Fallen Angels. (15.)
Directed by Wong Kar Wai.
Starring Leon Lai, Michele Reis, Takeshiro Kaneshiro, Charlie Yeung and Karen Mok. 99 mins
A follow up/ unofficial sequel to/ rejigging/ mirror image of Chungking Express, this was strung out from a third story planned for the previous film but not filmed. There are little connections to the previous film threaded throughout Fallen Angels, references to out-of-date tinned pineapples and ladies in blonde wigs. Where CE was frivolously romantic, this is frivolously melancholic. It's set entirely at night, in a Hong Kong that seems set to erupt in violence at any moment.
To that third story a fourth has been added, but this time the film switches back and forth between the two. Leon Lai is a hitman being given directions and instructions for his every job by business partner Michele Reis. They never meet. Instead, just as in Chungking, she likes to sneak into his apartment and do some cleaning. Traditionally the movie hitman is a refined figure employing meticulous planning and coldhearted detachment: he just turns with a sideways gun in each hand and shoots up small business establishments before legging it.
Elsewhere, Kaneshiro is a mute who breaks into small businesses after hours to open them up in the middle of the night. Often he will bully passersby into becoming customers. Back in Chungking Mansions, he looks after his dad who is the manager there.
Honestly, this was the one film in this collection I didn't really enjoy, the one where the characters and themes were too facile to get on board with. Isn't anyone else bothered that Kaneshiro's character is psychopathic? The scene where he forces a family to eat masses of ice cream in his truck is like a serial killer toying with his next victims. Also, I'm not having the use of The Flying Pickets' acapella cover of Yazoo's Only You on the soundtrack. It's one thing for Wonky to sit in his shades in the extras on this disc, batting away questions from awed artists and filmmakers, but no way am I going to be persuaded that this is cool.
Yet, I'm desperate to see it again. It's horrible but the visuals are mesmerising. Using everything from extremely wide angled lenses to ordinary videotape, it creates a look that is as poised as Days of Being Wild but crossed with the frenetic energy of the first part of Chungking. It's like some hoodlum running wild through an Edward Hopper painting. The shots of the killer's apartment are jaw-droppingly beautiful but the real stand out is a scene with Reis draped over a Wurlitzer jukebox in a bar that is playing a Laurie Anderson track. As the camera scans up and down her body, her clothes and the jukebox seem to be throbbing with life. Its static sexual electricity is reminiscent of the scene in Videodrome where James Woods sticks his head between Debbie Harry's lips on the expanding TV screen.
Plus the use of a Laurie Anderson track that isn't Oh Superman is one of his most inspired musical choices. It balances out the Flying Pickets atrocity.
Review of Happy Together
Directed by Wong Kar Wai.
Starring Leon Lai, Michele Reis, Takeshiro Kaneshiro, Charlie Yeung and Karen Mok. 99 mins
A follow up/ unofficial sequel to/ rejigging/ mirror image of Chungking Express, this was strung out from a third story planned for the previous film but not filmed. There are little connections to the previous film threaded throughout Fallen Angels, references to out-of-date tinned pineapples and ladies in blonde wigs. Where CE was frivolously romantic, this is frivolously melancholic. It's set entirely at night, in a Hong Kong that seems set to erupt in violence at any moment.
To that third story a fourth has been added, but this time the film switches back and forth between the two. Leon Lai is a hitman being given directions and instructions for his every job by business partner Michele Reis. They never meet. Instead, just as in Chungking, she likes to sneak into his apartment and do some cleaning. Traditionally the movie hitman is a refined figure employing meticulous planning and coldhearted detachment: he just turns with a sideways gun in each hand and shoots up small business establishments before legging it.
Elsewhere, Kaneshiro is a mute who breaks into small businesses after hours to open them up in the middle of the night. Often he will bully passersby into becoming customers. Back in Chungking Mansions, he looks after his dad who is the manager there.
Honestly, this was the one film in this collection I didn't really enjoy, the one where the characters and themes were too facile to get on board with. Isn't anyone else bothered that Kaneshiro's character is psychopathic? The scene where he forces a family to eat masses of ice cream in his truck is like a serial killer toying with his next victims. Also, I'm not having the use of The Flying Pickets' acapella cover of Yazoo's Only You on the soundtrack. It's one thing for Wonky to sit in his shades in the extras on this disc, batting away questions from awed artists and filmmakers, but no way am I going to be persuaded that this is cool.
Yet, I'm desperate to see it again. It's horrible but the visuals are mesmerising. Using everything from extremely wide angled lenses to ordinary videotape, it creates a look that is as poised as Days of Being Wild but crossed with the frenetic energy of the first part of Chungking. It's like some hoodlum running wild through an Edward Hopper painting. The shots of the killer's apartment are jaw-droppingly beautiful but the real stand out is a scene with Reis draped over a Wurlitzer jukebox in a bar that is playing a Laurie Anderson track. As the camera scans up and down her body, her clothes and the jukebox seem to be throbbing with life. Its static sexual electricity is reminiscent of the scene in Videodrome where James Woods sticks his head between Debbie Harry's lips on the expanding TV screen.
Plus the use of a Laurie Anderson track that isn't Oh Superman is one of his most inspired musical choices. It balances out the Flying Pickets atrocity.
Review of Happy Together
