"Fallen Angels" is about the distance between people. Among Wong Kar-wai's works, this film is the one that uses the most close-up shots. Generally speaking, the closer the camera is to the actor, the closer the audience is to the character's inner world. Wong Kar-wai and Du Kefeng did the opposite. In the film, the faces or bodies of the characters often occupy most of the screen space, but under the exaggerated and deformed ultra-wide-angle lens, the characters are even more alien and alienated. The same is true for the double shot. Take Liming's encounter with an old classmate and Mok Wenwei and Liming's emotional scene as an example. The wide-angle lens has an excellent sense of space and depth, making the characters feel like they are separated from each other even if they are in the same room. Du Kefeng's shaky shots and mysterious lighting, coupled with Chen Xunqi's dreamy soundtrack, add a bit of a psychedelic flavor of time and space to the film.
The cross-editing of different time and space is another means by which Wong Kar-wai shows distance. The first killing mission in the film is narrated in chronological order. Li Jiaxin's stepping and the precise execution of Dawn allow the audience to establish psychological coordinates for the work process of the two. In the second killing mission, Zhang Shuping used cross montage to cut together the shots of the two at the same place and at different times. On the surface, it is said that the two partners have a tacit understanding, but in fact it reflects that the two can only be in parallel time and space forever. They go their separate ways, and it is also clear that their emotional worlds will not intersect.
Plot, editing and other aspects of the contrast method, which abounds in this film. Here Karen Mok and Dawn kiss passionately, but Li Jiaxin over there can only use self-destruction to soothe the grief; at that time Takeshi Kaneshiro and Caini Yang were by his side, but at this time he could only be alone in the empty stadium and was extremely lost. In addition, the comparison before and after the death of Takeshi Kaneshiro's father, and the funny contrast of Takeshi Kaneshiro's hair color change, are also impressive. "Fallen Angel" contrasts the impermanence of life with the vividness of memory, and contrasts the alienation of human hearts with the crowding of the world. Although Wong Kar-wai's films are deeply influenced by Western films, the contrast and dialectical analysis of the existence of this move is the true essence of traditional Chinese art.
What is the reason for the alienation of people's hearts? Wong Kar-wai uses his marginal characters to make us experience loneliness (or use those characters to experience our loneliness) without giving a clear answer to this. Maybe because the answer is too complicated. The characters in the film are mostly marginal working (or not working) and surly, which makes them out of tune with mainstream society. What about other reasons? Wong Kar-wai pointed to this flashy material society. There are several scenes in the film that are reserved for the products of urban civilization. The huge McDonald's logo, Lay's potato chips in the bar, Coca-Cola with big trees, Heineken beer, elevated trains, TV sets, home video recorders, jukeboxes, and, in 1995, a very advanced Panasonic fax machine, plus In the cage-like residence of Dawn, whether these products facilitate people's communication or expand the distance between people, the answer is obvious. "Fallen Angel" desperately shows us the irreversibility of distance. Therefore, how can those who are eager for communication and warmth, but are afraid of being hurt by the cold reality, how can they find their own position and happiness in society, which has become a Wong Kar Wai movie eternal topic.
Angel
in "Chungking Express" and "Fallen Angels" in the pseudonym He Zhiwu Takeshi Kaneshiro, has become a fan of Wong Kar-wai is a collective cult classic image. In the first one, Takeshi Kaneshiro had more monologues than dialogues, and in the latter one he simply became dumb. Having lost his language ability, he stumbled and stumbled in communication with others, and everywhere he went was a mess. He sneaked into the butcher's shop in the middle of the night to massage the dead pig, forced his father to eat cold drinks and had diarrhea. Even during the normal days of working in the izakaya, the song "Forget Him" that he played inadvertently was impartial. Poke the sore spot of dawn. Takeshi Kaneshiro interprets the five words "doing bad things with good intentions" to the extreme. These ridiculous and ridiculous behaviors actually originate from loneliness. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in "Chongqing Forest" and "In the Mood for Love" at least still know how to play with loneliness, but Takeshi Kaneshiro, who has been lonely for too long, seems to have forgotten what loneliness is. If Takeshi Kaneshiro's aphasia is one side of loneliness, then the hysteria of Cai Ni Yang and Karen Mok is the other side of loneliness. They use constant noise and madness to forget their inner confusion and fragility. Compared with them, Li Jiaxin and Li Jiaxin had to cover up their inner world with a cold appearance because of their work. When they returned to loneliness and relieved their defenses, the two made every move, showing decadence.
Although "Fallen Angels" is considered a sequel to "Chongqing Forest", I don't think there will be many audiences who can eat both. Narcissism, fetishism, paranoia, sexual fantasies, the psychological eccentricities of these marginalized people are softened and blunted in "Chongqing Forest" with a slightly drunken charm, while in "Fallen Angels", Wong Kar-wai is more Return these quirks to their true colors. Angels can fall, but not necessarily all angels who fall. The perverted life of the characters caused by loneliness is already decadent and breathless, and Wong Kar-wai is not willing to give up. He repeatedly uses contrasting techniques to make these lonely souls always have a glimmer of hope, thinking that heaven seems to be only a short distance away. ; However, the short-term comfort brought only deeper loneliness. Still answering the old saying in "Evil in the East and Poison in the West": On the other side of the desert, it's just another desert;
Mirrors are always important props in Wong Kar Wai films. The feelings of the characters in "Fallen Angels" are suppressed. When they can't care about others, Gu Ying's self-pity becomes the only way for them to release their feelings. "Shouying self pity Qiushuizhao, you need to pity me and I pity Qing". The five "angels" in the film closed themselves with mirrors, and what they saw was only their own inner reflection, and they could no longer understand others, and instead lamented that others could not understand themselves. The blockage of communication has thus fallen into a vicious circle. Such situations are commonplace in Wong Kar-wai's films, but in this film, the family relationship between Takeshi Kaneshiro and his father gives this film a different connotation. In the movie, Takeshi Kaneshiro's father is also a lonely person. His wife left early, and his son can't take care of himself. This is a kind of sadness for him. But compared to everyone else, he's happy, smiling while frying steak and shaking his head while watching his son's video of him. The greatness of family love lies in a tolerance. Although the father has nothing to do with his son's urchin-like behavior, only he understands that the son is expressing his love. Although trivial and short-lived, this father-son relationship still becomes a bright spot in the film's confusing background. The old man is gone, the children should grow up, the world is lonely, and the heaven is also lonely. Maybe people should not complain too much about life. Since they have fallen into the mortal world, why not seize those warm moments. Wong Kar-wai let the story end in a warm minute. We don't know where these "angels" will go, but at least they have learned a little tolerance, and everything may not be so decadent.
Personally, I think "Fallen Angels" is a masterpiece that has been overlooked. Although the film is a little weak in terms of performance, and is slightly sculpted in style, Wong Kar-wai's precise insight into the urban morbid psychology, coupled with the delicate capture of the characters' emotions, makes the film not too fancy. If you are already tired of the over-consumed nostalgia complex in "In the Mood for Love" and "2046", and you don't like the utterly hypocritical self-indulgence in "Chongqing Forest", then "Fallen Angel" may be a movie worth rediscovering. The Wong Kar Wai movies.
(The landlord has woken up. The landlords of "In the Mood for Love" and "2046" both like it now.)
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