1990s

N°223

The number 223 appears as a recurring motif in Wong Kar-wai’s work, embodied by police officer no. 223 in Chungking Express and angel no. 223 in Fallen Angels. Just like the character Su Li-zhen in the 1960s, the character no. 223, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro, shows continuity between the two films. However, no. 223 in Chungking Express is a talkative police officer, while in Fallen Angels he mysteriously becomes mute.

In Chungking Express, police officer no. 223 embodies a modern mentality by trying to quantify and control every aspect of his life with precise numbers. He attempts to give meaning to the uncertainty around him, clinging to rational measurements as a way to master the chaos of his existence. 

According to Wong Kar-wai, this obsession echoes in the irony of the canned goods the character collects. As the director pointed out : “ What I found ironic is that these cans, intended to preserve the freshness of food, have an expiration date. Even freshness can expire.“ *. This remark underscores the ephemerality of everything, even what is meant to last, illustrating the fleeting nature of the modern world in which the characters try to find meaning.

Fallen Angels was originally intended as the third story in Chungking Express, but due to its length, Wong Kar-wai decided to make it a separate film. However, Chungking Express and Fallen Angels share a mirrored relationship in many aspects: tone, space, and the representation of love, etc. These two films complement each other like two sides of the same coin: one is bright and vibrant, while the other is dark and melancholic. 

Together, they create a complete portrait of Hong Kong, a city in perpetual motion, where light and shadow, energy and solitude coexist.

1997

Happy Together, Wong Kar-wai’s last film of the 1990s, was not filmed in Hong Kong but in Buenos Aires, the city farthest from Hong Kong. This choice of setting reflects a combination of factors. 

On the one hand, Wong Kar-wai was deeply influenced by Argentine literature, particularly by Manuel Puig, whose works Heartbreak Tango and The Buenos Aires Affair left a lasting impression on him. On the other hand, with 1997 being the year of Hong Kong’s handover to China, the political uncertainty felt by Hongkongers led Wong Kar-wai to geographically distance his creations, though his mind remained rooted in his hometown.

Wong Kar-wai himself explained: “I filmed Happy Together in Buenos Aires, far from my city, but the film is only about it“. **

He felt a political constraint related to the approaching handover in June 1997 and wanted to avoid the notion that his film had to directly resonate with that event. 

Yet, the more he tried to distance himself from it, the more Hong Kong’s influence on his work became apparent. He acknowledged that, despite the distance, his deep connection to the city resurfaced: “For the first time, I understood that the way of life in Hong Kong had permeated me so deeply that my feelings for it had to resurface, no matter where I was “.**

Thus, in Happy Together, Hong Kong appears through a subtle reversal, an inversion of perspectives, reflecting the omnipresence of the city in Wong Kar-wai’s imagination, even at the far end of the world. Buenos Aires, while being a space of exile, also becomes a metaphor for the concerns, uncertainties, and melancholy that the director experiences in response to the transformation of Hong Kong.