Chungking Express

...a film of two parts, following two distinct threads as neon-lit, night-time stories bleed into each other.

It's not a movie for casual audiences, and it may not reveal all its secrets the first time through, but it announces Wong Kar-Wai, its Hong Kong-based director, as a filmmaker in the tradition of Jean-Luc Godard.

Despite the liveliness of Chungking Express's first half, it's this second story that catapults it into the company of Wong's best films.

This visuallyelectric film consists of two loosely connected but cleverly rhymed stanzas...