MetroStyles Fallen Angels feels like an art house film made by a young director trying to find his voice. The fact that it was made by the same established director that had in the previous few years released Days of Being Wild and Chungking Express made it all the more surprising, and frankly, disappointing.But don't be misled - this film has KWW's signature all over it. While the nostalgic aspect of some of his historical flicks is completely absent, the sense of unrequited love, alienation, and tragic inefficacy of human communication are central themes. Doyle's cinematography is creative as always and for the most part it contributes, rather than distracts. The music is quite good.The main problem with Fallen Angels is that it is awfully difficult to feel a connection for the characters. The plot does not move forward with much intention and the disjointed mini vignettes were a detriment to getting the audience emotionally involved. The characters are very difficult to relate to: The partner is a character that is drawn too sketchily and is not given enough dialog for the viewer to relate to deeply. The mute is meant to win us over with his innocent charm, but it is at times an overacted role which makes the character somewhat annoying. Blondie adds some comic relief (though also in an overacted manner) but is a bit easier to relate to and feel sorry for. Lastly, the killer is very apathetic about his life which does not endear the viewer to him. He is more "cool" than likable. Though that his inability to make decisions ultimately does not serve him well in life is a message that may resonate strongly with some viewers. There are moments of tenderness between characters, though few and far in between. This was undoubtedly KWW's intention as a mechanism for underscoring the loneliness of urban life. I can't help but think his point would have been better made with more realistic, normal characters as he has done so effectively in his other films. Overall definitely worth a viewing for all KWW fans, though this is certainly not where I would start if I were just discovering the director.For reference, this is how I rate some of this other films:Chungking Express: 9/10 (the second half 10/10) ||| 2046: 9/10 ||| Days of Being Wild: 9/10 ||| In the Mood for Love: 8.5/10 ||| Happy Together: 8.5/10 ||| Fallen Angels: 6/10

timmy_501 Although I had seen several of his films before, it wasn't until I saw Chungking Express a few months ago that I encountered a Wong Kar Wai film I found above average. Fallen Angels is loosely connected to that work and it uses a similar structure but it always feels original and unique.The most impressive part of Fallen Angels is the cinematography. Wong, working again with the great Christopher Doyle, breathes life into the garish urban nightscape of modern Hong Kong. Exhilarating shots such as the high speed motorcycle trip through a tunnel lit by green neon are so great on their own that they almost overshadow the visual mastery of the more stationary shots.The characters are less successful in their attempts to make connections here than in Wong's previous film; coupled with the violence, this makes for a darker, less optimistic viewing experience. The most effective scenes here deal with loss as when He Zhiwu, one of the film's two male protagonists, makes a spectacle of himself in front of his ex-girlfriend who completely ignores his antics.With Chunking Express and Fallen Angels, Wong established himself not only as one of the most eminent film-makers of the 1990s but also as the single greatest visual chronicler of modern urban malaise. Not since the heyday of Michelangelo Antonioni has a film director examined alienation with such skill.

chaos-rampant Some movies are tableaux observed from a fixed distance, a remnant of old theatrical ways they don't whisper so we will get up close and listen they shout out at us in our seat, their motions stopping at the edge of that figurative stage created by the camera. A Wong Kar Wai movie throws itself at you, or it stays the distance and invites you to climb the stage and take intimate looks, and none does it better from what I've seen so far than Fallen Angels. This is a movie that sends us hurling at top speed through the electric night of Hong Kong, blurred neon colors bleeding by the camera in splashes of light and shape, then it holes itself up in cheap fleabag rooms or dingy bathrooms to stare itself at the mirror or lie in bed exhausted and inert. This is stylish and cool but Wong Kar Wai is so terrific he goes the extra mile, he makes his stylish awfully poignant. And I like how he can make his films funny without breaking up the tone, without the movie making it seem like it's stopping in its tracks to relieve tension, it's all part of the journey.As with previous films, Fallen Angels tells us a vibrant expressionist story of lonely souls aching for connection, now when the normal folks go to bed the movie's characters crawl out of their holes to call out in the dead of night to anyone who might listen, even those who won't, each character only a moment's stop in another's journey through life. It is frantic, in a constant flux and motion and search for something, as though driven by instinctive Bedouin locomotion. The movie is motioning towards a sense of destination, a warm place those characters can call home and finally rest in, but it starts and finishes before that destination can be reached, hanging in the existential middle like the blurry snapshot of something that moves. The snapshot here is not simply the memento of something come and gone, it's something to be celebrated for its own momentary fleeting beauty. They might go on to reach home or not, but a girl is riding on a motorbike with a man she doesn't know, she knows the road is not that long and that she'll be getting off soon but at that moment she feels good. Then the movie comes out of a tunnel into the break of dawn, and it would be years (maybe not until Mann's Collateral) before we'd get another movie that takes us on a ride like this through the electric night.

i77310 **Very Little Spoilers** Knowing that Shirley Kwan's 'Forget Me', which I absolutely love, is in the soundtrack of this movie with an interesting title like 'Fallen Angels', I kind of expected this to be quite a masterpiece, especially with the good reviews I read in both Amazon and IMDb but alas, it's one of those over-rated movies again.I wasted S$20 of my money on this DVD since I can't rent it anywhere, and the Code 1 DVD cost S$63, almost a robbery.I like seeing Leon Lai, who plays a hired assassin, at the start even when he starts shooting at people with no purpose as who hired him and why. Then there's Michelle Reis, with fringes so long I can hardly see her face at all, no thanks to the shaky camera, which is very irritating.Just when some bits may get interesting like the guy massages the dead pig, the camera switch to a new scene and there's literally no story.It has a feeling that it's trying to be a cool movie but there's no story and character development and I don't care about all the people in it but I'm just waiting for the movie to end since I've already paid for this DVD.Rated 4/10 due to: one of my favorite song in the soundtrack- Forget Me Both Leon Lai and Michelle Reis are among my favorite stars. I was anxious to see them both together again after watching the TV series 'The Legendary Rangers'.But even with this 2 gorgeous actors, the film is wasted because it has not made full use of the enormous potential from the main title and only worth one viewing for the factors mentioned above. It could have been made like Leon The Professional but it's just a piece of crap. Rent it if you must, but not to buy at all. I regret buying the DVD.