Thursday, August 4, 2016

Fallen Angels (1995, R)

Even though this film bears many hallmarks of a quintessential Wong Kar-wai film – hopeless love story, perfect music, gangster violence, strange and beautiful quirks, introspective voiceovers – it’s one that doesn’t always come immediately to mind when I think of his work.  That might be because it only features two actors who’ve appeared in other movies of his, and even then only one film apiece.  Still, it’s really a great movie, as I’m reminded every time I watch it.

We follow two main narratives here.  In the first, a contract killer has been contemplating getting out of the business.  His chief consideration, however, isn’t the danger or the money; it’s whether or not he can break it to his agent, the woman who’s been doing setup and cleanup work for him for years.  The second storyline centers around Zhiwu, an eccentric young man whose unconventional methods of both work and relationships are partially informed by his mutism.  From his unwilling customers to his exasperated father to the single-minded woman he loves, he’s desperately trying to connect.

If Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, and 2046 form a loose trilogy, then Fallen Angels is an even looser sequel of sorts to Chungking Express.  The ties are very few indeed.  Takeshi Kaneshiro’s Zhiwu has the same name as his character in Chungking Express, although they’re pretty clearly not the same person; Zhiwu also makes a significant reference to pineapples, which were majorly important to Kaneshiro’s character in in the previous film.  The midnight express itself makes a brief appearance as well.  More than anything, though, the similarity comes through in the structure, with the two separate threads that almost never intertwine.  There’s a tiny bit more overlap here, as well as a structure that jumps between the two narratives rather than wrapping up the first before starting the second.

Both parts are excellent and feel quite novel.  I’m fascinated by the relationship between the killer and his agent, who’ve fostered this close connection despite almost never interacting face-to-face.  She gets to know him through the messes he leaves behind in his boltholes and haunts the places he frequents, but only when he’s not there.  Meanwhile, even as he goes about his work and tries to decide if he wants out, his mind is filled with her.  Leon Lai and Maria Reyes, both newcomers to Wong, seamlessly fit his sensibilities and perfectly inhabit their characters.

And I just adore Zhiwu (more than I did the iteration in Chungking Express, though I like that one quite a bit, too.)  He’s so unapologetically odd, sometimes disturbingly so, but it’s all filtered through this innate optimism he has and a desire to make people happy.  He cheerfully lets himself be led around by Charlie (Charlie Yeung, who was in Ashes of Time) even though she’s still massively hung up on her ex, and his relationship with his dad seems to exist on two entirely different wavelengths:  the one Zhiwu sees and the one his dad sees.  I love the contrast between how Zhiwu appears to those who see his voiceless form of expression and the eloquent voiceovers that permeate his section of the film.

Warnings

Violence, sexual content, a little swearing, and drinking/smoking.

No comments:

Post a Comment