Frustrated with the slow filming of his martial arts epic Ashes of Time, Wong Kar Wai promised funders a film about “two cops” and pounded out a contemporary quickie that would come to define 1990s Hong Kong cinema. Section one involves a blonde-bewigged female smuggler (Brigitte Lin) and a smitten beat cop (Takeshi Kaneshiro); in section two, another police officer (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) falls under the sway of food vendor Faye Wong and her constant “California Dreamin’.” Funders got their cop movie; international viewers received a mesmerizing jolt of Hong Kong’s energy, romance, and style, framed by Christopher Doyle’s lyrically kinetic cinematography.