Chungking Express (1994) and how a low budget film can be a strategic move in your career.

What's better than having an idea for a film?

for me the logical answer would be to have the budget to make it, and that was the case for a 36 year old Wong Kar Wai in the early 90's, whom stressed after directing the big budget film Ashes of Time (3-4M USD approx.), an extremely demanding production where he had to wrangle and push forward a team under the heat of the northwestern desert of China for over a year, one would think a deserved vacation is okay after and to many of us this would be the achievement of a lifetime, for Wong Kar Wai it was just another key moment in his career. Coming from a background in television writing, commercial screenplays, and critical acclaim with his two previous films, As Tears Go By (1988) and Days of Being Wild (1990) it was clear that he was someone trusted by the industry, the weight of a feature film could fall on his shoulders, a trust built upon years of original screenwriting and commitment to the hard work, no one could predict that the release of his first blockbuster would not be the success they were expecting, Wong Kar Wai found himself in the need to activate the creative drive within him in order to prove himself that he could go back to the essentials and make a quality piece.

The unmet expectations of this big project was the right motivation to go out to the streets of Hong Kong and capture the feeling of the city, the melancholy of romantic loners and the nostalgia of longing for love, the love that happens in a second, teaming up with a young Christopher Doyle into a world where there's a narrator, where we are followed by a low shutter speed camera allowing us to catch slow glimpses of the colours and the people that are being left behind, this atmosphere is felt all throughout the movie, with some slow pauses to comment, and feed into a plot that isn't complex, but its intimate thus making it feel closer than anything else could. Dangling in the beauty of an ordinary life in an extraordinary city, where every story then feels wondrous and worth of being followed, because how could we not be interested in all of this characters if we see them dancing, we see them at their jobs interacting with their crushes.

it's a timeless story that depicts life as any of us could be living it; sad, in love, awaiting for someone, broken up, hating our job and wanting to look for a better life and leave everything behind... I would dare to say that it wouldn't even matter if you don't have the subtitles on for this movie, the characters and the locations themselves take you through a journey that your senses will put together just by enjoying the journey. I chose to talk about this movie because it's a perfect example for good administration of resources, with an approximate budget of 160k-900k USD Chungking Express enters into the list of those movies that were made under a million dollars (one more one less) and this is why it's my entry for the contest. My argument to all of this is a matter of stakes, because I'd argue that Wong Kar Wai at 35 knew very well what he was doing, and if I put myself in his shoes (and I invite you to share your opinion about this in the comments), maybe after a good two completed independent hundred percent creative freedom films I could considerate a big studio film, you know to make sure your family has a stable financial situation, and in a market like the 90's China, where action stories, effects, and linear stories were the fun expected thing to spend your money on at the theatre, as a director one couldn't miss the chance to secure the bag like that. Then boom, production is as dreary as expected and as mentioned before, it was just perfect fuel to remind a creative that the substance (no pun intended) of a project is not in the conventional stories, and in believing in what is expected from one, and Wong Kar Wai responded to this pressure with an abstract yet approachable, aesthetically charge 95 minute piece of filmmaking. A work that has gone around the world, and that for many is much more a reference to Wong Kar Wai than Ashes of Time will ever be, that is the proof that when you have the right drive, at the right moment of your career, and you utilize that momentum and those contacts to make a group of other creatives to believe in your creative vision, who knows maybe more credited people or people with more technical capacities than oneself, that can build a work that nobody believed could've been possible, even Tony Leung Chiu Wai commented on how he didn't understand what the movie was even about, but that they all enjoyed being there on set dancing and improvising, undoubtedly an assertive move from Wong Kar Wai to allow stars to improvise and take the wheel on scenes and the story of the movie itself.

Personally, I feel like that would be the dream experience to any of us who love making movies with friends, and even though Chungking Express was made with an all-star cast, a director that already knew filmmaking and the career momentum of an emerging-to-established filmmaking, the project was lifted as a side meal for everyone in it, letting themselves be free and not letting production limitations to affect the flow of the production, it only took 23 days to shoot it! the proof that if you put your student loan savings, and maybe selling your family car amongst other legal sources to produce your film, and of course if you commit to the teamwork and trust it entails you could end up in festivals like: Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Berlin International Film Festival, they took home some Hong Kong Film Awards for the best directing, acting and editing and a Golden Horse (Taiwan). A known fun fact is that Quentin Tarantino loves this movie, so he championed it and helped distribute it in the west.

a film like this is enough to put someone in the worldwide spot, and with the previous credits behind him it was clear that this is someone different we're talking about here, I say this because after this he went on to make all critical and innovative masterpieces, to my personal liking and to many his movies are among the top 90 films of all time, it is the proof that commitment and creative drive end up in masterpieces when the right amount of effort and attention to detail is put into a project. So to be honest I couldn't think of a better reference to a low budget film this Run N Gun Season. If you're participating I hope you have fun coming up with a new story, for me its not about making the biggest most expensive movie, but to make the one that will keep you and your team motivated .