Kinetic and off-kilter, Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels is
a strangely compelling film. Emotionally dislocated and full of
visual tricks, you might expect it to be all surface glass and
no resonance. But Fallen Angels' night -time, neon-lit stories
of a hitman (aka "Killer"), his beautiful employer (aka
"Agent") and a selection of loosely bound drifters and
ex-cons draw you in through their stories of wretched loneliness
and unrequited love.
But its not all doom and gloom. The existential romance is undercut
with sweet and wistful farce - Killer bumping into an old
schoolfriend tryiing to sell him life insurance or being chatted
up by the loopy Punkie in McDonalds; a family force-fed icecream
on an impromptu midnight tour across town and a girl's search
for her rival in love, only to find a lifesize blow-up doll -
these genuinely funny moments all provide the film with balance,
energy and enough humanity to make it likable. Furthermore the
final moments add a poignancy which is hard to dismiss lightly.
Shot mostly in extreme close-up on a hand-held camera with a wide-angle
lens, Fallen Angels stylishy offers brooding film noir painted
with a vibrant, expressionist palette. The murder scenes are wonderfully
choreographed, more visually beautiful and emotionally void that
even Scorcese's. Topped with nervy, ambient noise and set to kitsch
Hong Kong pop music, Fallen Angels is a story set in a hyperreal
Hong Kong. From a filmmaker who has been described as the colony's
premier cinematic iconoclast, this is anarchic filmmaking at its
most beautiful and best.
Reviewed by Monika Maurer
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