| DVD Released by : Miramax |
| Player reviewed with : Malata DVD-N996 |
| Receiver reviewed with : Sony 925 |
| Features: |
| Chinese Soundtrack |
| English Subtitles |
| Enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs |
| Theatrical Trailer |
| Original Hong Kong Trailer |
| Quentin Tarrantino Intro/Wrap Up |
| Running Time : 102 mins. |
Wong Kar Wai paints CHUNGKING EXPRESS in broad strokes and creates a movie that is visually stunning. The movie is two stories that center around a little take-out restaurant. The first story involves a cop, known as 233 (Takeshi Kaneshiro), whose girlfriend has left him. While waiting for a page that never comes from her, he spends his time eating pineapple that will expire on May 1st, the day he will realize she is gone forever. A chance encounter brings him in contact with a Mystery Woman, played by Brigitte Lin. After a tough day of keeping some drug mules in line, the woman settles down by having a drink where she meets 233. She doesn't exactly take to him, but she hears him out. After the woman fall asleep, 233 takers her to a room than leaves to go jogging. His reasoning is that if he sweats from jogging, there will be no water for tears.
The second story features 663 (Tony Leung), a policeman who lives with his stewardess girlfriend. He frequents the take out restaurant nightly to bring dinner home for he and his girlfriend. This is where he catches the eye of Faye (Faye Wong). Always watchful, Faye seizes the opportunity to take 663's apartment keys when he girlfriend leaves him and leaves a letter at the restaurant for him. While 663 is working, Faye enter his apartment and gradually changes it to brighten it up. She adds fish to his fish tank, changes worn out towels, and pretends she is his girlfriend.
CHUNGKING EXPRESS is the movie that introduced many in America to Wong Kar Wai and is the first movie from Quentin Tarrantino's Rolling Thunder label. This is one of the movies that I kept my laser disc player around for. Up until now, the DVD versions of CHUNGKING EXPRESS have not been too good and have gone quickly out of print. The laser disc of CHUNGKING EXPRESS is the international print of the movie and has the original soundtrack. The international print is slightly longer than the Hong Kong Version. Because of this, I was fairly confident that Miramax would release this movie in it's unaltered form. Thankfully, the movie has the original music and soundtrack and is the same cut that is on the laser disc.
The picture quality is pretty good and slightly better than the laser disc. The source print used is very good, but not great. There are some specks but they are rather few. The black levels are good and I didn't notice any artifacts during the dark scenes. Different types of films stocks are used for the various effects in this movie so sometimes the grain is more noticeable than others even though the transfer over all is a little soft. The aspect ratio of the DVD is 1.85:1 but the movie was filmed 1.66:1. I don't have the import DVD's to compare the screen composition to see what aspect ratio they have. I have heard that 1.85:1 is the intended ratio for the film from somebody who has heard Wong Kar Wai speak at a film showing.
Wong Kar Wai's films almost always have a strong soundtrack. This is no exception. The audio is mixed well and is Dolby Digital 2.0. The music and sound effects don't overpower the vocals but there are times when the dialogue sounds too harsh. The sound is definitely lacking when compared to the laser disc but this is the best version of this movie on DVD at this time.
The subtitles are yellow and are easy to read. They are timed well with what is being said and don't contain any spelling errors. There is one time were a line of dialogue goes by without a translation but for the most part the subtitles are fine.
The extras consists of the theatrical trailer, HK trailer, and Quentin Tarrantino intro/wrap up. There are also trailers for IRON MONKEY, JET LI'S THE ENFORCER (MY FATHER IS A HERO), BEST OF THE BEST 3, BEST OF THE BEST 4, MIGHTY PEKING MAN, and SWITCHBLADE SISTERS. The introduction from Tarrantino is interesting if you are not familiar with Hong Kong movies. None of the extras are anamorphic.
CHUNGKING EXPRESS is an endearing movie. The visuals and music combine to take the viewer to another place. The music will stick in your head for at least a week after viewing this film. Thankfully, Miramax considers this an "art" film and hasn't dubbed it in English. If you are new to Hong Kong films and want to see something beyond akimbo gunfights and Kung Fu, CHUNGKING EXPRESS is the perfect movie to see.
Miramax has made several poor choices in how it presents Asian movies in the past but they get CHUNGKING EXPRESS right. This is probably due to it being under the Rolling Thunder label. If only Tarrantino's involvement produced an uncut IRON MONKEY! Please note that all other Hong Kong movies released by Miramax on DVD up until this time have been cut and released without their original soundtracks.
When all is said and done, if you have the laser disc, the only reason to upgrade to the DVD would be for the anamorphic picture. If you don't have the laser disc, this is the version to get.
For reviews of more Wong Kar Wai movies, click here.
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