I have to admit a particular fondness for Wong Kar-Wai's CHUNGKING EXPRESS – it’s one of my absolute favourites.

The film concerns two lovelorn policemen who frequent the Midnight Express fast food shop in separate stories and how they cope with their situation. The first involves He Qiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who has split from his girlfriend May and meets up with and “falls in love” with a double-crossed drug trafficker in a blond wig and sunglasses (a completely unrecognisable Brigitte Lin), while the second concerns Police Officer 663 (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) and his break-up with his flight attendant girlfriend. He’s so cut up about his loss that he doesn’t even notice when Faye (Faye Wong), a worker at the Midnight Express who develops a serious crush on him starts doing a makeover on his flat.

CHUNGKING EXPRESS was made out of a direct reaction to Wong Kar-Wai’s previous film ASHES OF TIME, which was so arduous to make and so time-consuming that he wanted to make a more spontaneous “quickie” piece. Telling cinematographer Christopher Doyle that he was “too slow” in setting up shots, Wong wanted this film to look more “like CNN” and the result is a much grittier, more realistic feel that suits the urban setting perfectly.

There are a number of things that make CHUNGKING EXPRESS great, but foremost among them is the central characters (with the possible exception of Brigitte Lin, whose character is deliberately laconic and virtually expressionless). Firstly, we have He Qiwu who develops an unhealthy fascination with pineapples and has worse chat-up lines than I do. His misguided notion of falling in love with the first woman he sees in a bar turns out rather well given the circumstances when he runs into a female drug runner. And then there’s 663, a cop who is so much in denial about his heartbreak he seems to believe instead that the inanimate objects in his flat are unhappy, and proceeds to attempt to cheer them up. But it’s the pixie-like Faye that wins the show. She is seen eyeing up 663 in a series of shots and eventually hatches a plan to visit his flat while he’s not there. While there, she changes his toiletries, waters his plants, changes his fish and buys him new stuffed toys – all of which goes over 663’s oblivious head. Faye Wong plays the part of the smitten but kooky Faye to understated perfection, from her “measuring up” of 663’s ex-girlfriend to the delights of finding one of his hairs in his unmade bed. In the cold light of day she is a devious, manipulative cow who shows probably every sign of being a psychotic stalker, even going as far as to drug 663’s water, but it’s impossible not to get swept up in her childlike joy and genuine good nature.

As with most Wong Kar-Wai films, the soundtrack is as important as any other aspect, and CHUNGKING EXPRESS has some great tunes. The one that everyone always remembers is The Mamas & The Papas’ “California Dreamin’”, but also worth mentioning are Dennis Brown’s “Things in Life” all through the first story, Dinah Washington’s “What a Difference a Day Made” in the steamy scene with 663’s soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend and Faye Wong’s Cantonese language version of the Cranberries’ “Dreams”.

I’ve said it a million times, but it bears repeating: if you are any kind of fan of cinema and you haven’t seen CHUNGKING EXPRESS, you really should make it a priority; and if you’re a fan of Hong Kong cinema and haven’t seen it, then there’s really no excuse. It’s a joy to watch (and rewatch) and although it was meant to be a lesser film in Wong’s oeuvre, I’d choose this in preference to one of his more serious films any day.