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“Chungking Express” is a 1994 Chinese drama directed by Wong Kar-wai and divided into two separate stories – both heavily influenced by the French New Wave. The edits could be described with the same adjectives: playful and romantic, as Breathless is briskly paced and slowly paced all at once.
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Breathless is famous for its unsettling jump cuts that jar the viewer, while subtly drawing them closer to the characters, Patricia and Michel, and their playfully romantic relationship. In one scene on the streets of Paris, the main characters’ voices are nearly drown out by an ambulance. In his film, Godard aimed for a similar quality insisting on natural lighting and natural background noises throughout. Several scenes follow this pattern, giving the film a natural, spontaneous, feel of documentary realism.
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The camera follows the cop hastily as if the camera man is trying to win a race against the cop, not minding the steadiness or accuracy of the shot. I recall a specific shot from Chungking: the nameless Cop 663 sprints into his home after seeing the quirky snack bar worker dancing around his apartment from afar. These techniques rarely follow the traditional “rules” of filmmaking, but are effective in setting a mood unique to films of the New Wave. The characters are nothing special but through certain cinematic techniques can be admired for what they are. In order to truly appreciate the works, the audience must forget everything they know about continuity in edits and cannot expect a conclusion that reveals all, but rather one that is quite ambiguous. Sans cinematic perspective, the two resemble one another simply within their loose plot lines of love and love lost. Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless is a fine example of the film movement and parallels can be drawn between the two films. It is made clear judging from the cinematic stylings of Wong Kar-wai that Chungking Express drew much influence from French New Wave cinema.