1995 ‘墮落天使’ Directed by Wong Kar-wai
In this bifurcated crime narrative, a disillusioned hitman attempts to escape from his violent lifestyle against the wishes of his partner, who is infatuated with him, and an eccentric mute repeatedly encounters, then subsequently falls for, a depressed woman looking for the prostitute who supposedly stole her ex-boyfriend's affections.
Sometimes "goodbye" really means "until we meet again."
For a follow-up to a film that in no way, shape, of form needed one, Fallen Angels not only admirably lives up to the pressure of being a sequel to Chungking Express, it manages to expand the themes of the previous two segments (putting all in a much clearer and distinct light), and does so in such a tonally and structurally different way that it's difficult to tell which is the stronger piece in the end. It's apples and oranges to compare the two, but they're in the same basket - if that makes any sense. Truth be told, I'd rather consider them a single film; Chungking Angels - a three hour…
"Watching dad cooking made me very happy. I know I'll never taste his steaks again...but I'll never forget just how they tasted."
Did you ever have a first date, one that didn’t go badly, but didn't make your heart flutter? I’m sure you have. Despite that, have you ever gone onto a second date and completely fallen in love? I certainly never have ... in real life that is. In the imaginary world of Wong Kar Wai, I should have expected it. There have been more than a few Wong first dates I’ve gone on that were less than stellar, only to be won over completely by a subsequent rendezvous.
During my first Fallen Angels watch, I saw similarities to Chungking Express ( that I also didn’t fall in love with on first date ), but aside from a nod or two,…
thats life in the big city.
for an hour and thirty five minutes, let wong kar wai heal your broken heart. he healed mine, ever so slightly. this is what a perfect film is to me.
Christopher Doyle really went ham with his camera this time, relying on kinetic, large sweeping motions to deliver a pleasantly dizzying experience, the entire city spins in circles as if night life in hong kong is too overwhelming for the lonely souls to bear, just like how it is depicted in murakami's after dark, urban life starts to get kooky after 12am, even the ones not in bed start to dream due to conditioning, no one belongs anywhere, the sleep-deprived become particles colliding in space, constantly moving under the force of gravity, some merge and some separate, albeit unwillingly, yet it doesn't matter, in the end, we still live under the same dreamscape, forever companions to each other, providing and receiving warmth to whoever we can find and cling onto, until one of us finally falls asleep.
I feel very differently from the positive critical consensus surrounding this film. I found Fallen Angel's visual strategy and editing techniques to be fascinating and groundbreaking, but the story to be underwhelming, completely disorganized, and frankly all over the place. This isn't to say that I love films that deviate from structure, it's just that this film in particular didn't click for me in regard to that stylistic choice. I hate to admit that I was ready for this film to wrap up around the 100th/120th minute mark, and I found that the humor had begun to grow stale and tiresome as the film grew longer. Perhaps I went in with high expectations that were not met, or considering this is a sequel to Chungking Express, maybe I should have watched that film first. I don't seem to be a big fan of Wong Kar Wai's work, but maybe that'll change with time.
Serving almost as an antithesis to Chungking Express (with plenty of references to it scattered throughout), Fallen Angels manages to both succeed and fail in almost exactly the same ways—you could almost copy and paste my Chungking review straight over to this film. Sadly, again, it seems to focus more-so on the lesser interesting story of the two, although this time they are more interwoven than the previous. Christopher Doyle's DoP is once again stunning, and definitely stands as some of my favorite work in all of cinema, but I just can't say I truly love Wong Kar-wai's method of storytelling in either of the films. I'm really hoping In the Mood for Love becomes the outlier and delivers an engaging story on top of everything else on display here, because it would most likely prove to be an all-time favorite if it did.
Hungkat 278 films
Essential movies for lonely people out there (like me) if you want to feel something in this big big world.…
george 211 films
The list has stopped taking suggestions, and will be refined over the coming weeks.
**Foreign meaning films not in English.…
Michelle 100 films
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