“Dung che sai duk – Ashes of Time” was a relative disappointment for the director and got mixed reviews and reception but “Chung hing sam lam – Chungking Express” helped him to foster the interest of moviegoers at home and especially abroad. Both films share the same visual whirlwind-like virtuosity that leaves a world away his previous and visually tamed feature, “A fei zheng chuan – Days of Being Wild”, made four years earlier. “Chung hing sam lam – Chungking Express” is haphazard romance shot as Wong Kar-wai battled to shoot and edit as he wished “Dung che sai duk – Ashes of Time” in the same 1994 year. Their story keeps being a hide-and-seek game until she becomes a flight attendant (like Cop 663’s previous lover) and he buys the restaurant she used to work in and they meet again to seriously start an affair. Cop 663 never realizes what is going on at his home until he catches her on the spot off guard. A letter left by Cop 663’s former lover enables her to get the keys of his apartment and thus begins a funny and bizarre development as she goes every day in the cramped place to clean it, find out about the guy’s life and change a few things. He gets noticed by a young, dreamy, tomboyish girl working at the snack restaurant he often stops by during his beat.
He has a girlfriend at the start, but she drops him. How his fate is actually going to change is left to speculation as the film abruptly alters its course and focuses on another policeman, Cop 663, who patrols a few streets of the city. Waiting for a connection: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, left, and Faye Wong.