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
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