hi, welcome to my second weekly thing. this monday evening i'd like to talk about a movie i saw earlier this week that's really stuck with me, Chungking Express.
Listen while you Read!
there's something intoxicating nowadays about the mundane for us 20-somethings. maybe it's envy, or simplicity; it's hard to look at the world we live in and find much to be excited about at face-value. in a society increasingly anxious about its future, gems like wong kar-wai's Chungking Express reveal the fantastic wonder hidden in the noise of everyday living. the film is comprised of two stories, loosely connected through character interaction, but universal in themes of love and estrangement. for the initiated, it's the closest we'll ever get to Haruki Murakami in film (if not, yell at me and tell me what else is), so if only for that reason check it out.
between the hapless detective's ritual of "jogging until there's no more water in [my] body to waste on tears" and the beat-cop's pep-talks with his lover's forgotten tchotchkes (btw, both the dudes are cops, and that is sorta confusing in the middle), the film oozes with an intimate familiarity for those survivors of the silent break-up. no closure, and no chance of returning to the way things were, these characters wander the no-man's lands of their (now) singular lives, carrying ghosts in tins of pineapple and plastic airplanes.
after recently watching "your name.", i sat aghast in my theater-seat; could i ever experience the Greatest Love i possibly could outside of some Fantastic Intervention (the threads of fate unwinding, interdimensional travel, some special revelation)? how could i be sure in any relationship that wasn't shattering the earth at every moment with Inexplicable Love? thankfully, the afterglow wore off and the Borgesian garden of forking paths that my emotions had wrought began to unfurl before me, leading to a simple, cool clearing wherein sat this film.
Chungking Express is a reminder that the lives we lead are beautiful, that they are lovely, and that even a simple love can be a great love.
my verdict: watch Chungking Express. (i watched in on FilmStruck, which i just highly recommend in general if you like film)
No comments:
Post a Comment