Of all Wong Kar-wai's films, Fallen Angel is my favorite, but it's also probably the most overlooked . The film further explores Wong Kar-wai's unique, melancholic, and elusive cinematic aesthetic. In fact, to some extent, this represents yet another step forward in Wong Kar-wai's film style. This is reflected in his early films, such as "The True Story".
What we are witnessing again is not so much an external narrative of the progression of major events as an internal narrative of a subjective longing for love. In all of Wong Kar Wai's films, one can feel that the real and meaningful contact between the protagonists and others has been cut off. A lot of times we see things that don't really matter, like the protagonist in a movie always trying to seize any opportunity to find a connection with another human being.
The lives of Wong Kar-wai's movie characters seem to take place mostly in their own dreams, sometimes not matching reality at all, or even out of touch with reality . "Master of Heartbreak" Wong Kar-wai underscores this sense of lost isolation through several memorable "masturbation" scenes. Also, ironically, the crowded environment and atmosphere of Hong Kong, a crowded and extremely claustrophobic urban jungle, reinforces this sense of loneliness. Director Wong Kar-wai makes his film less like a traditional story and more like a slow-paced poem by intertwining vision and time.
"Fallen Angels" is closely related to its predecessor, "Chongqing Forest ," as the film's theme was originally one of three stories in "Chongqing Forest," but was eventually removed. The backdrop here is still the Hong Kong-inspired Chongqing Hotel, and at different points in time, there are some interesting hints, or homages to the previous work.
For example, Takeshi Kaneshiro played the main character of a brokenhearted love in both films, but his roles in both films are clearly connected and different . In "Chongqing Forest", he is the No. 223 police officer, and here, he is the No. 223 prisoner. In addition, in the previous work, in memory of his ex-girlfriend, he would eat her favorite canned pineapple every day. And in this movie, we know that he became dumb because he ate an expired can of pineapple as a child.
Like "Chongqing Forest", "Fallen Angels" also has two narrative threads, both of which are only loosely connected . However, unlike "Chongqing Forest"'s independent and continuous expression, "Fallen Angel" interweaves its story presentation, allowing us to switch back and forth between these two main lines.
The first story contains three main characters:
- Wong Chi Ming (Dawn) is a lazy and cold-blooded Hong Kong gangster killer. He was able to talk cordially with an old classmate on the bus, just after he had just killed a room full of people.
- Jiaxin (Li Jiaxin) is a gorgeous gangster "agent" who makes arrangements for killings. She and Amin are strictly business partners, but deep down she longs for a romantic relationship with each other.
- Jin Maoling (played by Karen Mok) is a beautiful and lively "nervous" girl with dyed blonde hair who falls in love with Amin.
The second story also has three main characters:
- He Zhiwu (Kanejo Takeshi) is a dumb weirdo who escaped from some prison (perhaps a mental hospital). He makes a living by breaking in after the store closes at night and getting passers-by to pay him to avoid becoming his customers.
- Ho Chi Wu's father was the assistant manager of Chungking Mansions Hotel.
- Cai Ni (Yang Cai Ni) is a beautiful girl He Zhiwu occasionally meets on the street and makes him fall in love.
Despite all the bloody gangster shootouts throughout the film, as well as He Zhiwu's absurd "being the boss" at night, this film is really about the disappointment of the protagonists' love . Like "Chongqing Forest," the narrative presentation of "Fallen Angels" follows the inner monologues of the two main characters, A Ming and He Zhiwu (although he is mute, we can still hear his voiceover).
But there is a marked difference in point of view. In "Chongqing Forest," we tracked the inner pain of two main men who were abandoned by their girlfriends, while in "Fallen Angels," it was mainly women who were tormented by unrequited love . But we see these suffering women from the outside basically from a male perspective, not from their own perspective. There are inner voiceovers of the two female characters in the film, but they are brief and seem unable to express their true feelings. Instead, those few voice-over moments seem to suggest that the girls are trying to cover up their feelings, either to unseen witnesses or to themselves, to save face.
The characters of the two male protagonists in the film are completely opposite . Amin distances himself from human emotions and shuns meaningful relationships. Perhaps partly because of this attitude, the women he meets are deeply attracted to him. Contrary to Amin, He Zhiwu is extremely eager to be in contact with people, but he can't express himself, and no one wants him by his side.
The story of the two fallen angels goes through four stages.
The first is that the characters establish basic relationships
Amin lives in a small apartment next to the subway, and the house is cleaned every day by his "agent" Jiaxin. His "agent" had been with him for three years, and she would draw up the location of the action as a drawing in advance and fax it to Amin to let him know how to attack and plan his escape route. And this "broker" happened to live in the Chongqing Hotel managed by He Zhiwu's father .
He Zhiwu, fugitive No. 223, hid in the gangster's apartment while evading police pursuit . He always bothers people to give him money at night so he doesn't bother others anymore. This passage also shows the relationship between He Zhiwu and his father.
then develop new relationships
Amin met Jin Maoling in a McDonald's restaurant. Just like Ah Fei in The True Story of Ah Fei, Ah Ming is obsessed with himself and likes to admire himself in front of the mirror. Meanwhile, Amin's agent Jiaxin is lusting after him in the apartment .
He Zhiwu met Cai Ni and became friends with her. Cai Ni's boyfriend just dumped her for another "Golden Mao Ling". He Zhiwu helps Cai Ni to find her old boyfriend and falls in love with her in the process.
Then came the lost opportunity
Jin Maoling is distressed by the shortness of her one-night stand with Amin, who says goodbye to her and begins to dissolve her business relationship with her agent. But the act had disastrous consequences, with Amin being shot dead in the final act .
He Zhiwu lost track of Cai Ni, but later found out that she had become a flight attendant (another tribute to "Chongqing Forest"), had a new boyfriend, and even forgot what he looked like.
The end of the story
The two clues eventually merged , and Amin's manager Jiaxin met He Zhiwu during one of her moves.
So what makes this film so appealing ? Like Wong Kar-wai, Du Kefeng's stunning photography also played an important role. The constant use of wide-angle camera lenses distorts and enhances the perception of separation. Sometimes long shots alternate because they have a very short depth of field, focus only on the object of interest, and completely blur the background. The camera moves constantly, sometimes closely tracking people's faces as they walk through a scene. The occasional black-and-white shot shows the bleak feeling of a lovesick character being ruthlessly abandoned by a loved one.
The film, like "Chongqing Forest," has a late-night, contemplative flavor, only maybe a little better . This may be due to the charismatic performance of the three women, especially Karen Mok, who energized the screen with emotion. While everyone in Hong Kong seems to be trying to hide their true feelings, women are inevitably more emotional and attractive than men. It may be a dream, but it is the real world most of us live in. This is the realm of consciousness, the craving for the sudden moments and fragments that are exciting in retrospect but quickly vanish.
Particularly memorable is He Zhiwu riding his motorcycle through a dark tunnel that seems to lead directly to an unknown dark future . "Fallen Angels" ends with such a scene.
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