The fact that she returns from California to link up with the cop implies that she is more in love with him than she is with California. One might be inclined to think, since Faye is so obsessed with the idea of California, that she might stay there for good once she leaves Hong Kong. The song’s opening observation of “All the leaves are brown / And the sky is grey…I’d be safe and warm / If I was in L.A.” implies a disillusionment with life in Hong Kong (The Mamas and the Papas). The song naturally re-establishes Faye as an idealistic figure, since she thinks constantly of other places she would like to go and other lives she would like to live. Of course, one cannot discuss Chungking Express without talking about “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and the Papas, Faye’s favorite song, which plays repeatedly throughout the film’s second half. This eccentric worldview is seen throughout the film’s second half, but it is perhaps most obvious during this apartment cleaning montage, since it is accented by the Cranberries’ song about a dreamlike romantic relationship. Faye does not think about the consequences of breaking and entering into a cop’s apartment, and sees it as a purely romantic gesture. The song’s title, “Dreams,” illustrates Faye’s idealistic (and often unrealistic) view of reality. An ominous musical score plays throughout the first half, giving us a sense of the suspense and danger at hand when the mysterious girl crosses paths with the idealistic He Qiwu, but the second half contains concrete examples of Wong Kar-wai’s ability to use music to convey the traits of his characters and the political climate of his setting.Īctress Faye Wong’s cover of “Dreams” by the Cranberries plays during the scene when Faye invades and cleans the cop’s apartment. Popular music figures heavily into the viewing experience of Wong Kar-wai’s 1994 romance Chungking Express, particularly in the second half of the film, which concerns the relationship between the cop and Faye.