Chungking Express, directed by Wong Kar-wai, is a fantastic movie with a fascinating visual style. Upon first watch, Kar-wai’s fast-paced, handheld cinematography may seem chaotic. But if we take a closer look we’ll see that there is a method to Kar-wai’s madness and that the chaos of certain sequences is clearly controlled.
Before reading any further, I highly suggest watching this scene several times. (And if you have the time, maybe even the whole movie). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FrNkCk9niU&t=2s
We begin with a jarring shot that introduces our main character and sense of urgency. The camera (handheld) glides quickly past several faces before finding the woman in the glasses. How do we know this is the main character? Well one, she is the only woman in the scene so far and is conspicuously dressed. But more on the topic of framing the camera actually begins to follow her instead of just gliding past like it does the extras.
Next, we get a series of shots that indicate her POV as she navigates the crowd. Framing-wise, Kar-wai keeps the camera handheld and at eye level to tell us we are looking through someone else’s eyes. We also get characters looking directly into the camera and making eye contact with the audience, which helps cue the audience to understand that these are POV shots. These shots are also all medium shots, shot with focal lengths similar to the human eye (maybe a little longer). These POV shots are interjected with cutaways to our main character. Kar-wai chooses to keep the camera handheld and at eye level when tracking our main character. Why does he do this? I think, for a few reasons. He’s trying to create a claustrophobic and fast-paced scene and doesn’t want to break up the rhythm. More importantly, he wants to establish her character as nervous and always looking over her shoulder(which she literally does a few times). What better to put the audience on edge than to make them feel like someone is following our main character? By putting the camera at eye level Kar-wai cleverly achieves that effect.
Our character seems to get where she’s going the camera stops tracking her and is cut off but a curtain, ending the scene. Then we get a break from the action in the form of a title screen and some establishing shots. These simply get us acquainted with our setting. These establishing long shots also allow Kar-wai to transition into another sequence that is very similar to the last without confusing the audience. I would have liked to cover the second part of this intro but for the sake of the length of this blog post, I’ll end my ramblings here.
Thanks for reading!
-Luca Wagner
Medium eye-level shot following her
Medium shot of her getting in the elevator. Helps pass time and takes us to a new area.
Part of a series of Medium and Medium closeup shots of passersby making eye contact with us/camera/main character. Well call this shot A
Shot B
Shot C
Shot D
Shot E
Back to the tracking shots of our main character (Medium). Still at eye level and still handheld. This keeps the rhythm and tension of the scene going.
A Medium Closeup from behind.
She turn around… are we following her, or is someone else?
Medium of her walking away.
Medium of her entering a room. This time the camera stops tracking and that is how we know she’s reached her destination.
The curtain draws, the scene ends.
Titles.
Long Shots of the city establish the setting further and gives us a break from the action.
Hi Luca, I like the way you explain how the shots demonstrate different scenes