FALLEN ANGELS

Wong Kar Wai’s genius shines through again with this brutally honest and touching movie. The film was meant to be the third chapter, so to speak, of Chunking Express, but was made a few years later as kind of a sequel of sorts. (There are a few references to the earlier film. Eagle eyed fans of Wong will easily be able to spot them.)

Once again the film is dived into chapters, but in a different method Wong used so well in Chunking Express. This time the two separate stories meld into each other and go back and forth instead of having two linked stories one after the other. The first character we meet is Wong Chi Ming (played brilliantly by Leon Lai) a lonely hitman, who decides to give it all up and lead a better life. But first he has to break the news to his long time partner in crime (Michelle Reis), and it is evident that she has feelings for him.  While on the straight and narrow he forms a relationship with a wild young woman named Baby (Karen Mong), who is rather nutty and wild. And partially cures his loneliness.

The second main character is a young ex con named He Zhiwu who is mute (Played by Chunking Express’ Takeshi Kaneshiro) after losing his voice as a child due to eating a bad tin of pineapples. His “hobby” is to open up businesses after closing time as he thinks he is doing people a favour, as you never know when someone’s going to need some groceries. He also forms a friendship with Charlie (Charlie Young), a young woman trying to find her ex boyfriend’s new fiancée, and begins to fall for her.  Through the lens of a video camera the young boy begins to get closer with his father, closer than they have been in years, since the boys mother died. Which is the truly touching part of the movie.

Wong Kar Wai’s style of making everyday Hong Kong life seem as real as possible is more evident here than in Chunking express, mostly due, I think, to the fact there it is all mainly set at night. And with Christopher Doyle on cinematography duties as always the on-screen visuals never fail to captivate and enthral you deeper into the movie and the central characters.

Plus there is a lot more to the movie than what you have just read, it would spoil the ambience of the film if I said too much. And like I said with Chunking Express, a plot summary does the film no justice you have to see it for yourself. I’m hard pushed to decide whether I like this more than Chunking Express. I would say they are both equals seeing as though they were intended as the same movie. If you have not discovered the works and world of Chinese art-house master Wong Kar Wai yet, please grab one of his movies right now, as nothing like this will ever come out of Hollywood in a million years.

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