Chungking Express (1994)

Wong Kar-wai's *Chungking Express* is a vibrant, bifurcated story of love and loneliness in the heart of 1990s Hong Kong. The film first follows Cop 223, who, reeling from a recent breakup, buys a can of pineapple each day with an expiration date of May 1st, symbolizing the day his love, and his mourning for it, will expire. His lonely nights lead him to cross paths with a mysterious woman in a blond wig, a drug smuggler on the run after a deal goes sour. The film then pivots to another lovelorn officer, Cop 663, who is mired in a quiet heartbreak. His life takes a whimsical turn when a quirky snack bar waitress falls for him and, after his ex-girlfriend leaves a spare key at the counter, begins secretly letting herself into his apartment to clean, redecorate, and incrementally brighten his world. While *Chungking Express* is more famous as a dizzying romance, its inclusion on a list of great crime films is a testament to its brilliant subversion of the genre. The entire first story is a self-contained neo-noir vignette, complete with a femme fatale, a botched drug deal, and a pervasive sense of urban paranoia. However, director Wong Kar-wai uses this criminal underworld not for plot, but for mood and theme. The protagonists are cops, yet their true conflicts are internal, with crime serving as the chaotic, indifferent backdrop to their search for connection. The film's iconic, dreamlike cinematography and kinetic editing create an atmosphere where the city itself feels both romantic and dangerous. It masterfully redefines what a crime film can be, shifting the focus from the "who" and "what" of a crime to the emotional fallout of living on the fringes of a city's neon-lit underbelly.