FM4 - Urban Stories: Chungking Express

Wong Kar-Wai has continually been fascinated with the concept of rootlessness, or perhaps more accurately, displacement: orphans, adoptees, migrants - they are central to many of his films. And whilst we can look at Faye Wong’s character and say she is the youth of Hong Kong, with an identity built on that foundation, Wong Kar-Wai has given her a curiously migratory outlook. Not just in the sense that she wants to go to California - even when she is back she is ready to leave again for destination unknown. And when she is at Tony’s apartment, there is an almost cuckoo-like usage of his home-space: she is in her element, although she knows that she can’t stay for long. 

One can see a parallel with the idea of migration and diaspora: a concept known to many Chinese, particularly those in Hong Kong - the place having seen human influxes and outfluxes many times. And at the time of the film, this idea was all the more pressing considering the approach of 1997. In the face of this, what is Faye’s identity? Where is her home (in all senses of the word) where she can uncover her internal identity? Or is she inherently a migrant; both rootless and unencumbered? Whilst Faye is the surface of these concepts, we can apply the same question to the Indian workers we see in the background - by bringing their culture with them, have they brought their home, or is that something they have left behind? Are they now rootless - do they have something to return to, or are they looking ahead?

Extract taken from here: