Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 10/19/2004
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: Cantonese
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 96 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Kino
Wong Kar-wai's
Fallen Angels is a sequel of sorts to the director's 1994 U.S. breakthrough
Chungking Express. Expanding on the latter's style, themes, and mood,
Fallen Angels is set in the surreal milieu of urban, nighttime Hong Kong. As with the filmmaker's other features, plot takes a back seat to mood. The wisp of a narrative intercuts two story lines. The first follows a hitman (
Leon Lai) who finds that the assassin's life has slowly lost its allure. Complicating his life is his beautiful contact (
Michele Reis, a former Miss Hong Kong winner) who pines after him with fetishistic ardor, although the two have never met in their nearly three-year partnership. In another part of the city,
He (
Takeshi Kaneshiro), a mute, boyish ex-convict, makes a living by sneaking into and running businesses after hours. Still living with his father who runs the Chungking Mansions hotel, the restless
Ho falls for
Cherry (
Charlie Yeung), a woman getting over her breakup with the offscreen
Johnny. The movie follows these episodic romances almost half-heartedly as with
Wong's other films, and digressionary moments attract much of the camera's distracted gaze. This visually stylish and unabashedly effusive work is considered by some critics to be the quintessential
Wong film.
~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
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