<%attr> film_title => 'Fallen Angels', year => 1995 director => 'Wong Kar-Wai' cast => [ 'Leon Lai Ming', 'Takeshi Kaneshiro', 'Charlie Yeung Choi-Nei', 'Michelle Reis (Lee Ka-Yan)', 'Karen Morris (Mok Man-Wai)', 'Chan Fai-Hung', 'Chan Man-Lai', 'Benz Kong To-Hoi', 'Kwan Lee-Na', 'Wu Yuk-Ho' ]

When Wong Kar-Wai made Chungking Express, he originally intended that it contain three parts rather than the two it ended up with. So he expanded that third portion into a full length film, Fallen Angels.

Like Chungking Express, Fallen Angels is a movie that follows the lives of several Hong Kong denizens who live in the Chungking Mansions area of the city. Also like Chungking Express, Fallen Angels is filled with flashy camera work, a great soundtrack, and a high profile cast (including Takeshi Kaneshiro in both). However, Fallen Angels is in many ways the dark twin to Chungking Express, and is the more emotionally powerful of the two.

Fallen Angels also has two more or less distinct story threads running through it. In one, Michelle Reis is assassin Leon Lai's agent. Though they almost never meet physically, she has fallen in love with him. When she goes to his apartment to clean it (presumably to dispose of evidence) she masturbates on his bed. Then she brings the trash to her apartment and sifts through in order to gain insight into his life. When Leon decides that he needs to get out of the business, she is crushed, particularly when she realizes he has become involved with another woman (Karen Mok in a particularly squeaky performance).

The other thread follows He Qiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a mute. His muteness causes him difficulty in finding a job so his solution is to break into businesses at night and force anyone walking by to be his customer. He lives in an apartment complex where he shares an apartment with his father, who manages the building. Several times in the film, he runs into Charlie Yeung (played by Charlie Yeung), who seems to always be getting her heart broken. He Qiwu is her shoulder to cry on, though they don't really know each other.

It may seem a bit crazy, but I think that in Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, Wong Kar-Wai has staked out a territory as the Woody Allen of Hong Kong. Before you write me off as insane, consider this: Both directors have made movies which are in part a tribute to the cities in which they are set. Both explore the way relationships and love happen in a city always on the move. And both are able to get the absolute best out of their actors. The analogy doesn't continue on (Wong Kar-Wai has yet to appear as a neurotic Jewish Hong Kong resident in any of his films) but there is something there.

As implied above, the performances in Fallen Angels are top notch. Seeing Charlie Yeung in this film makes me sad that she recently retired (because of marriage). I can only hope that she and Brigitte Lin will return à la Michelle Yeoh.

Visually, this film has quite a bit of eye candy. Wong Kar-Wai really pulls out the stops in terms of visual effects, including slow motion, fast motion, blurred double shots, and really strange color palettes. Fortunately he stops just short of being distracting, though this style is definitely not for everyone.

As a bonus for those who have seen Chungking Express, there are quite a few references in Fallen Angels to characters and locations in that movie. I recently had a chance to watch both films back to back and I would definitely recommend that others do the same thing.

In so many ways, Fallen Angels is a beautiful film. The script is brilliant and touching (particularly He Qiwu's scenes with his father), and contains some of my favorite movie scenes of all time. It may be my favorite Wong Kar-Wai film of all, though when I consider just how fantastic his other films are, it becomes hard to decide.