Cageman vs
Chungking Express
I watched the 2.5 hrs long letterboxed low-res Laserdisc Rip of Cageman with an open mind.
The first thing I noticed was Grandpa (Victor Wong) from 3 Ninjas is in this. The second thing I noticed was how good the jazzy soundtrack was, the third thing I noticed was how the camera moves through the tight cluttered spaces of this Hong Kong cage hostel, following the characters and making us feel like we are in this space with them.
The story is about a poor working-class community living in a hostel where their rooms are cages and the threat of the property developers who want to kick them out of the space and tear it down. The symbolism of the cage is almost ironic as they find freedom and closeness in their friendship and the community that has been created within this space. In the final scenes, their cages are broken and they are taken away seemingly to jail.
The true cage of poverty is the instability of housing and the lack of choice and agency, the illusion of freedom that comes from living under capitalism. The final shot finds some of the characters visiting a zoo, staring at the caged animals, from across the space they notice their friend Mao. They yell out "Mao!", perhaps craving a return to Maoist ideals after years of Hong Kong colonial rule and Dengist neoliberalism in mainland China.
Chunking Express rejects the neorealist approach of Cageman for the stylish romanticism that Wong Kar-Wai is so good at. The voyeuristic camera angles, the mysterious women and longing men, the inexplicably fractured two-part narrative. There is something so unstable about this film and yet it is so incredibly comforting and warm. A melancholic dream of slow-motion blurry streetlights and kitchen smoke. There is a beauty in WKW movies that is unmatched, the joie de vivre and eccentricity of the characters return me to a time when I still believed in love and romance.
Both these films are about finding connections with others despite the harshness and confusing world we live in and both of them show us that salvation will always be found in people and community.
Verdict:
Chungking Express with its stylised dream-like melancholy moves on, but Cageman is probably the more important movie.
