Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Screenplay: Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Faye Wong
Country: Hong Kong
Running Time: 103 min
Year: 1994
2024 was a tough year in many ways, but one of my favourite moments occurred on what might have otherwise been the most miserable day of the year. My grandfather had passed away and on the day of his funeral, I brought my headphones and a tablet, loaded with a copy of Chungking Express from The Criterion Channel. Typically, I prefer to watch films on a big screen but given that it was a four hour drive to the funeral, I figured I’d bring a few films with me to keep myself occupied on the ride down there.
Despite the circumstances of being in a cramped car, watching it on a small screen while the sunlight was beaming every so often onto the screen, I immediately fell in love with Chungking Express. Since then, I’ve revisited the film a bunch, via the Blu-ray included in the World of Wong Kar-Wai box set that Criterion issued back in 2021. It’s easily one of my favourite discoveries of the past few years and when I heard that Criterion were upgrading the title to UHD, I was excited to have an excuse to rewatch it again, on an entirely new format.
Chungking Express was director Wong Kar-Wai’s third feature, although it was the fourth that he’d shoot. While struggling to finish the edit for his wuxia feature Ashes of Time, Wong and cinematographers Christopher Doyle & Andrew Lau decided to make a small scale anthology picture, centred around two love stories. The first, following police officer He Zhi Wu as he laments over his failed relationship with his ex May blends heartbreak, humour and crime into a tight package. Zhi Wu crosses paths with a woman in a blonde wig and the pair share a few brief moments together, in a gorgeous first story.
The second story follows another police officer, the unnamed 663 (played by the legendary Tony Leung Chiu-wai) as he attempts to get over his own breakup, while restaurant worker Faye (Faye Wong) falls in love with him. While the first story blends multiple genres together, this second segment is far more laid back, character focused and mostly consists of the pair spending time together in a truly heart-warming and hilarious way.
Both segments of Chungking Express compliment each other extremely well, sharing similar themes, paralleling each other in a way that’s always delightful to watch. There’s never a dull moment throughout the runtime of the film, and while Wong Kar-Wai has made more extravagant, bombastic and stylised features, Chungking Express will always remain my favourite for how human it is. Whether it’s Zhi Wu’s obsession with canned pineapples, believing that they’re the key to mending his relationship with his ex, or Faye blasting California Dreamin’, the film blends those moments of humour and heartbreak in a more realistic manner than most romantic comedies can ever pull off, regardless of how hard they try.
It’s no understatement to say that Chungking Express is one of the greatest films ever made, my personal favourite Wong Kar-Wai feature and one of the most authentic romance films to hit the screen. If you somehow haven’t checked this one out, this new UHD release from Criterion is a must own. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
Film: 
Chungking Express released on 4K UHD + Blu-ray via The Criterion Collection on April 21st. I checked out the UHD version for the feature and a personal Blu-ray copy for the extras, as there’s nothing exclusive to the new release that wasn’t present in the previous World of Wong Kar-Wai box set. The feature is presented without any HDR, which may come as a surprise to some people but Criterion previously issued In the Mood for Love on UHD in the States without HDR too, so it’s keeping in line with what director Kar-Wai’s home media releases are like. The new restoration of Chungking Express that was presented in the World of Wong Kar-Wai box set was one of the least controversial aspects of that set, although there are changes to the colour timing, editing changes and more, so if you’re unfamiliar with the ‘new’ version of the film, it’s worth doing some research to see if these changes will affect your enjoyment or not. As somebody who’s seen both versions of Chungking Express, I don’t have any issues with the newer version and it looks absolutely stunning in native 4K. Image quality is absolutely jaw dropping, which should be no surprise to anybody familiar with the film. Even without HDR, the film looks gorgeous for every frame and the bump in resolution is a surprising improvement over the already excellent Blu-ray release. Audio wise, there’s one track, and it’s a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track with optional English subtitles for the Cantonese dialogue. This is the exact same audio track as the previous Blu-ray, which has always sounded great. If I had any nit-picks, it’s a shame that the moments of English dialogue aren’t also subtitled, but they’re few and far between so it’s not the end of the world. All in all, if you’re a fan of the new version of Chungking Express, there’s never been a better way to experience the film. Top marks all around. The following extras are included
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K + UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, both supervised and approved by director Wong Kar Wai
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
Interview from 2002 with cinematographer Christopher Doyle
Episode of Moving Pictures from 1996 featuring interviews with Wong and Doyle
Deleted scenes
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by critic Amy Taubin
Cover by Sarah Habibi, based on an original design by Nessim Higson
The original 2008 release of Chungking Express from Criterion included an audio commentary by critic Tony Rayns which hasn’t been ported over to the 4K UHD release, although it was almost missing from their World of Wong Kar-Wai boxset release, so it makes sense.
The archival interview with Christopher Doyle runs for 10 minutes and was filmed in 2002. In the interview, Doyle discusses the process of shooting Chungking Express in Hong Kong, revisits a handful of locations from Chungking Express and shares some stories from the production. It’s a fun, brief interview.
A 12 minute episode of Moving Pictures from 1996 is included, filmed during the making of Fallen Angels and features director Wong Kar-Wai and Christopher Doyle, Wong revisiting some of the locations from Chungking Express and more. It’s a fascinating episode, although I wish it was a tad longer.
Three deleted scenes are included, The Star, California Dreaming and Baroque. They’re solid sequences, more than likely cut for pacing reasons but it’s great to see them included here.
A trailer is included.
I wasn’t provided with the essay or the retail release, so I’m unable to comment on those.
Chungking Express is one of the greatest films ever made, and while Criterion’s UHD release doesn’t add anything new outside of the great UHD transfer, it’s hard not to recommend it. The bonus features aren’t incredible, but they’re worth a watch too. Highly recommended.
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