that his relationship will have an expired for good. The use of measurements indicates how time can change many things in life. The use of many numbers and dates symbolize the strength of the film and it relates the situations in the two stories.
The main reason for the use of numbers and dates is to show the irreversibility of time and the inevitability of change. The purpose of using numbers and dates indicate that those people who refuse to accept the happenings of life do so at their own preference. In addition, the film is filled with repetition and reflection to bring out the effects of change in life. The film also embraces time, which plays a role in making things better in life. The date May 1 plays a significant role in the life of cop 223 because it represents the day he will get over his relationship with May, which affects his mentality on tackling day-to-day activities of life .
According to my view, Hong Kong life had few features. The transfer of power from the United Kingdom to China was on the minds of the Hong Kong residents. Its first feature is that it had unsettled people. In the film, people were seen catching flights and leaving away from Hong Kong. Another feature of Hong is that it remains unchanged over the years. Hong Kong is also a place without any order and the efforts to restore it would be difficult. Hong Kong is also a crime den, which needs to be changed.
Works Cited
Chungking Express. Dir. Wong Kar-wai. Perf. Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Faye Wong and Takeshi Kaneshiro. 1996.
