“Chungking Express” The atmosphere that flowed through Hong Kong in the early 1990s as captured by the masterpiece of romantic movies

Part 2: A story about the outside

After hearing the voicemail from the blonde woman, Mo returns to his favorite delicatessen store, where he meets a new employee, Faye (Faye Wong). The second part of the movie is about Faye falling in love with a regular customer, Police Officer 663 (Tony Léon: The Professional), and frequenting his home without him. One of the highlights of this work is the vividness of the moment when Faye bumps into Mo and the Mamas & Papas' "California Dreams" plays, and the story connects.

Like Mo, Officer 663 has also lost his lover. The CA (cabin attendant)'s girlfriend doesn't return to Police Officer 663's home, so she leaves a letter and a duplicate key to her home at a delicatessen store. Faye tries to give them to her, but Officer 663 won't take them. Faye then takes the key for herself and sneaks into Officer 663's home. He cleans his room, redecorates it, adds more fish to his tank, deletes his ex-girlfriend's voicemail, and begins a secret life.

When Faye exchanges words with Police Officer 663 at the store or when they meet face to face on the street, she keeps her secrets hidden. "I'm saving money now. I'm saving money to go to places like California." On the other hand, Police Officer No. 663 spends his days talking to soap, rags, and stuffed animals at home due to the sadness of losing his lover, but he does not notice any drastic changes in his room. It is as if he has created a strong world within himself and lives only within it.

Those days end abruptly. Officer #663 sees Faye in her room. Officer 663 does not blame Faye, but rather invites her out on a date that night. However, the next day, Faye did not show up at the bar ``California'' where they were meeting. Faye quit her job to go to the "real" California that she had always dreamed of.

“Chungking Express” © 1994, 2008 Block 2 Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A year later, Faye, dressed as a CA, appears in front of Police Officer 663, who has taken over the delicatessen store. The boarding pass written in the letter Faye left a year ago was soaked in the rain and the destination was illegible. Officer 663 asks, ``Don't you know where you're going?'' Faye replies, ``Where do you want to go?'' Officer 663 replied, "Wherever you want to go."

If the first part is a story of love and rebirth that skillfully incorporates information about deadlines and capitalism, the second part is a story about escaping to the outside, so to speak. Times are calmer and more peaceful than in the first part, but Hong Kong is still on the verge of being returned to China. In that unstable place, Faye dreams of going to California, and her ex-lover CA, who never stayed in Hong Kong, takes off from Cop 663's world and lands in another man's world.

Policeman No. 663, who seems to be a straight-laced man, is so deep inside himself that he doesn't even notice any changes in the room at first. It is Fei, an intruder from the outside, who changes the room, which is a private space, and approaches its inner world. Policeman 663 and Faye run into each other in front of his house, and when he accepts the outsider, he begins to notice changes in the room. After Faye leaves for California, which is outside of Hong Kong, Officer 663 reunites with his ex-girlfriend, but he doesn't have the same regrets as before.

At the end of the movie, we don't know if Faye really became a CA or not. But the important thing is that Faye can take Officer 663 outside once again. A year after she semi-forcibly brought the man, who had been holed up inside herself, into contact with the ``outside'', Faye returned in a state where she was able to invite the man to the ``outside'' of Hong Kong.

The time limit until Hong Kong's return implied by "Deadline" and "Capitalism" in Part 1, and the escape evoked by "Outside" in Part 2. What they all have in common is that they are stories about a man who is a police officer with roots in the land and is somehow rescued by a woman (even the blonde woman disappears in the end) who leaves the place lightly. It also means that a person who symbolizes traditional ethics and morals is helped by unethical and amoral beings: drug dealers on the one hand and home invaders on the other. Is it a bit of a stretch to see here the will to look forward to unpredictable fluctuations and changes to the predetermined future?