"Chongqing Forest": Whispering to himself (Text: Vulcan Ji) 1. Beginning.
Perhaps, "The True Story" is still in the experimental period of Wong Kar-wai's style; then, in this "Chongqing Forest", Wong Kar-wai's personal style has begun to mature. The sheer amount of hand-held footage at the beginning of the film left me dazed and confused. By the time I started to understand something, the camera had started to settle down and stopped shaking. From those hand-held shots at the beginning to the numerous close-up close-ups in the back, there seems to be a high-contrast visual effect. The close-up of the hand-held lens and the beating of the automatic electronic watch reveals the helplessness and sad urgency of the passage of time; and the ease behind it has a contrast and harmony, expressing the passage of time in two completely different ways. Perhaps, the rush is fleeting; and the relaxation is exhaustion.
2. Father and Wong Kar Wai.
My father watched the whole movie with me. I don't know what kind of Wong Kar-wai this is in his eyes. In my memory, he never watched movies. The Wong Kar-wai I saw, or the Wong Kar-wai in this movie, wasn't actually making a movie, it was more like a lonely man in a corner of the room murmuring to whatever he was holding muttered to himself. So I am amazed that my father who never watched movies actually accompanied me to watch the whole "Chongqing Forest". I wondered what kind of concepts would form in his mind, which was accustomed to logical thinking. I wondered if my father would also be amazed, what is going on in the minds of today's young people, or what are the current movies trying to express. Of course, my father never communicated with me about this. So I have no way of knowing. Maybe it's not that Wong Kar-wai's movies really have such great charm, but that there is nothing to do if you just don't watch the flickering screen. This is my reverie about my father and the boredom of movies. Perhaps my father was more accustomed to the themes like "Tunnel Warfare" many years ago and was not used to the narcissism of Wong Kar-wai's murmur, so he was at a loss.
I saw a distinct sign of old age on my father's face. Because in his face I see the labored outline. I secretly found with a little sadness that his brows, which he had never wrinkled in the face of decades of machinery and plastics, actually wrinkled because of Wong Kar Wai. I admit that it was my fault to let my father watch Wong Kar Wai. Ha ha.
3. The storyline of Wong Kar Wai.
Finding the storyline in Wong Kar-wai's films is always a futile endeavor. And this movie seems to be relatively clear. The stories of several people are linked together by some kind of twist, and it becomes a movie. Perhaps only Wong Kar-wai can use such a turning point so skillfully and tactfully. Of course, perhaps the story is not what Wong Kar-wai wanted to convey to us. Wong Kar-wai just kept mumbling to himself, how we look at it is already secondary. Self-expression is the focus of Wong Kar-wai. After watching this movie, it's actually hard for me to tell what kind of concept this movie is expressing. When I tried to figure this out, I found that I was completely lost in Wong Kar Wai's forest.
Aside from the storyline of the movie itself, perhaps the only way to interpret Wong Kar-wai is. After all, in Wong Kar-wai's films, the storyline seems to have become a nihilistic thread for self-expression. Characters are at the heart of Wong Kar-wai's films. Just like the feeling of reading a novel, everyone has their own style. Some authors are stronger than the compactness and expression of the storyline, while others are more lyrical. However, it is difficult for us to tell which category of novels alone. The authors were more successful. The strongest thing about Wong Kar-wai's films is not the expression, nor the lyricism, but the shaping of the characters. All the protagonists or supporting roles, in and out of those flashy shots, are all just for the shaping of the characters themselves. Looking at his films, we may not be able to figure out what he is about to tell, but there is no doubt that the characters created by his lenses are flesh-and-blood and plump, which leaves a deep impression on us. The storyline is only his surface, and his identity lies in the characters under his lens.
4. Takeshi Kaneshiro.
lovelorn. Running through those flustered handheld shots. I suddenly caught this keyword.
decline. Or sad. running. This is a tired and overwhelmed man. Go to the supermarket every day to buy a can of pineapple that expires on May 1. Always blindly believe that after May 1st, in addition to the expiration of the can, his love will also expire. Everything seems to be a joke since April 1st. It's just that April Fool's Day has passed for a whole month and all the jokes will come true. The character runs forever with a kind of pathos. Because all the water on the body has turned into sweat and dried up, there will be no tears to cry. But I love the hunched spine of this man as he crouches on the ground and shines a woman's shoes.
Call machine mania. I think. Restart the Call station every day, just to wait for someone. Only, that person never heard back. Phone mania. I think. Sitting on the floor and calling all the women you know, even your fourth grade classmates. This is a man who is completely exhausted and doing nothing. The loneliness may not need to be expressed in any words, but the camera is on the man who sat on the ground and kept talking on the phone until he left the place in despair.
I was thinking, under what circumstances would I hold all the things around me and keep talking. In an empty room with only one person. Everything expires because everything is stamped with a date at some point. As for love, no one knows when it will expire. The 10,000 years we are all praying for will never come, and no one knows the outcome, because we will all die 10,000 years ago.
5. Brigitte Lin.
dead end. flee. A process that seems to be chasing and killing is actually just a stop and run. A middle-aged woman who is constantly running around in the city. He seems to be clinging to his hopeless life. In fact, he is just escaping from his own innocent sadness. When I look at this woman, I always think like that. Very sad. Very sad.
What kind of woman goes to a bar, drinks alone, and refuses everyone's approach. In the life of chasing murderers and fleeing all day, such a night may mean the last peace. And when peace can also become an occasional feast in life, this woman is full of sorrow. Falling down on the bed, maybe it's the last time to sleep. No one knows what tomorrow will be like. So, exhausted to the extreme, maybe this is the only time to sleep peacefully. Looking at this woman, I always have a sense of the end.
A blond wig with a bit of vulgarity and sunglasses that never take off. This woman is so similar to a prostitute who waits for clients on the street. It's just that she sold her body; and she sold her soul. No one knows if this soul will remain in this world safely, or for how long. So, her eyes never see a clear world again. There is always a grey-toned pathos behind the sunglasses.
Every time I think of this woman, there is a kind of depression in my chest. And I don't have the strength to break free from this feeling. Sadness is not like sadness, sadness is not like sadness. The tired back of her as she lay down on the bed made me feel so distressed that I couldn't say a word. When I saw Takeshi Kaneshiro take off those sandals for her and wipe her with a tie, I suddenly felt pity for no reason. I wonder what she'll think when she wakes up, when she sees her sandals suddenly looking new. I'm thinking, maybe that's the only thing she's moved.
It's not indifference and numbness, it's just that the bloodthirsty days have made her forget the so-called touching and happiness. A life without emotion and happiness may be meaningless. Maybe this is why I always feel sad when I look at this woman.
6. Tony Leung.
A person. A not-so-cluttered room. Talking nonstop about everything in the house. Or just mumbling to himself. lonely. Or not lonely. Just can't find someone to talk to. Or not. As I often sigh at the computer screen with nothing to do: to watch a movie, or not to watch a movie; that is the question. Not because I couldn't find someone to talk to. Just because I'm too tired to tell anyone. If I say that to someone else, maybe I'll have to explain why it's a problem; but when I say it to a computer screen, it never asks me why. And more importantly, I don't know why.
Put all your sadness and grief on all the items you get. Self-soothing, or soothing. Actually there is no difference. Or, when anyone could see that he was soothing himself, the so-called distinction was meaningless. I have always believed that this is a delicate man. It seems that only delicate men can keep talking to everything in the house like this. But a lot of times I still have doubts, how could a delicate man get all the things in his house to be secretly exchanged without realizing it, and even project some emotions into it. Perhaps, it can only be said that this is a delicate and romantic man. Even if every day is patrolling the same road in the same street. Even if you buy a late-night snack, it will never change. Persistent reluctance to change tastes means this is a man who sticks to all his habits and doesn't want to change. There doesn't seem to be the slightest doubt about the departure of his girlfriend, a woman who likes novelty and a man who sticks to all his habits.
To never read the last letter meant he was too vulnerable to undergo the slightest change. He should know what the letter said, but he would rather give himself a false hope. So the days passed gradually in such unwarranted expectations. This is a man whose sensibility is almost fragile and stubborn almost invariable. It seems that only such a judgment can be given.
However, he will accept the convenience store owner's recommendation for other late-night snacks, which only shows that he is not so stubborn. But this is nothing, after all, all life is full of contradictions and cannot be harmonious and unified.
7. Faye Wong.
luxurious. The people inside the camera are constantly wandering outside the camera. With a bit of cynical banter.
Fall in love with the man you love and his house. So every day, he would secretly wear gloves and put his feet in a plastic bag to play in his room and clean up. Secretly replace everything inside. I remember dear ay said, how to completely occupy a man's life. Before the man knew it, he secretly replaced everything he used with what he gave him. This is a powerful way of domination. But she even saved the delivery process. Secretly, secretly. A little, a little, all replaced.
I was moved when I saw her replace the cans logo and fill up the men's cupboards. Hehe, the man thought foolishly, I found something that I didn't usually notice, it turns out that sardines in tomato sauce also taste like tempeh. Seeing this, I really want to laugh, a very warm smile. slippers. toothbrush. Soap. washcloth. shirt. CD. Even goldfish in a fish tank. A man never finds himself beside him in constant confusion, so the most delicate things have all been replaced by a woman who loves him deeply. Surrounded softly. I wonder what could be more gentle and touching than this.
because of infatuation. In a seemingly luxurious way, completely surround the man you love deeply in your heart. The man he loves played to himself the CD that he had placed with him two days ago and told me that it was his girlfriend's favorite music. What kind of secret joy and joy it would be.
8. End.
All people are actually strangers. Except myself. So the most unfamiliar strangers seem to be cute. All the people passing by and working in the convenience store may be the cutest group. There is no reason. Just because it's unfamiliar. We'll say things together that we don't want to say to people we know well. We are reminded of the things we would have forgotten.
In this movie, everything seems to be linked together by this convenience store. It's always a first-person narrative. Takeshi Kaneshiro, a young plainclothes policeman; Brigitte Lin, a depraved and beautiful drug dealer; Tony Leung, a police officer in uniform due to inertia; and Faye Wong, a blurred woman who is outside of it all. Everyone was muttering to themselves. In the convenience store, or outside, at home, on the street, in the bar, mumbling non-stop. And the change of storyteller is just a passing glance.
The movie is a lot like poetry. Merlin is the best. Even if it's just Wong Kar-wai who is constantly declaring himself. Urban fairy tales. All this is told incessantly in the language of the camera lens of the film. It does look a lot like poetry.
I watched several Wong Kar Wai films very seriously. Look carefully at the times when those films are released. This is Wong Kar Wai's third movie, and I want to say that when I watched this movie, I finally couldn't help but fall in love with Wong Kar Wai's film style. For no reason, just because, if you look for poetry in movies, Wong Kar-wai's movies are undoubtedly the closest movies to poetry. There is no full storyline, not enough plain story lines that hold the plot together. Everything is random and everything is deliberate. When Wong Kar-wai's lens began to depict himself completely, I found that I began to like his superficial whispers.
Movies are not just as rigid as novels. Movies can also be as lyrical and beautiful as poetry. This is what Wong Kar-wai's films teach us. Well, men can actually mumble like Wong Kar-wai. Nothing bad. Plainclothes police like 233, or uniformed police officers like 633. Talk to everything and everything in your own home. With a bit of loneliness, with a bit of sadness. Indeed, there is nothing wrong with that. Psychiatrists warn that we need to express our feelings on a regular basis, which is good for our mental health.
In "Chongqing Forest", a director wearing sunglasses kept mumbling to himself in the flash of light. In his lens is always clean as pure as poetry. I remember who said, from now on, fall in love with Wong Kar Wai. This makes sense.
2006-08-21; July 28, Bingxu year.
P.S.: Movie information extension link. ■Title: "Chongqing Forest" ■Title: "Chungking Express" ■Director: Wong Kar-wai ■Starring: Takeshi Kaneshiro / Tony Leung / Faye Wong ■Genre: Romance/Plot/Suspense ■Length: 102min ■Region: Hong Kong ■Language: Cantonese/ English / Hindi / Japanese / Mandarin Chinese Release: Atalanta Filmes Premiere: August 1994 / Switzerland
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