Critical Film Reviews
Film reviews are a critical and insightful exploration of the cinematic world, offering viewers guidance and fresh perspectives on both the latest releases and timeless classics.
Through in-depth analysis of storytelling, performances, direction, and technical elements, reviews not only inform but also engage readers in a deeper appreciation of the art of filmmaking.
Whether you’re a casual moviegoer or a seasoned cinephile, my reviews aim to provide thoughtful critiques that inspire conversation and enrich your viewing experience!
CHUNGKING EXPRESS
Mobile Framing
Creates a Sense of Dreaminess to Reveal the Hidden Emotions​
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“Every day we brush past so many other people. People we may never meet… or people who may become close friends” (Chungking Express, 1994 ). The film’s name is a combination of the names of two of the main locations where the story takes place: “Chungking” for Chungking Mansions and “Express” for the fast-food restaurant, Midnight Express. In Chungking Express, love seems to be a very nebulous existence that will pass like fast food or sprout quietly like a coincidence of misadventure. Director Wong Kar-wai uses repetitive mobile framing in his films to depict the subtle emotional changes between the protagonists. The use of mobile framing and handheld camera describes the trance and wonder of wandering through a bustling, mixed-up city, passing countless strangers. These unstable shots resemble the state of mind when people fall in love, like a slight intoxication or a world of dreams, triggering the audience’s imagination about the hidden love. In Chungking Express, mobile framing is a crucial stylistic element used to create a sense of dreaminess and unreality in the urban society to disclose the implicit emotions and loves under people’s elaborate camouflage.
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The film’s first footage is a mobile framing tracking shot, which follows the blonde woman through the crowd of people, appearing to be avoiding the sight of someone. With a slow shutter and step printing, the mobile handheld camera makes it more shaky, blurred, and indistinct. But at the same time, this incoherent shot is a more accurate portrayal of the mood of the moment, accurately depicting the mixed crowd in the Chungking Mansions, rendering a tense atmosphere, and allowing the audience to feel the inner emotional turmoil of the blonde woman visually. The second mobile framing shot follows, and it is also a very classic scene in Chungking Express, where He Qiwu is chasing a prisoner in a crowded area. He Qiwu is running fast in a slow-moving crowd, and the remnants of the people in the foreground of the screen and He Qiwu in the center of the screen form a stark contrast in movement. The shaking camera also echoes the character’s actions, running, and the tension of being on a mission to catch a prisoner. Immediately afterward, he crashes into the blonde woman, echoing the film’s opening lines. He Qiwu and the blonde woman both pass by a large group of strangers in just a short moment, most of them probably just passing by, but the story of He Qiwu and the blonde woman begins from there.
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Under the normal social order, the relationship between policeman He Qiwu and the blonde woman is like that of hunter and prey in nature. However, after throwing away their social identities, the two meet coincidentally. He Qiwu, a newly broken man, is unable to find a way to share his grief with others and can only kill his painful emotions through physical exertion, such as running. Therefore, arresting the prisoner may become a way for him to release his stress. In the mobile framing shot during the second chase, the camera shakes more intensely, echoing He Qiwu‘s long-suppressed emotions and visualizing his inner turmoil, panic, and confusing feelings. At the same time, the blonde killer who faced trouble in the drug trafficking process and was betrayed by her male partner also has strong emotional turmoil inside her mind. In the scenes where she is being chased, the shaky handheld camera and the chaos of the scene echo the panic in her heart, thus amplifying and enhancing his inner emotions. Through the incongruous and consistent camera language, Wong Kar-wai hints at the impermanence and unpredictability of real life.
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Like the first story, mobile framing serves as an emotional expression in the second story. However, there are some subtle variations from the repressed emotions in the first story, the love in the second story is more prominent, and at the same time, it is not an active, fervent love, but an astringent, tempered love. This subtle love is repetitively conveyed and enhanced through the stylistic element, making Chungking Express more fascinating.
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In the scene where policeman 663 and his flight attendant girlfriend are at home, the camera gradually draws closer and gradually moves faster according to the model airplane in 663‘s hand. This handheld shooting method makes the scene not just placed at a certain angle but more like a flowing state, fitting with the actors’ movements and positions more perfectly, highlighting the ambiguous atmosphere and love in the room. Although 663 usually does not reveal his feelings to others, the hint of mobile framing reveals that he actually desires love very enthusiastically.
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Chungking Express also expresses the emotion of a One-way unrequited love, just like Faye‘s feelings for policeman 663. She steals the key to 663‘s apartment, sneaks into it for cleaning, changing necessities, and even replaces the items left by the stewardess with her own. The shots of Faye in 663‘s home are all very misty and slightly overexposed, and the whole environment is rendered as if in a dream. In Faye‘s fantasy world of two, she was like a little elf traveling through 663‘s house with the music joyfully and animatedly. Similarly, the camera follows the model airplane in Faye‘s hand and her movement, and the speed gradually accelerates with Faye‘s excited mood. This scene depicts the innocence of Faye’s expression, “I love you, it’s not about you,” thereby intensifying Faye‘s love for 663 expressed not by words but by actions. But Faye hides all this love in her heart and 663‘s home.
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The main characters in Chungking Express share a similarity in that they have an inner desire to communicate with the outside world but have no way to talk to others for various reasons. He Qiwu, unable to find a suitable way to talk, can only vent out through running, drinking, and eating canned peaches. 663 and Faye lack the courage to share with others. 663 talks to himself and his household goods at home, while Faye, through various actions, creates opportunities to meet 663 and secretly get to know him, penetrating his life without letting him know. Faye, through various acts, to create a chance encounter, secretly understand 663, infiltrate his life but does not want to back him to find out. Blonde woman is trapped in her sensitive identity, afraid to share her real feelings with others. Therefore, by employing mobile framing and camera movement, the audience can fully realize the honest thoughts of the characters without dialogues. These stylistic elements gradually reveal the real emotions and love hidden inside the characters’ hearts as the film goes on, thus enriching each character’s figures, making them more vivid and more relevant to real life.
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In the film Chungking Express, all the feelings were hazy, whether it was sadness, disappointment, or love. However, these emotions that are not directly expressed by words are all hidden under the director’s camera. Through the mobile framing and camera movement that changes with the emotions, the characters’ mental world can seem to be detached from the real world. They no longer need to be defensive and camouflaged to others but can show their real emotions and love. Therefore, in this film, mobile framing serves a crucial role in providing a safe place for the characters to express their true emotions and loves without disguised and reservation, rendering the whole film emotionally abundant and comprehensive.
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
How Close-up Shots Express Love, Trust, and Resilience in
If Beale Street Could Talk
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“I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love, through glass” (If Beale Street Could Talk, 2018). It seems like a simple sentence, but it reveals the drastic changes that Tish and Fonny would face in their lives. In If Beale Street Could Talk, the repetitive close-up shots of Tish and Fonny meticulously reflect their various and sincere sentiments when facing different situations, emphasizing the resilience of Tish and Fonny in the face of injustice and life’s frustrations while still staying with each other.
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By employing close-up shots and selective focus, the director allows the audience to focus more on the facial expressions and emotional changes of the actors. The scenes of Tish visiting Fonny in prison occur repeatedly, and as the plot develops, their feelings also undergo variations when they meet. The repeated scenes of prison visits form a pattern, laying an implicit guideline for the whole film. These shots also help the audience better perceive how the emotions of the protagonists are enhanced and changed as the story progresses. In the constant repetition and subtle variations, the close-up shots of the prison visitation serve as a reflection of the protagonists’ mental state in the present time, and the changing emotions drive the development of the story while also expressing the love, trust, and resilience between Tish and Fonny to the fullest.
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At the beginning of the movie, Tish visits Fonny in prison for the first time and informs him that she is pregnant. They both can’t help showing their delight and anticipation. The camera push into a close-up shot, presenting Tish’s face in the frame, and her eyes look ahead anxiously, waiting for Fonny‘s figure to appear. Then she looked at Fonny, full of tenderness and longing. She gently pursed her lips, seemed to want to say but still. This precisely reflects her inner tension and a little excitement. When Fonny was informed of Tish‘s pregnancy, his expression underwent multiple changes, and these variations also revealed his inner mood fluctuations. He first pauses for a moment, then frowns to reflect on what he has heard, showing a mixture of surprise and confusion within his mind. Soon afterward, he burst into laughter, and his eyes seemed to glow with light, hardly concealing his happiness. But after the joy, Fonny realized his current situation and frowned again, worried about whether Tish could be well taken care of and whether he could accompany her.
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In this scene, the director used the selective focus close-up shot to present the actor’s emotions clearly and thoroughly in front of the audience. Selective focus blurs the background, making Tish and Fonny’s faces stand out from the background as if Tish and Fonny are now in their own private, intimate world. But the film is undeniably realistic. The telephone in their hands and the reflections from the glass reveal that their deep love and the excitement of impending parenthood cannot melt the glass that separates them. After a brief moment of intimacy, the alarm mercilessly announces the end of visiting hours. The focus of the camera shifts from Tish‘s face behind the glass to Fonny‘s hand touching the glass. The employment of rack focus pulls them back to reality. Nevertheless, at that time, they were still full of hope for life and wanted to free Fonny, who had been wrongly imprisoned. When everything was just beginning, this young couple had not been worn down by the harshness of reality but was full of hope and confidence, waiting for life to get back on track. The first prison close-up shot sets the tone for the first part of the movie, hope and strive, and also echoes the subsequent scenes of Tish and her family running around looking for help.
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The second time they meet at the prison, they have both experienced some hardships and frustrations in their lives. While Tish‘s attempts to find help are repeatedly rejected, Fonny‘s life in prison is also unsatisfactory. When we meet again, Tish looks a bit nervous, which contains her guilt for failing to help Fonny and her worries about the current situation. Fonny is also hesitant to speak, struggling with whether to complain to Tish about his life. The director uses two symmetrical side-by-side close-up shots to divide Tish and Fonny between the two sides of the prison glass, implicitly indicating their internal disconnection. At the same time, the camera gradually shifts from the side to the front faces of the two protagonists, which enhances the tension. The frontal close-up shots bring out their emotions in the most direct way. By looking directly at Fonny‘s face, the audience can feel as if they are talking to him directly and can empathize with Fonny‘s resentment, anger, and devastation in prison. In addition, the audience can also experience the suffering of Tish‘s helplessness to do nothing about the matter. As Fonny‘s spiritual support, she has to bear not only the great pressure inside her but also the aggravation of being blamed and doubted by her beloved.
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Compared with the first time they met in prison, though they were still in the same place and doing the same acts, their mentality and emotions have gradually changed, from being full of hope at the beginning to gradually falling into anxiety and disappointment. The background of this shot is blurred, but the sound of noisy conversations can still be heard, which intensifies their inner annoyance. This clip allows the film to transition to the second part. After several setbacks, Tish‘s hope is exhausted little by little, leaving only her love for Fonny to support her and continue to strive. Moreover, this clip also reveals Tish‘s difficulties in helping Fonny and the unbearable life in Fonny‘s prison, predicting that things are not going well but continuing to confront many challenges. Despite the fact that they both face the injustice of life and the society to them, their love and mutual encouragement would never change.
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Several more months passed, and Tish was already pregnant with a big belly when they met again. As time wore on, they gradually accepted the current life and reality, no longer complaining but taking “I am doing well” as an incentive to each other to persevere. Fonny, who was waiting for Tish, looked towards the entrance with anticipation, and his eyes were filled with delight. When Tish walked into the room, he couldn’t help laughing out loud with his contemplation. Instead of just nervously discussing the solution to rescue Fonny, they could joke and jest as they used to. They said every word with a smile and greeted each other like a married couple who meet every day.
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Through the shot-reverse shot filming technique, they were as close as if they were communicating face-to-face, without any barriers. But soon, they were dragged back to reality. When Tish was not feeling well, all Fonny could do was anxiously tap on the glass, but nothing could help. The director shoots close-up shots through the stained glass, producing the effect that no matter how close their conversation and their hearts are, there is always an unbreakable barrier between them, and there is no way to ignore its existence. In fact, this way of shooting also suggests the current situation in the protagonist’s lives: Fonny‘s imprisonment has become an established fact, which they cannot change, but accept it forcibly. But a great fortune in misfortune is that they still believe, love, and support each even under challenging situations, and these are their motivations to overcome the obstacles.
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In If Beale Street Could Talk, the three scenes in prison divide the story into three parts. The first time they meet, both Tish and Fonny are still hopefully looking for a way to save Fonny. In the second meeting, they are exhausted by frustration and failure. In the third meeting, they accepted and faced reality readily, just wanting to grasp the present moment and indulge in the world they created by love. These shots are similar but not identical. The close-up shots, which serve as a powerful medium for conveying the actors’ facial expressions, subtly and implicitly reflect the inner thoughts and psychological activities of the two protagonists, thereby setting the tone for the subsequent development of the story.
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In an era when people of color were often treated unjustly, life was certainly tough for this young couple. While Fonny went to jail in place of the actual rapist, his pregnant wife had to pay for the mistake. Looking beyond the appearance to the core of this story, I realized what really moved people. If there is something in the world that could make people desperate but cannot give up, it is only the central concept of this film, love. When their fervent love collided with the cold reality, love did not extinguish but made life warm. Therefore, in If Beale Street Could Talk, the director uses meticulous close-up shots to subtly and effectively portray the love, trust, and resilience of two young people who, in the face of life’s setbacks, never give up and embrace the future together.