Review of Fallen Angels (1998) by Ahmedaiman9999 — 19 Oct 2018

I can see why Fallen Angels is considered to be a follow-up to Chungking Express. In fact, it's kinda set in the same universe; as there are many references, and too many things the two movies share. But Fallen Angels expanded on its predecessor's trippy atmosphere and visual style. The result is an extremely entertaining hypnotic experience that you can't help keeping your eyes glued to the screen throughout its 95-minute run time.

From the technical standpoint, Fallen Angels isn't just as flawless, or just as phenomenal, as Chungking Express, but it's actually stand s out from the latter's for being more practical. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Chungking Express is overly stylized as some people, but in Fallen Angels; the songs, the music, the colors, the use of black and white, and almost everything we see or hear adds to the story, and if not to the story, then to the experience itself. Because Kar-Wai Wong knows how to convey emotions and feelings, maybe more than any other filmmaker!

Alas, Chungking Express is far more superior to Fallen Angels from the narrative standpoint. I don't mean that Fallen Angels's script lacks cohesion (I shouldn't ask for that anyway), or smart dialogue (Actually this movie has many great and quite subtle lines), but it, undoubtedly, lacks interesting characters. Honestly, I was quite engaged with the killer's story and his partner, but the mute's storyline and the crazy girl who is getting over her breakup completely annoyed me. At the beginning of He's story, I was actually somewhat entertained. There were some hilarious moments that really made me laugh out loud. But soon I felt that this storyline overstayed its welcome, and I found the whole thing very annoying, and extremely tedious. It's baffling because I think the storyline is well-structured, and everything should have worked very well, but I really don't know why the characters turned out to be unbearable, at least for me.

That said, the mutes story has some of the most memorable moments in the movie, besides the above-mentioned funny scenes. Also,Takeshi Kaneshiro, who played He, the mute character, is a remarkable actor, an there is no better proof than the way he changed his reactions and facial expressions by the end of his character's arc.

I wasn't surprised that I didn't get moved by the end of the mute's character's arc, but what surprised me is that I felt very little, if any, emotions towards the killer by the end of his storyline. While I found myself engrossed in the killer's story, almost instantly, once the movie returned to it, I think the mute's story detached me emotionally from the killer's. At the end of the movie I was almost entirely emotionally disconnected from all the characters, and the movie left me a bit cold.

(7.