Chungking Express question

Chungking Express is a Chinese film directed by Hong Kar Wai, it is a film about relationships which all take place in a multi-national urban environment which is highly populated - this greatly impacts the characters choices throughout the film.

Many characters in this film follow the urban stories conflict of not having an identity. Cop #223 and #663 both lack identity as they are referred to by their cop numbers and not their birth names also Fayes uncle continually gets #663's number wrong and when he is corrected he states "I don't really care".  The men in Chungking Expresspossess slightly different characteristics to the men in other urban stories like La Haine and City Of God, the men are very oblivious and cannot help themselves move forward after their old relationships. The women in Chungking Express are alot more proactive and in control of their lives - the women even sometime try to help the men an example for this is Faye with cop #663. During the scene where Faye is cleaning the windows and floor at the food stand, the camera positions itself so that you as a viewer are looking through the glass at #663, Faye cleans the glass over where he is standing as a way of cleansing him from his negative past. Later in this scene she also mops the floor around him in the same context. The police officers are self absorbed and isolated this could be a metaphor the Hong Kong at the end of the twentieth century. 

Film techniques used are often referring to the characters state of mind in the scene, for example cop #633 has a flash back of his old girlfriend and it can be shown that he misses the old relationship because he continually irons her old air hostess uniform. Smudge motion is used during the scene where Faye and #663 are at the food stand, this technique shows that the characters are lacking power and the ability to move forward with their lives, this can be related to the theme of isolation within the highly populated city. 

Towards the end of the movie #633 places all his old girlfriends things in boxes but still keeps the boxes in his house this shows that he still has not changed and the next sequence of things he does all follow this theory. He goes to the California bar to meet Faye and asks for loose change three times in the scene. The referencing of change is very prominent as it literally means physical change, this scene shows that he has changed due to his new clothing but it also shows he has not changed completely due to smudge motion being used. Later in the store scene where he finds his ex girlfriend when asked how he is he replies "still the same" referencing there is no change in his character.The symbolism of a new chapter in the movie is referenced by the sound of an aeroplane, the sound signifies a new journey for a character and is used multiple times throughout the movie.