Forget him.
It's like forgetting everything.
It's like losing all direction,
Losing oneself.

Forget him
And it's like forgetting the joy in life.
It's like a knife in the heart,
Bleeding in pain.

This is neither the first nor the most recent film by Wong Kar-Wai that is visually gorgeous. If you like fast-paced action with artsy cinematography check this out, as an introduction to one of Hong Kong's finest directors.

Historical Background: The cinematic world of Wong Kar-Wai is a far cry from the martial arts films that we usually associate with Hong Kong cinema, although some of his work, including the present film, exhibit a similar high-energy, kinetic style. When Wong first came to international attention with the art house favorite, Chungking Express (1994), he had already made such films as As Tears Go By (1988), Days of Being Wild (1990), and Ashes of Time (1994). Quentin Tarantino helped provide a lift to Wong's recognition-factor in the U.S. by choosing Chungking Express as the debut release for his new distribution label, Rolling Thunder. That and teaming up with cinematographer Christopher Doyle launched Wong's career into the stratosphere, contributing to such further successes as Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), and In the Mood for Love (2000). In the Mood for Love received the Best Foreign Film selection from the National Society of Film Critics.

Fallen Angels, though not a sequel to Chungking Express, is its soul mate in setting, visual style, atmosphere, and narrative approach. There are even a few explicit references to the predecessor film (such as when a character attributes his mutism to eating canned pineapples that were past their expiration date, which was also a plot element in Chungking Express). In fact, one of the story lines in Fallen Angels had been originally intended for use in the former film. The most important commonality, however, is that both films go very much about the business of reinventing visual style in cinema.

The Story: Fallen Angels interweaves two mostly nocturnal stories, each with three main characters. The first of the stories to be introduced centers on a cool and detached hit man, Wong Chi-Ming (Leon Lai). Being lazy and indecisive, Wong uses the services of a female business partner, known only as The Agent (Michelle Reis), to book his appointments and reconnoiter the layouts of the sites where the work is to be done. She constructs detailed drawings that map his entrance and exit routes. She also cleans his apartment for him, when he's out. She has a sultry beauty, masked by a bit of dishevelment. She also appears to be a bit strung out on heroine or opium. Though the two have rarely met in person, The Agent is obsessed with longing for Wong, even to the point of sorting through his trash to learn more about him, acquainting herself with the odors of his clothing, and masturbating on his bed. She muses to herself, "Find out too much about a person and you lose interest," but there's little danger of that with Wong, because he doesn't believe in getting emotionally involved with business partners.

On three separate occasions, we observe Wong methodically mow down a room full of people with a bilateral handgun assault. During the third such assignment, Wong takes a flesh wound in his upper arm. He's starting to contemplate quitting his dangerous line of work. He can't face telling his Agent directly, so he devises an indirect approach. He leaves instructions with the bartender at a restaurant (which they both frequent) to tell her to play song number 1818 (the lyrics of which are quoted above, at the opening of this review).

At a cafeteria, Wong meets a vivacious Asian blond, called "Baby." In contrast to The Agent, this cute gal appears to be stoked up on cocaine. She oscillates between impetuous giggling and sudden waves of loneliness and despondency. She takes him home with her through a torrential downpour and, once inside, offers him a man's shirt to change into, commenting that it "still fits." He asks, "Who's is it?" She replies, "Why all the questions? Are we that close?" Later, however, she seems to confuse him with an old lover, saying, "We were together a long-time. You called me 'baby.' Let's let bygones be bygones." And they do, as they get down to some passionate lovemaking.

Somewhat later, Wong breaks it off with Baby. She takes it badly, biting his arm before finally collapsing in bitterness in a stairwell. Wong meets with The Agent and reluctantly informs her, "I'd like to terminate our business relationship." She asks if he'll do her one last favor.

The other story centers on an escaped convict, He Zhiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro). He's convict #223, which was the badge number of a cop in Chungking Express, played by the same actor. He suffered an ailment as a child that left him mute. He's also either a bit retarded or highly undersocialized. As a man with a criminal record, he finds it difficult to get work, especially since he's poorly inclined to follow orders. He's decided to be his own boss, but lacking capital, his ingenious system is to open other people's businesses after they've closed then for the evening. We see him at work in this manner at a butcher shop, a hairdressing salon, a grocery store, and a laundry. His approach as a salesman is also notably direct. He intimidates or physically overpowers his customers, forcing them to avail themselves of his goods or services. One young man has his clothes forcibly removed at the laundry, a woman is pressed into buying an unwanted melon, and another unfortunate man (Fai-hung Chan), gets coerced repeatedly, first for a shampoo and, later, to consume a mammoth quantity of ice cream.

Being mute has turned He into something of a wacky loner. He lives with his father (Man-Lei Chan), who sometimes loses his patience with his son, but clearly loves him as well. The father puts up with a lot of abuse from He, such as being locked in the bathroom. He decides to make a videotape of his father and follows him everywhere he goes, for a day, even taping him as he sleeps in bed. Later, the father watches the videotape and chuckles enormously.

He meets up with a girl named "Cherry," who is as ditzy and hysterical as He is strange. He first encounters her as she's talking on the phone. The dialog for that phone conversation, of which we hear only one side, is classic:

Hello?
What did you want to tell me?
You want to have kids?
Why are you telling me this?
You wanna get married? Sure! I'll marry you.
Give me time to send out invitations.
You already did?
How come I'm the last to know?
You're a sly one!
You sent me an invitation? Why?
[pause . . . then, she laughs, awkwardly.]
I see. Congratulations!
Who's the lucky girl? Blondie?
What a perfect couple!
She wants me to be her bridesmaid?

My wife tells me she didn't find that scene at all funny. Maybe it's a guy thing, but to me, it was a riot. Soon, Cherry has teamed up with He and they're trying to track down Blondie. Cherry even draws up a contract that she intends to force Blondie to sign, declaring herself ugly and unfit and renouncing all claim to the boyfriend. Meanwhile, He falls in love with Cherry – the first time he's ever had the experience. He's brief taste of joy doesn't last long, however. Cherry soon dumps him and his father passes away as well. I won't reveal how the film ends. This being a film about loneliness, longing, and despair, it can't be too terribly upbeat, but the ending is at least both creative and honest.

Production Values: This film has both its champions and its detractors. Everyone pretty much agrees that, visually, this film is absolutely incredible. The cinematography is better than anything I've seen out of Hollywood – ever! It has all of the immediacy of a music video. The scene transitions feature portraits of Hong Kong at night, with streaming neon-lit streets, racing overhead trains, psychedelic jukeboxes, surreal escalators shot at odd angles, and much, much more. Cinematographer Christopher Doyle draws on a full arsenal of techniques, including quick-cuts, varying tints, surreal black-and-white segments, fish eye lenses, extreme angles, and varying film speed. In one remarkable black-and-white shot, for example, the background is speeded up while the foreground, which includes the primary characters, is run in slow-mo, with the edges of the frame in hazy focus. Most of the film features garish primary colors. Even Baby's hair is neon yellow. The pace is pleasingly frenetic. Both the most violent scenes and the most tender ones are shot with a dreamlike surrealism. You can stop the film on virtually any frame and find yourself staring at portrait quality photography.

Where the fans and the detractors split, for this film, is in relation to the script and, specifically, the quality of the storyline and the characters. What the detractors argue is that none of the characters are likable, all are mere caricatures, and the two intersecting plots are each rather ordinary. Normally, those kinds of detriments would carry a lot of weight with me, since the story and the quality of the characters are two of the elements that most give depth to a movie. I think, however, that the detractors are missing the main thrust and weight of Wong's film. There is genuine thematic depth to Fallen Angels, but of an unusual kind. Wong is giving characterization to ideas rather than characters. The ciphers in this film are such notions as longing, loneliness, isolation, and detachment, in relation to the frenetic pace and impersonal nature of life in a teeming city. Yes, the characters are ill-defined and incomplete . . . . which is precisely the point. In an overcrowded, dehumanized world, they have retreated into private existential voids. They go through the motions of living while searching aimlessly for something to ease their longings.

The plot of this film is a bit hard to follow the first time through. I was able to do so, but mainly only because I studied a listing of characters before beginning the film. If you plan to watch this film only once, I suggest that you forgo your usual objections to "spoilers" (other than perhaps the film's ending) and acquaint yourself with the broad contours of the story before starting out. That will enable you to better enjoy the visuals and the thematic substance instead of spending most of your time struggling to figure out who's who and what's happening. Alternatively, plan to watch the film a second time.

The soundtrack for this film, courtesy of Frankie Chan and Roel A. Garcia, is highly effective. There's a strong mix of mostly dark and languid tunes, in an assortment of styles, ranging from Chinese rap, to pop ballads, to reggae.

The casting was exceptional. Leon Lai, as the hit-man, immediately establishes all of the terrible incongruity between inner life and outer life. He looks for all the world like a pleasant, reserved young man, with a cherub's face . . . until he waltzes into a room, with two guns blazin'. His other work includes Wicked City. The gorgeous Michelle Reis had to perform her dark, brooding role without the benefit of glamorous outfits or makeup. She certainly impresses as the deeply disturbed Agent. Takeshi Kaneshiro's character, He, was highly original, though also cartoonish. Since the character was mute, Kaneshiro had to deliver his portrayal entirely through physicality and was effective in doing so. Kaneshiro previously worked for Wong in Chungking Express. I thought the two actresses with the main supporting roles, Karen Mok as Baby and Charlie Young as Cherry, were outstanding, providing most of the best comic moments.

Themes: Hong Kong, as a teeming, bustling, overpopulated city, may very well be on the vanguard of mankind's future. However overpopulated you may deem the world to be at present, it is likely to be many times more so in the centuries immediately ahead. Certainly Asian directors have every reason to better appreciate the psychological challenges that will confront us when the inevitable transpires than their Western counterparts. One of Wong's recurrent themes is the irony that busy, overcrowded places typically increase psychological isolation. People tend to retreat further into their private worlds of fantasies, fixations, and obsessions when confronted with the trauma of modern city life. The noise, the hubbub, the abstract quality of modern architecture, the malls, the nightlife, and the crowds, all conspire to aggravate inner loneliness. The hit man asks, just what is the value of human life? When individuals lose sight of the answer to that question, killing becomes easy. Wong gives us a collection of weird and disturbed people, but then shows us that the longing for genuine human contact is universal, even among cold-blooded killers.

Bottom-Line: Fallen Angels is in Cantonese with English subtitles and has a running time of 96 minutes. The Kino DVD has a number of trailers for films directed by Wong Kar-Wai, a gallery of stills, and filmographies. This is a satisfying film in several respects. Visually, it's a dynamite movie, revolutionary in its kinetic impact. The performances are excellent and the thematic ideas are well developed. Neither plot nor depth-of-characterizations are strong points, but that is by design, serving the underlying thematic intents. I highly recommend this film, especially for those who are into fast-paced action film fare. This is an action film, but action enriched by artsy cinematography.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan:

Chungking Express
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Eat Drink Man Woman
The Emperor and the Assassin
Farewell My Concubine
Hero
In the Mood for Love
Raise the Red Lantern
Red Sorghum
Road Home
Shanghai Triad
The Story of Qiu Ju
Temptress Moon
Together
To Live
What Time is it There?
The Women From the Lake of Scented Souls
Yi Yi

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age