Life Through a National Lens: Looking at Setting in Chungking Express and a Separation

The importance of setting in a film can easily fly under the radar in a casual viewer’s mind. Maybe to a burgeoning cinephile, setting is appreciated in a more specific sense. They can analyze how general backdrops may signify the attitudes of the characters and what kind of world they live in, like the foggy and grim atmospheres of a film noir. Other settings are also closely linked with certain genres, like coming-of-age films and high school, as the institution plays a large role in the plot and character development. 

One specific aspect of setting can often give crucial background as to why a film feels and looks the way it does, and how the characters are affected by their environment: the geopolitical context. 

The way a film shows how a specific country operates, whether it’s through society, government, or other factors, can create an impact on the film that would be void if a change in country were to occur. As broad as it sounds, the actual country a film is based in is so much more important than viewers (especially American viewers who are used to movies shot in a Western gaze) realize. Two of my favorite examples of how the political atmosphere of a setting can greatly influence story, tone, and characters are Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express and Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation. 

Released in 1994, Chungking Express is set in Hong Kong. The film is marked by a chaotic energy, shown through the frantic, fast-paced yet delayed shots of various characters such as He Qiwu and the woman in the blonde wig running in the streets. Wong Kar-wai’s choice to show Hong Kong in a tumultuous manner coincides with the political upheaval Hong Kong was experiencing during the 1990s.

Hong Kong was previously ruled under a “one country, two systems” agreement with the United Kingdom and China, part of a communist state yet retaining a capitalist economy. A joint declaration signed in 1984 by both nations stated that British rule over Hong Kong would end in 1997, giving China complete control of the region. 

As the year 1997 approached, there was a sense of uncertainty surrounding what the future of Hong Kong would be like post-British rule. The general looming anxiety during a nation’s transitional period in modern times influenced the visual frenzy illustrated in Chungking Express.

This era in Hong Kong history is also present through the characters’ inner conflicts. The four protagonists—He Qiwu, woman in the blonde wig, Faye, and Cop 663—all struggle with loneliness and seem to live without a firm understanding of who they are as people. Their individual feelings of loneliness and a perceived lack of identity relates to solitude, yet these experiences are also felt throughout the country as it remained idle in the midst of two world superpowers. Hong Kong in its entirety, like the protagonists, is confused and alone in a hectic world. 

A Separation differs in its portrayal of a nation compared to Chungking Express. A Separation is set in 2011 Iran, decades after the Iranian Revolution, unlike Hong Kong in its transition years in Chungking Express. The future has already arrived in Iran, with the mechanisms of Iranian society established.

The most prominent aspect of Iran Farhadi chooses to show through the storyline and the characters is the class divide. In the film, two families are connected by a dispute between them. One family, consisting of Simin, Nader, and preteen daughter Termeh, are middle-class and highly-educated. The other family, with Razieh, Hodjat, and daughter Somayeh, are distinctly working-class, living in an economically-depressed neighborhood. 

While their environments show on the surface how families in different economic classes live, it is their behaviors that differentiate them the most. Simin is a fully-independent woman with her own autonomy, contrasting the idea (and often stereotype) that women in Iran are completely oppressed and hold no control over themselves. Simin aims to raise Termeh in the same way, wanting to take her and emigrate out of Iran for a better future. However, Razieh seems to fit an audience’s (especially a Western audience) expectation of an Iranian woman. She is reserved, fearful, obedient, and dressed in a chador. 

The differences between the main women in the story do not come down to religion, a factor that a Western audience might attribute it to be. It lies in economic class. Upper and middle-class women are afforded a more ‘liberal’ lifestyle with wealth and power, creating an unequal divide with working-class women.

A Separation also depicts Iran’s relationship with Islam through its society and government in a way that does not criticize the religion itself, which often happens in a film made from a Western perspective. Religion is handled differently based on economic status. Upper-class families are afforded the opportunity to choose how much religion influences their lives and decisions, or if it even interferes with them. Those who are working-class practice their religion in every part of their life, due to a lack of education and wealth that could have allowed them to determine religion’s role in their lives. Simin, Nader, and Termeh are rarely shown acting in a religious way, unless it is mandated by the government, such as swearing testimony on the Quran, but Razieh is often shown to be hesitant to take various actions without knowing whether or not it is considered a sin. However, Farhadi points out that human characteristics like desperation are the main motivations of our actions, with religion possibly being secondary. The characters in the story lie and blur the truth to save themselves, regardless of religious stance. 

With both these films being acclaimed darlings among cinephiles, fans of these movies may have understood the historical backgrounds of each film. But attention to the geopolitical context of a film should be applied to any movie, regardless of country. It could open doors to a different understanding of a country and its particular way of living. It could also show the possible emotional states of its civilians. It is easy to view films through a Western gaze, regardless of where a viewer is from, as this perspective is prevalent in many major films, but taking the time to learn the country’s history behind a film will absolutely enhance the experience for any viewer.