Wong Kar Wai-Duo luo tian shi (’Fallen Angels’) (1995)

Published by Alex | Filed under Video

Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai’s stylistic masterpiece. A thematic sequel to “Chungking Express,” Fallen Angels explores the lives of a number of Hong Kong ne’er-do-wells as they try to find love and money in the desperate streets of the city. This bittersweetly romantic film features a kaleidoscopic display of cinematography, camera angles and editing. KINO







Acknowledged throughout the world as one of the most important directors working today, Wong Kar-Wai has developed a signature style that employs bold, experimental use of photography, music, and editing to capture the tension of the approaching millenium. Originally intended to be a third story in his now classic Chungking Express, Fallen Angels has emerged as what some critics have come to consider his “quintessential work.”







Set in the neon-washed underworld of present-day Hong Kong, Fallen Angels intertwines two exhilarating tales of love and isolation. First, there’s the unconsummated love affair between a contract Killer (Leon Lai Ming) and the ravishing female Agent (Michele Reis) who books his assignments and cleans up after his jobs. When the Killer decides that he must move on, he leaves her with only a coin for the jukebox and instructions to play song number 1818 - “Wang Ji Ta” (”Forget Him”)…







Ex-convict Ho (Takeshi Kaneshiro) stopped speaking at the age of five after eating a date-expired can of pineapple. He lives with his father, who runs a guesthouse where the Agent is in semi-permanent residence. He makes a living by re-opening shops that have closed for the night and intimidating customers into buying goods and services from him. After an awkward romance with a girl named Cherry, Ho finds himself all the more alone…







Wong Kar-Wai brings these parallel storylines together in a blitz of ultra-hip style and classical cinematic sensibilities. A poet of modern alienation, Kar-Wai’s universe is populated with characters both dark and comic, magical and existential; Fallen Angels is both a vie at revolutionary cinema and an homage to a love for movies.