Fallen Angels |  | Director: Kar Wai Wong
Actors: Leon Lai, Michelle Reis, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Charlie Yeung, Karen Mok
Studio: Kino Video
Category: DVD
Buy New: $44.19
as of 11/22/2009 17:40 CST details
New (3) Used (7) from $19.98
Seller: icemancds
Rating:  55 reviews
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: Mandarin Chinese (Original Language), Cantonese (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 0
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 738329012021
EAN: 0738329012021
Theatrical Release Date: January 30, 1998
Release Date: September 2, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Fallen Angels was originally planned as one section of director Wong Kar-Wai's best-known film, Chungking Express, but eventually it grew into its own distinct and delirious shape. In many ways, Fallen Angels may be the better film, a dark, frantic fun-house ride through Hong Kong's nighttime world. Part of the film is a love story between two people who have barely met: a young, ultra-hip hit man (Leon Lai) and the dreamy operative (Michele Reis) who plans his jobs. Much of the movie is given over to a very strange subplot about a manic mute (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who goes on bizarre nocturnal prowls through a closed food market--like almost everything else in Wong's films, this is antic, stylish, and oddly touching, all at the same time. It must be said that, also like Wong's other films, Fallen Angels is fragmented and oblique to the point of occasional incomprehensibility…but then suddenly something wild or wonderful happens, such as the moment when the killer leaves the scene of a spectacular shooting and is promptly waylaid by a cheerful old school chum on a public bus. These coups--whether lyrical, violent, or simply "how on earth did they get that shot?"--are tossed off by Wong and cinematographer Christopher Doyle with all the cool of the hired killer, as though the movie were a cigarette dangling from a pair of oh-so-casual lips. This is exactly why so many otherwise calm critics fell all over themselves in hailing Wong Kar-Wai as one of the most exciting filmmakers of his generation. --Robert Horton
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
 One of my favorite films May 11, 2007
V. hotho (New York, NY USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Of all the WKW Chunking films, this is the masterpiece. Absolutely beautiful, emotional, hilarious and action packed- all in one film.
Wonderfully shot. One of the best visual scenes of all time- when Charlie is in the noodle shop shot through the glass in the pouring rain. masterful.
 The kind of film you cannot explain, but must see... October 16, 2006
bel_78 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Fallen Angels", directed by Wong Kar Wai, is the kind of film you cannot explain, but must see. Why? Because it manages to transmit the feelings of isolation, love, hope and despair of its main characters, characters that are not like you or me, but that feel the same things we sometimes feel.
This film is driven by inner monologue, that is, you can hear what the characters think. Due to that, you are able to watch their actions but also to hear their thoughts. It is interesting, but also heartbreaking at times. In a sense, "Fallen Angels" could be accurately displayed as a sequel to "Chungking Express", because it is also about people, their stories, and specially their longing for something they don't have but hope for.
One of the main characters is a hitman, Wong Chi-Ming (Leon Lai), who has a beautiful partner (Michele Reis) that coordinates his hits. Wong Chi-Ming knows why he became a killer, a reason that is strange but that makes sense to him: "The best thing about my profession is that there's no need to make any decision. Who's to die... when... where... it's all been planned by others. I'm a lazy person. I like people to arrange things for me". Despite that, he is thinking of leaving his job and becoming a "normal" person, something his partner doesn't like at all.
The other main character is He Zhiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a young mute that lost his voice after eating a tin of expired pineapple. He Zhiwu has a weird hobby: to break into stores at night and pretend to run them, forcing customers to buy things. He also happens to fall in love with a very strange lady, and says to himself "They say that love can change a man. I start to find myself looking better and more charming, and suddenly I discover that I'm turning blonde".
"Fallen Angels" is, again, a strange but magical film. I've tried to explain it, but I know I cannot do that well enough. It is up to you to draw your own conclusions. In my opinion, though, this is a film to be recommended.
Belen Alcat
Not the 'feel good movie of the year' May 19, 2006
Sasha (Raleigh, NC USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Not only does Fallen Angels tell a story, giving each character a developmental turn in the spotlight, but it sets the mood to be carried throughout the film. This movie is real and intimate. I was left feeling cold most of the time. It seems that, even though there are strong emotional scenes, most of the characters also recognize the coolness of the world surrounding their niche in society. Sometimes there are smiles, but no happiness. A well-developed, produced, acted, edited and written piece of art.
ARTIZTIC VIEW ON ALIENATION December 29, 2005
J. Y. TRASMONTE (S.F. Bay Area)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
indidviduals who are alienated, an outcast within the society tells their different story in this artistic entertaining movie. Cinematogrophy done by the one and only stylish chris doyle. Chris is amazing wih the cinematogrohy done on this film. Shot with neon, dreamy, hallucinatory preparation made this film an artistic beauty to watch. Each characters in this story are very interesting in their own way. We have the cool laid back quite assasin (leon) who lurks his way down at night to the city lights of hongkong in order to fulfill his mission guided and ordered by his dreamy melon-cholic girl partner, in which both of em never met one another but only find cues on things on recognising each others' personality. Such when michelle (the assasin's partner) look through the assasins left overs in her hotel room to know the assasin's preference. We have the mute, entertaining, colorful personality character who also lurks his way with his scooter at night to run his imaginary jobs at random shops and restuarant. This mute guy is takeshi kaneshiro who always run in with this one particular guy in which takeshi forces him to become his customer otherwise painful consequences might happen(a funny scene). The movie is entirely unique in its own way that i really find captivating to the senses. There is way more stuff in the movie than what i just said, you just have to find it for yourself. In my opinion this movie is way better than its predecessor chungking express in which directed by the same director. get the movie if u want to see a unique cinematography and stories of alienated individuals.
(grade A)
Everything you have seen before and nothing like anything you have seen before. December 7, 2005
Miguel B. Llora (Bay Point, California USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
One thing is for sure - it is everything you have seen before and nothing like anything you have seen before. As a Wong Kar-wai junkie, I have to admit - it is getting harder and harder to find a favorite - Fallen Angels is among the top three. In one sense I really loved Fallen Angels because it is full of the same urban angst brought up in Chungking Express. There is something utterly and strikingly gorgeous about Wong Kar-Wai's movies. The mise-en-scene and backdrops his characters inhabit in that give each scene a particular almost brooding feeling. Wong Kar-Wai's are lost and lonely in a world that is dark and full of despair. Fallen Angels is no different.
Fallen Angels' Hong Kong is alive in the evenings. One could argue that the cinematography captures a dreamlike state, pure urban neon, and erotic. In Fallen Angels we travel the gritty back alleys (reminiscent of Chunking Express) into underworld dives, dreary dive bars juxtaposed against a brightly-lit McDonalds. I have to say this... Wong Kar-wai does somewhat put me off with his product placement - but we have to finance our projects somehow, I guess.
Leon Lai's is a lazy hired killer. His portrayal, it can be argues is weighty and conjures up a sense of gaudy (almost caddy) persona. I am reminded of Yuddy in Days of Being Wild. Lai is wonderful as a contradiction of apathy and poetry. Lai plays it with a languid air. Every move is deliberate - smooth. Conversely, Michelle Reis' is his doppelganger - his manager. She is obsessed with him, becomes emotionally attached to him. I would argue that a sense of betrayal set the stage for the hit man's final demise. A nighttime ride in the back of a motorcycle with He Zhiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) leads me wonder is she has comes undone. Love though, and its many forms of cruelty is a recurring theme with Wong Kar-wai. Oh that sweet betrayal... He Zhiwu is a potent character. The relationship He Zhiwu develops with his father is proof positive that even in the broken world of dysfunctionality there resides a lotus from the marshes. The videotape sessions, at first almost humorous, forms yet another center of love shattered - sometimes we need to really treasure what we have lest it slip by so suddenly... he Zhiwu is a symbol of the lyricism of youth.
One has to admit, even after Chunking Express, Fallen Angels is different from any Hong Kong movie. Driven by inner monologue (much like the later much acclaimed The Follow from The Hire series) it draws one in. The languid tone and deeply erotic tale is one that will stand the test of time. Fallen Angels according to Teo takes over from where Chungking Express leaves of. I argue that it brought Chungking Express to a whole new realm. Fallen Angels is Chungking Express on steroids.
Miguel Llora
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
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