For American audiences who first encountered Tony Leung during Chungking Express’s U.S. theatrical release (his first major stateside breakthrough), it was a revelation, marking his emergence from Hong Kong stardom into an international arthouse icon and Wong Kar Wai’s defining muse, paving the way for masterpieces like In the Mood for Love and 2046. In it, two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express takeout restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works, but it is Leung’s Cop 663, drifting through the film’s dreamy second half in a state of quiet heartbreak, who gives this pop-infused city symphony its soulful center. This gloriously shot (by Christopher Doyle), utterly unexpected charmer cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of longing—one of the defining works of ’90s cinema. An NYFF32 selection.