Chungking Express Analysis

The two films that I shall be discussing in this essay are, ‘Water (2005)’, directed by Deepa Mehta and ‘Chungking Express (1994)’, directed by Wong Kar-wai. ‘Water’ and ‘Chungking Express’ are two very well-known Asian films. However, they are both set in two completely different era’s in time. Firstly, ‘Water’ is set in a 1930’s India still under British rule and the second ‘Chungking Express’, in a postmodern city. We can see comparisons in both films in terms of gender. However, there are also many contrasts between these two films in terms of the representation of gender. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the representations of gender in both ‘Water’ and ‘Chungking Express’.
In the opening scene of Deepa Mehta’s ‘Water’,
The women in this film can be seen to be strong, independent women. ‘Chungking Express’ does not conform to the expected gender roles of the men being macho and strong and the women being dependent on the man. The film provides a new perspective that highlights the true quirky behaviour of the woman in a postmodern world. As Gina Marchetti says, ‘Chungking Express can be read as a commentary on contemporary Hong Kong’ (Marchetti, 2002:290). I find this completely true in the context of the representation of gender in this film. In many Asian films, women are represented as the weak gender that is dependent on men. However, in this film we see that the male characters are seen as being the weaker gender. In the first story, we see cop, He Qiwu heartbroken after his breakup with his girlfriend, May. Every day he buys a tin of pineapples with an expiration date of May the 1st, his birthday. He gives himself a month to be reunited with May or to move on. However, when the month is up he feels that he will be reunited with his love or that he will expire forever. We can see that the character of He Qiwu is completely dependent on love and women. He feels his life will end if he doesn’t find love within a month after his breakup. He is a very lonely individual that needs the love of a woman to survive. He is so
Both films are set in very different times in Asia, ‘Water’ being in the thirties and ‘Chungking Express’ set in more modern times of the nineties. I feel that the women in these two films are represented in completely different ways. ‘Water’ shows a huge divide in gender and shows widowed women completely segregated from society because they are now without a husband. In complete contrast in ‘Chungking Express’, the male characters are seen as being the weaker of the two genders and the women being the more free spirited, independent gender. However, as I mentioned before, does the fact that the women in ‘Chungking Express’ have never been married or widowed before contribute to them being more independent? If any of these characters were widowed would we see a complete change in their character? I feel that we would see a difference. Personally, I feel that there is a complete contrast in the representation of gender in these two films based purely on the fact that they are set in to completely different periods of time. One in an oppressed country still at the time under British rule and one set in a postmodern city that is rapidly changing all the