Site Features
- Asian Film Awards
- Site Recommendations

- Reader Poll Results

- The Sponsor Page
- The FAQ Page
 
support this site by shopping at
Click to visit YesAsia.com
Asian Blu-ray discs at YesAsia.com
 
 
 
 
 
Fallen Angels
   |     review    |     awards     |     availability     |
  
  


From left to right: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Leon Lai, Michelle Reis and Karen Mok
Chinese: 墮落天使  
Year: 1995  
Director: Wong Kar-Wai  
Producer: Jeff Lau Chun-Wai  
Cine: Christopher Doyle  
  Cast: Leon Lai Ming, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Michelle Reis (Lee Ka-Yan), Charlie Young Choi-Nei, Karen Mok Man-Wai, Chan Fai-Hung
  The Skinny: Wong Kar-Wai's latest takes his Chungking Express formula and runs wild with it. The result is more self-indulgent, but also as exciting and affecting as his other films.
 
Review
by Kozo:

Apparently Wong Kar-Wai has found his true voice. That, or he simply insists on rehashing Chungking Express with the added bonus of female masturbation sequences and John Woo-esque assassinations. Fallen Angels takes the breezy, free-flowing verse of Chungking Express and turns it into a dark, perpetually skewed take on Hong Kong. This dark, moody, but triumphantly quirky tribute to the lost souls of Hong Kong loosely follows five young people who cross paths as they try to stop themselves from giving into their loneliness.

Sky King Leon Lai is a lifeless hit man who feels like getting out of the biz and Michelle Reis is his sexy (but tragically lonely) partner, who’s secretly in love with him. She sets up his hits, but longs to be closer to him. He doesn’t notice and instead takes up with his former girlfriend, a showy dyed-blond played with boundless energy and affecting emotion by Karen Mok. Simultaneously, a mute, child-like grifter (Takeshi Kaneshiro) wanders the night, earning money by getting his unwilling customers to pay for his various services (among them hairdresser, launderer, and ice-cream man). His life changes when he runs into his first love, a bad-hair day Charlie Young who loudly laments her lost boyfriend Johnny. 

Wong’s most audacious experiment in cinematic language (even more than Ashes of Time), Fallen Angels succeeds at taking us further into the dark alleys of Hong Kong’s soul. Aided and abetted by award-winning cinematographer Christopher Doyle, he uses whole palettes of neon color and wide-angle lenses to imbue his trademark themes of love and loss upon some truly dark, desperate souls. The acting is fine all around, though Takeshi Kaneshiro is the heart of this film and Charlie Young nearly steals the show by chewing more scenery than Carina Lau did in Days of Being Wild. Karen Mok won a Hong Kong Film Award for her performance. (Kozo 1996)

 
Awards: 15th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards
Winner - Best Supporting Actress (Karen Mok Man-Wai)
Winner - Best Cinematography (Christopher Doyle)
Winner - Best Original Score (Frankie Chan Fan-Kei, Roel A. Garcia)
Nomination - Best Picture
Nomination - Best Director (Wong Kar-Wai)
Nomination - Best Editing (William Cheung Suk-Ping, Wong Ming-Lam)
Nomination - Best Art Direction (William Cheung Suk-Ping)
Nomination - Best Costume Design (William Cheung Suk-Ping)
2nd Annual Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards
• Recommended Film
Availability: DVD (Hong Kong)
Region 0 NTSC
Mei Ah Entertainment
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Cantonese Language Track
Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Removable English and Chinese Subtitles
*Also Available on Blu-ray Disc

images courtesy of Jet Tone Productions

   
 
 
LoveHKFilm.com Copyright ©2002-2017 Ross Chen