Analyze+This.

Chungking Express Chungking Express narrates two different stories: both of the main characters try to get over their past lovers and they both encounter new girls while they are struggling. The director introduces the theme of happiness will eventually come to you after all the sadness; People get lost in the adventure of finding true love, even though they might encounter loneliness, it won’t last long because they will always find their ways back. Lighting: The color of this film is sometimes vibrant and colorful with all the neon lights. There are also times that the film has a blue tone color. The vibrant color contributes to the theme by suggesting that the city is busy: It seems like everyone is having fun in this city but the truth is there are people undergoing loneliness, which is represented by the shadows and silhouettes. This contrasting effect exaggerates the struggling process and the theme of everyone has his/her own loneliness. Also,the blue tone shots of the film gives a melancholy feeling which makes the audience resonate with the struggling process. Sound:There’s an important song called California Dreaming, which associates with the second story of the film. Faye always turns up the volume when she’s listening to this song because she likes this song and she wants to go to California so desperately. The song here foreshadows her decision at the end. She chooses to go to the real California instead of the California bar, and the audience understand from her love towards this song. Therefore, the song here acts like a foreshadow and it also contributes to Faye’s personality which is free-spirited. Mise-en-scene: The costume choice in the film is also very interesting. For example, the girl killer always wears a rain coat and sunglasses. She’s not wearing these for the weather but to cover her self. She doesn’t want people to know her, so they can’t get anything from her eyes(since she’s wearing sunglasses). Her dark side and sensitive side have been covered by the glasses and the rain coat. This sense of protection again proves that not everyone is having fun in the busy city. People are undergoing different lives, but as soon as they let go the dark sides, they will get relieve(at the end she takes off her rain coat). Editing: There are scenes which the characters are in slow motion and the rest of the people are in fast motion. This choice is very effective because it shows the loneliness of the characters and how they are separated from the others. This technique is just like saying the main characters(two polices) are struggling so much that their worlds seem to be slower than the others, and they are suffering from this slowness. Director adds in this trick in order to make the audience feel the same pain the main characters are going through which helps us realize the theme as the ending approaches: if we can let go the past, happiness will come find us. Cinematography: Throughout the film, there are couple canted shots and i find that interesting because directors don’t usually choose to include canted shots in a love story. I think for here, these shots really emphasize the loneliness and the separations of the main characters. Although they live in a busy city, they are not enjoying their lives as what people might assume. The director is trying to tell the audience that everyone, no matter where he/she lives or who is around, loneliness can always happen to them. The director uses lighting, sound, mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography to support the theme. The audience resonate as the characters are struggling. Therefore, when they finally get over with the sadness: the audience, just like the characters, will also realize when you let go the past, the happiness will come to you.

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