Style as Substance - Wong Kar-Wai's Fallen Angels 20 years on.
Plot is shorn of all unnecessary elements to the point where characters do not even require names. Wong pulls liberally from his filmography crafting his masterpiece. In The Mood For Love is Wong's most critically praised work, Tony Leung won best actor at Cannes, and Chungking Express has the Quentin Tarantino cachet that means so much to so many of the cinephiles of my generation, but Fallen Angels is Wong at his best. The grand through line of Wong's work that could be used for his auteur standing, is failed connections and missed moments. It is about the if only... and the lost opportunities. Lost souls drift through the neon washed Hong Kong night as it can only look through the lens of Christopher Doyle's camera.
Wong calls Fallen Angels the other side of the coin to Chungking Express. Chungking Mansions hotel and the Midnight Express stand are the shared locations but Fallen Angels has a much wider scope.
Opening in black and white with a wide angle close up of Michelle Reis shakily taking a drag off a cigarette with Leon Lai casually leaning back in his chair smoking in the background (side note, whenever someone says it is not cool they sound silly. Of course smoking is cool that is why people do it). In addition to the black and white the scene is harshly lit and shallowly focused on Reis. She asks him if they are still partners and we are given his thoughts in voice over. He says nothing but thinks that business partners should never get emotionally involved with one another. The scene cuts to the bright pink title card and the base line of First Killing (Because I'm Cool), a reworking of Karmacoma by Massive Attack, hits as the title scrolls across the screen. No other credits play. We now follow Reis (her character is never given a name and she is credited as the Killer's Agent) walking through walks a subway station. On the street she reaches into a broken windows, grabbing a set of keys, and enters a tiny, rundown apartment. Once inside she throws a six pack in the refrigerator (everyone in the movie drinks Heineken and every time I see a can or bottle I can hear Dennis Hopper's disapproval) and begins cleaning; in a leather dress and fishnet stockings.
After cleaning up, setting the clock, and refilling the fax machine, she sits down to put on some lipstick. Out the window a train is going by and the cha-thunk, cha-thunk of the tracks is used for an audio matched cut into First Killing (Because I'm Cool) as we see Leon Lai (his character may be named Wong Chi-Ming but is most often just referred to as the Killer) leaving the same subway station.The aural matched cut tells us that the Killer was on that train and would be returning home soon after another job completed. After the Agent finishes up and leaves, the Killer mirrors her in grabbing the key from the broken window in order to get into the apartment. After he opens a set of shutters, the camera is set outside the window. We see him nonchalantly turn on a lamp and hang up his jacket as a police car is heard driving by. Is that cop going to his crime scene? Could it be one of the cops from Chungking Express? It is never addressed.
Returning to the Agent, we find that she lives in the Chungking Mansions hotel as the first of many callbacks to Wong's previous picture. She leave a message with an answering service while doing laundry because even members of the criminal underworld need to do chores. We see her in her element as she describes the job of doing reconnaissance as visiting friends. When she is finished, she faxes a map to the Killer letting him know where the target will be located. We see the killer prepare his guns as he talks about how he likes the job because he doesn't need to do any thinking, he can rely on his partner. It is here that the John Woo influence can be seen as he has dual pistols. During this time the agent is dropping his payment off at a PO box. Then we get the first hit in the backroom at a restaurant. The violence is harsh, lots of blood to the point where some splatters on to the camera lens.
Heading home on the bus, the Killer, Ming as he is called, runs into an old classmate who peppers him with questions. Ming has a cover story ready for such an occasion with pictures of him with a woman he says is his wife and a kid he claims is his son. The man gives him a wedding invitation as her gets off the bus. The killer thinks about how it might be nice to go to a wedding, something normal for most people but he knows that can't happen and throws the invitation out the window and goes to the PO box to get his money and we see the agent cleaning his home again. This time things get weird. She take his trash home to go through remarking that you can learn a lot about a person by looking at their trash. While that is true, it is not a health thing to be doing. She finds a matchbook from a bar and decides to go there for a drink and a couple of tune on the jukebox.
The bar looks like a dream or memory. Red light, mirrors, and only her and the bartender. She says that she sits in the Killer's usual seat because it lets her feel close to him. She is looking to connect with the person that plays the biggest role in her life knowing that he is not the type to let someone get close. Then she plays Speak My Language by Laurie Anderson and makes me wish I could be a jukebox.
The way Doyle shoots Reis in this scene is the most erotic thing captured on film. The way her dress hangs on her body is mesmerizing. Then there is an amazing slow motion shot from the train through a window into the apartment,
as the scene progresses to the Agent pleasuring herself on the Killer's bed while continuing to smoke a cigarette. This show her visceral drive for connection. Unable to have the real thing, she is pantomiming elements of a relationship. Reis is unassailably gorgeous and this is a sexually charge sequence but a passing thought as to her motivations change her from an object of lust to one of pity. She is a lonely, disillusioned women.
Back at the Chungking Mansions hotel the police are looking for Ho Chi Moo (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Ho's first lines, thoughts as he does not speak at all in the film, are about how we rub elbows with people everyday and you never know how may become a friend or confidant. He also says he was prisoner number 223, another callback to Chungking Express where Kaneshiro played officer 223. He tells us that he was very talkative until he ate expired pineapple, another wink to the audience. He also explains that not being able to talk makes it hard to find work so he is an entrepreneur, breaking into businesses at night and running them. Overall Ho's story is the one that feels like an extension of Chungking Express with most of the explicit connections and a lighter tone.
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| Who says nobody buys pork at 3 a.m.? |
Ho has a way with his customers, he doesn't take no for an answer and forces good and services on people that happen by including an encounter with a man at an ice cream truck that leads to the man's entire family coming by for a treat and a ride in the truck. While driving down the street Ho recalls a story about the time he dad told him that he didn't like ice cream because Ho's mother was run over by an ice cream truck and killed. Ho's father, the manager of the Chungking Mansions hotel, is played by Man-Lia Chan who was cast because he was the manager of the Chungking Mansions hotel when they shot the film. He works well in the role as a non-professional and adds a weight to Ho's story.
Back with the Killer and the Agent we are treated to a series of echoing cuts, not quite matched on action but first one walks into a room then we cut to when the other walks into the same room. This shows the similar mannerisms they have but also the subtle differences in the way people react to each of them. And we see another hit. This time with a woman and child around so we can see the Killer is careful to not injure them. Then he goes on a debt collection run that does not goes so well leaving him with a bullet in his arm that he removes himself. We see his Agent pass by in the train, looking out the window trying to see him. The next day he set an appointment to meet with her and tell her he is quitting but, he no shows likely fearing her reaction. Instead he pulls the incredibly cool move of leaving a coin with the bartender with instructions to give it to her if she comes by asking about him and tell her his lucky number 1818. When she does come to the bar and receive the coin, she play song 1818, a version of Forget Him by Shirley Kwan. The scene goes black and white as she listens.
Back with the Killer and the Agent we are treated to a series of echoing cuts, not quite matched on action but first one walks into a room then we cut to when the other walks into the same room. This shows the similar mannerisms they have but also the subtle differences in the way people react to each of them. And we see another hit. This time with a woman and child around so we can see the Killer is careful to not injure them. Then he goes on a debt collection run that does not goes so well leaving him with a bullet in his arm that he removes himself. We see his Agent pass by in the train, looking out the window trying to see him. The next day he set an appointment to meet with her and tell her he is quitting but, he no shows likely fearing her reaction. Instead he pulls the incredibly cool move of leaving a coin with the bartender with instructions to give it to her if she comes by asking about him and tell her his lucky number 1818. When she does come to the bar and receive the coin, she play song 1818, a version of Forget Him by Shirley Kwan. The scene goes black and white as she listens.
While she is devastated he goes to a McDonald's and meet a woman with dyed blond hair. They head back to her place where she tells him that she dyed her hair to be memorable and that they used to date even though he does not recognize her. Blondie stands out from the rest of the character as her concern is being remembered not making the initial connection.Were these two really an item at one point in the past? Does it matter? They start making out which is cut with his Agent in his apartment crying on his bed wearing a clear rain jacket over a slip, with her mascara running. She is a mess.
While Ho is making the rounds trying to force some flayers on people, he runs into a girls named Charlie. She is on the phone with an ex boyfriend who tells her he is getting married to a woman named Blondie. Is this the same Blondie the Killer is hanging out with? He tells us that he has been running into a lot recently and every time it is the same with her crying on his shoulder. This time she get him to go with her as she looks for Blondie with the intent to do some kind of violence to her for stealing her boyfriend, who is called Johnny. After a fruitless search they end up at a dim sum place where a brawl breaks out. Then in another black and white scene Ho say that this is the first time he has fallen in love. This leads to a bit of magical realism when Ho's hair starts to turn blond and he becomes more handsome because he is in love. Of course it does not last and after she stands him up at a soccer match his hair turns black again. He decides that he should stop breaking into shops. The last one is familiar
He gets a real job as a cook at a restaurant that the Killer stops by to eat at. The Killer asks about the cost of opening a small restaurant like the one they are at, needing to do something after leaving the hit man game, but while they are talking Forget Him come on the radio. The song had kept him away from the bar and when he hears it he knows that her will never return to the restaurant either.
Ho Helps his boss, Sato make a video for his son's birthday and get his hands on the video camera. First he records himself lip syncing but later he take the camera home to record his father. He records otherwise meaningless moments of his father working, cooking, sleeping, whatever he happens to be doing at the time. His father watches the video and thinks it is funny. Ho notes that it is his father 60th birthday.
The Agent and Blondie pass each other in a hallway at the subway station. Blondie tells the Killer the the Agent wants to meet. Blondie does not want him to goes but know that he will anyway. They go to the meeting and after hanging around for a while he walks her home. She thinks this means he is staying with her but he does not go up with her. She is very upset that he would walk her home just to leave her. She bites his arm telling him that the may forget her face but he will not forget her bite. All she wants is to be remembered if he sees he on the street. She can deal with him leaving her but the idea of being forgotten is too much.
When the Killer gets back to the meeting we have gone full circle. The Agent asks if they are still partners; we are back to the opening scene of the picture. He thinks about the question and comes to the conclusion that she is not the kind of person he could spend his life with. He tells her that he is ending their business relationship and she asks him to do one last job. She places a call and says she would like to place an ad on the front page. It is not clear what that code means.The Killer goes the job as usual but things go wrong and he is gunned down. Did she set him up?
Meanwhile Ho is packing up his father's apartment. We find out that his father passed away and Ho says that packing up his father's thing is the first time he felt like a grown up and he does not like it. He watches the video of his father and remember how happy he was in the kitchen cooking. He comments that he is sad that he will never taste his father's steaks again but is consoled by the memory of what his father's steaks tasted like. He also tells us that Sato had to leave the country so he is back to breaking into shops to run them at night. Back at the Midnight Express we get a scene that recalls the end of Chungking Express but this time it is Charlie that is in a flight attendant's uniform waiting outside the stand. She does not recognise him.
This brings us to the ending. The Agent is sitting in a noodle shop eating, thinking about how her business has changed. She does not let herself get so close to the partners she works with.Then a fight break out in the background. She does not even turn to look.
This ending is perfect. There is footage of the scene going on longer but the edit that made it into the film leave thing more open ended. We know they are not going to stay together, they know they are not going to stay together, but they are together now and that is what matters.
Thank you Wong Kar-Wai for the greatest work of cinema thus far and the very definition of the word romance. If the aliens come and ask me to explain the concept I will show this move.
While Ho is making the rounds trying to force some flayers on people, he runs into a girls named Charlie. She is on the phone with an ex boyfriend who tells her he is getting married to a woman named Blondie. Is this the same Blondie the Killer is hanging out with? He tells us that he has been running into a lot recently and every time it is the same with her crying on his shoulder. This time she get him to go with her as she looks for Blondie with the intent to do some kind of violence to her for stealing her boyfriend, who is called Johnny. After a fruitless search they end up at a dim sum place where a brawl breaks out. Then in another black and white scene Ho say that this is the first time he has fallen in love. This leads to a bit of magical realism when Ho's hair starts to turn blond and he becomes more handsome because he is in love. Of course it does not last and after she stands him up at a soccer match his hair turns black again. He decides that he should stop breaking into shops. The last one is familiar
He gets a real job as a cook at a restaurant that the Killer stops by to eat at. The Killer asks about the cost of opening a small restaurant like the one they are at, needing to do something after leaving the hit man game, but while they are talking Forget Him come on the radio. The song had kept him away from the bar and when he hears it he knows that her will never return to the restaurant either.
Ho Helps his boss, Sato make a video for his son's birthday and get his hands on the video camera. First he records himself lip syncing but later he take the camera home to record his father. He records otherwise meaningless moments of his father working, cooking, sleeping, whatever he happens to be doing at the time. His father watches the video and thinks it is funny. Ho notes that it is his father 60th birthday.
The Agent and Blondie pass each other in a hallway at the subway station. Blondie tells the Killer the the Agent wants to meet. Blondie does not want him to goes but know that he will anyway. They go to the meeting and after hanging around for a while he walks her home. She thinks this means he is staying with her but he does not go up with her. She is very upset that he would walk her home just to leave her. She bites his arm telling him that the may forget her face but he will not forget her bite. All she wants is to be remembered if he sees he on the street. She can deal with him leaving her but the idea of being forgotten is too much.
When the Killer gets back to the meeting we have gone full circle. The Agent asks if they are still partners; we are back to the opening scene of the picture. He thinks about the question and comes to the conclusion that she is not the kind of person he could spend his life with. He tells her that he is ending their business relationship and she asks him to do one last job. She places a call and says she would like to place an ad on the front page. It is not clear what that code means.The Killer goes the job as usual but things go wrong and he is gunned down. Did she set him up?
Meanwhile Ho is packing up his father's apartment. We find out that his father passed away and Ho says that packing up his father's thing is the first time he felt like a grown up and he does not like it. He watches the video of his father and remember how happy he was in the kitchen cooking. He comments that he is sad that he will never taste his father's steaks again but is consoled by the memory of what his father's steaks tasted like. He also tells us that Sato had to leave the country so he is back to breaking into shops to run them at night. Back at the Midnight Express we get a scene that recalls the end of Chungking Express but this time it is Charlie that is in a flight attendant's uniform waiting outside the stand. She does not recognise him.
This brings us to the ending. The Agent is sitting in a noodle shop eating, thinking about how her business has changed. She does not let herself get so close to the partners she works with.Then a fight break out in the background. She does not even turn to look.
This ending is perfect. There is footage of the scene going on longer but the edit that made it into the film leave thing more open ended. We know they are not going to stay together, they know they are not going to stay together, but they are together now and that is what matters.
Thank you Wong Kar-Wai for the greatest work of cinema thus far and the very definition of the word romance. If the aliens come and ask me to explain the concept I will show this move.
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