Quick-Touch Love: My Favorite Romance Type

Love is Temporary, Feeling is Forever

Still from the first story of Chungking Express

The romance genre is full of different types of relationships: childhood friends to lovers, slowburns, or second-chance. All those stories of people finding love and happy endings that make up your classic Hollywood Love Stories are beloved by most, but personally, I'm more picky. My favorite romance is what I call 'quick-touch romance', which is where the two love interests meet for a very short amount of time, be it a night or a few days, before separating and never seeing each other again. An example is the relationship between Zhi Wu and the Woman in the Blonde Wig from Chungking Express (1994).

Zhi Wu and the Woman in the Blonde Wig do not know each other. They met twice; the first time was for a quick brush, and the second was for a night in a bar. Objectively, this wasn't a "love" story, as the Woman in the Blonde Wig does not return Zhi Wu's sentiments, and they will most likely never see each other again. Doesn't that make their connection, in the grand scheme of things, pointless?

You could argue that it is, but a quick-touch romance is mostly based on the aftermath, how you are changed by the chance meeting. Even if the initial meeting wasn't inherently romantic, the stewing memories and emotions can alter perceptions and sew regret. At the end of the first story from Chungking Express, we see Zhi Wu's regret in the aftermath as he runs, along with his words at the beginning, when he brushed past the Woman in the Blonde Wig.

"This was the closest we ever got. Just 0.01 centimeters between us. But 57 hours later, I fell in love with this woman."

Now maybe there is something wrong with me due to the fact that this is my all-time favorite, maybe because it basically happened to me once but that's a story for another time. I think to me the appeal is something fleeting and fast. Sure, the aftermath of falling in love with someone who is functionally just a memory is painful, but I also find the attachment to said memory quite interesting from a character standpoint. It calls into question if you fell in love with a real person or the time-distorted invention of your mind. Wow I just love the potential of this trope, it's thrilling.

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