Les anges déchus

The following was excerpted from a wonderful essay by Momus, and nicely highlights the themes that this film is all about (which are totally missed by the complainers here who called it boring).

"Isolated, impulsive heroes, nocturnal locations, cool music... a violent world in which sensitive people nevertheless continue to dream romantic dreams indifferent to the surrounding carnage.

In 'Fallen Angels' this happens quite literally: Agent girl Michelle Reis moons and munches dreamily in the wideangle foreground while in the background a triad fight happens in slow motion.

It's the Walkman syndrome, a thing you notice when you visit the orient. The bigger the population, the more busy the city, the more people develop the ability to retreat into an inner isolation, the space of a snackbar, a tatami mat, a computer screen, a song playing on headphones.

In the next century we will all live like this.

Wong Kar Wei maps out a perfectly postmodern, perfectly oriental psychogeography of small, busy places which nevertheless become the spawning ground of ultra-private obsessions and infatuations. Love in his films is more likely to be expressed by someone breaking into your apartment and tidying it, or by masturbation, than a healthy clinch. It is the mindset of ultrafetish, and cinematographer Chris Doyle puts it into images: a clear plastic sheath worn over a Chinese silk dress, a mute riding the corpse of a pig in an abattoir, a blow up sex doll with its head stuck in an elevator door, being kicked insanely by a couple of ultra-romantic maniacs.

And there is the real star, the traum-city itself. Corridors, subways, neon, time lapse, travelators and low flying jets, trains, shopping arcades, Chung King Mansions stuffed to the gullets with sullen, sweating people cooled by antique electric fans, the scheming tattooed triads, outbursts of random violence, warehouses, chopping knives, video cameras, motorbikes speeding through tunnels, the multi-racial hand in hand with the super-commercial... Hong Kong insinuates itself into our imaginations as the ubertraumstadt, the place of ultimate nightmare and ultimate romance, where beauty is all the more poignant for its dark, cheap, pitiless setting and dreams are all the more necessary."

Movie is beautifully shot, cinematography is great, the atmosphere and colors, slow motion shots and visual effects are all great. Some parts are extremely boring but it fits the vibe of loneliness and sad lives the characters have. Film seems way longer than it actually is. I appreciate the visual side, characters are extrime but it still gets you tired from watching.

Visually stunning, with so many effects and shots - the neon lights, reflections, colors, wide angle lens, low frame rate, handheld camera, titled angles - and they all work without seeming like gimmicks, giving the film great style. I just wish the story and feelings had been as profound as the cinematography.

After yet another bullet wound from a tough job, Wong Chi-Ming decides it is time to quit the hit-man trade and decides to break off the business partnership with his agent, unaware that she loves him. Meeting the wild Baby offers him a chance at happiness but he soon finds that the Agent is not going to let him go so easily. Meanwhile the mute He Zhiwu makes his living re-opening closed shops overnight until he finds Charlie, who is trying to find her ex-boyfriend's new lover. Helping her sees He falling for Charlie himself and ending up hunting for her when she disappears.

Thanks to a really poor service recently from my cable TV provider, I had a poor reception on this film and that may be part of the reason that I found this difficult to really get involved in. I say this from the start because I think the film has major flaws and I suspect that newly converted fans of Kar Wai Wong will just dismiss my opinions as those of a fool (maybe they are right). With his newest film about to be one of his widest releases yet in the UK, I chose to step back for a minute and view an earlier film just to allow me to view his new film and see how he has changed (if he has) from early days, through Mood For Love up to his present state. The first thing that hits you about this film is really the thing that is the main reason for watching the film – the visual style. Kar Wai Wong is undobutably a great stylistic director and this film is beautiful to look at and features some really imaginative shots. Chris Doyle's vision of Hong Kong is excitingly fluid and works well with the direction and the film is visually consistently engaging.

The problem I had with the film was that the material didn't get anywhere near this sublime level and I found the whole thing to be rather messy and unengaging. The plot is delivered with energy but it still doesn't really hang together and it almost feels silly at times. I must admit that I gave it as much time as I could but after an hour I didn't care about the characters any more than I had before I saw the film; I still watched the film but was interested by the style a lot more than the story. Reflecting this I didn't think the cast had a great deal to do and that Wong, as he seems prone to do, stole the film from under them by becoming the reason for the film and not the deliverer of the film. Lai and Reis are good despite the material but for the most part I just didn't get into Kaneshiro or Mok at all.

Overall this is not a bad film and it is worth seeing; sadly it is worth seeing mainly because of the direction and cinematography. Outside of this we are left with characters it is hard to really ever understand or care about and a plot that is energetic and has some value but is too messy and unengaging. Wong has done better and there are examples of his films where his direction doesn't overly impact on the story – this isn't really one of them.

I love Chungking Express, and its "predecessor" Fallen Angels is okay, kind of like the prelude to Chungking Express. The night shots draw you into Hong Kong in a way the tourism promos don't for sure. You see Fallen Angels for the experience.