The End of Chunking Express

Chunking Express basically uses a handheld camera to make each scene dynamic and lively, which conveys that the lives in the film are hectic and scattered. The ending scene of Chunking Express is pretty calmed down compared to the other scenes. The reason is because the ending mainly deals with shots and reversed shots of two people, Faye and Cop 633, which is regarded as parallel to their first encounter of them.

The scene shows dialogues between Faye and Cop 633 at the same place that they had their first meeting, but many things have changed. As the time has gone by, Faye has become a stewardess with longer hair and Cop is running the café after retirement. However, there are also commonalities between the times, which create a parallel and remind the audiences of the past issues of characters.

First, even though the person of wearing uniform changed, there is still one who works in a uniform. Compared to the owner of the café, the stewardess and a Cop are constantly traveling, however, they still have to follow many rules. Working at the café seems more static, but actually it is much more flexible because owners are able to make their own rules. The change of the person in uniform consequently leads to the change of the person who visited and the other who greeted.

In addition, the act of Faye becoming a stewardess reveals another commonality since the cop 633’s ex-girl friend is also a stewardess. The cop falls in love with Faye, who the cop thought to be a totally different kind of person, but it reminds viewers that love is actually something repetitive and similar to another. Though each love seems superficially different and original, the way people meet, love and break is essentially alike. The end shows how human li...

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... long shot, the camera crosses the 180-degree axis to show all the shots and reversed shots during the last dialogues. Breaking the rule of axis helps to change the atmosphere of the scene and implies the real ending shot is coming. As the atmosphere changes, the Cop also becomes more active. When the Cop brings the map of California that Faye previously gave him, the camera shows a close up of the map. This close up reveals that the Cop has kept the map thinking about Faye, which makes Faye feel touched and respond to him. The camera takes high angles at the Cop’s perspective and then low angles at Faye’s stand. These shots make audiences view Faye to be shy and cute and focus on Cop’s gaze toward Faye with love. The scene ends with a close up of the audio, which played the theme song, California dreaming, at their first encounter, implying their new relationships.