One of them is an assassin, and in his scenes we get some dramatic shoot-outs in the grand Hong Kong tradition. She finds safe houses for him, cleans them, searches through his garbage to learn more about him, and, enraptured in sexual fantasy for the man she never sees, she lays on his bed when he's not there, writhing in sexual fantasy and ecstasy. While the action scenes provide some excellent fast action for those who like that sort of thing, this film is about much more. Director Kar-wai Wong has shot a very sensuous film that embraces not only the beauty of his actors but also manages to find the beauty in dingy urban settings as he points his camera up through skyscraper canyons to watch the nighttime clouds pass overhead in speeded motion. Wong often shoots extreme close-ups or distorts images to find the beauty in the garish neon world of Hong Kong.
Several sequences suggest that part of the essence of urban life is speed.
Kar-wai Wong gives us several exhilirating motorcycle rides through the freeway tunnels of Hong Kong. Another essence of urban life captured in Wong's script lies in the degrees of separation between his characters who otherwise know nothing about each other. The assassin knows his partner, but he never sees her. She lives in the same building as the mute thief who has a penchant for breaking into businesses late at night, not to steal, but to open the businesses as though he owned them, selling to the denizens of the night. One of his customers turns out to be the assassin.