Urban Stories - Chungking Express
Extract from: Identity and 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, WKW 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?
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