Chungking Express

Wong Kar-Wai’s movie tells two loosely interlinked stories, both about lovelorn Hong Kong cops who get involved with women who are wrong for them. In the first, Takeshi Kaneshiro tries to pick up Brigitte Lin in a late-night bar, unaware she’s a big-time heroin smuggler who’s spent the evening hunting down some absconding drug couriers. In the second, the boyish Faye Wang gets a crush on Tony Leung Chiu-wai and starts breaking into his apartment to redecorate it while he’s out. This is what Godard movies were once like: fast, hand-held, funny and very, very catchy. The year’s zingiest visit to Heartbreak Hotel.