Who can forget those cine-magic moments as Faye Wong pranced around the snack stand in Wong Kar Wai’s Chung King Express?
Landlords, that’s who!
Yes, the famous Midnight Express snack stand immortalized in the film has subsequently turned over several times. In its last incarnation it was a watch store. Now it’s become a 7-11… I guess that’s close to full circle.
Speaking of Wong Kar Wai locations, it did come as something of a shock to find California (yes, the bar / restaurant) and the former Midnight Express in the epicenter of Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong’s main nightlife area. Such common, easily discoverable locations in a city crowded with charismatic alleys and off-beat snack stands, was a surprise to me. Perhaps the difficulty of location shooting and the threat of extortion during filming necessitated the locale.
Here’s Wong Kar Wai talking about Faye Wong’s performance… It includes some deleted scenes shot in Midnight Express as well.
This is a short clip of Faye Wong and Tony Leung with California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & the Papas playing away.
Here’s yet another video of Faye Wong and Tony Leung Chi Wai at the shop – this one features Wong Faye’s rendition of The Cranberries’ Dreams.
Meanwhile, which is the coolest looking 7-11 in Hong Kong? I have one in mind, but please leave a comment with your choice!
The former Midnight Express
3 Lan Kwai Fong
Central, Hong Kong
Tags: Chung King Express locations, Faye Wong Chung King Express, Faye Wong movie film, Hong Kong 7-11, Lan Kwai Fong California, Lan Kwai Fong Hong Kong HK, LKF Hong Kong, Midnight Express Lan Kwai Fong movie, Seven Eleven Hong Kong, WKW Chung King Express, Wong Kar Wai film locations Hong Kong set, Wong Kar Wai Hong Kong film, Wong Kar Wai movie Chung King Express, Wong Kar Wai movie HK
Memorable moment…
August 13th, 2008 | #
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrishimself/3490525249/in/set-72157617551082342/
was right there when they started transforming it into a 7-11 weird moment
May 11th, 2009 | #
Yes, it’s pretty amazing just how fast they convert an empty store into a 7-11 in Hong Kong. They have special teams that can do the work in literally one or two days!
May 11th, 2009 | #
[...] When I got back home I was actually curious where this fast food restaurant could have been, I was pretty sure that it must have been replaced by something since Hong Kong is such a fast changing city. I went on to google and tried to find this location and found a blog entry mentioning it was turned into a convenience store after it was turned into several other businesses. You can see the original blog entry that I was looking at last year here. [...]
May 12th, 2009 | #
wow one or two days!? thats crazy.
May 12th, 2009 | #