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Times, dates and numbers – the signature of Chungking Express – are mainly what the film revolves around. Time has always been a significant part of Wong Kar Wai’s films, not to mention in Chungking Express. The obsessive interest in time, dates and numbers led the film to be read as an allegory of the 1997 Hong Kong handover, just like other Hong Kong films made after the 1980s. These are thought to point towards the allegorical theme even though there is no direct mention of the handover in the film. But is the film really made to be an allegory? Indeed in the film, there are numerous references to time and dates, one particularly significant date being 1 May 1994. In fact, the first story revolves itself around this date. To the two protagonists in the first story, 1 May 1994 is a turning point, an expiration date for both of them. To the blonde, 1 May 1994 is the deadline given to her to rectify the situation (recover the lost drugs) or get killed. To cop 223, 1 May 1994 is both his birthday and the date marking a moth since his girlfriend left him on April Fools’ Day – an expiration date for their relationship. Besides having close-ups of the expiration date of canned food, the film also has close-up shots of clocks. In obvious example would be the digital calendar clock, which is usually filmed as tome or dates are changing. Voice-over monologues of cop 223 also makes references to time, for example, “57 hours later, I fell in love with this woman” and “6 hours later, she fell in love with another man”.
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