Fallen Angels.
27 04 2007It’s Friday night, I’m done with my blog post of doom, and somehow I find myself in front of my computer wanting to write another film blog post. For my international cinema class, we watched Fallen Angels on Wednesday afternoon. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Every time I clear my head of everything else that’s going on, this film creeps in. I’m writing about it, but I don’t quite know where to start. I know that not all the students in my class had such a passionate reaction to it, so I’m recommending it with the disclaimer that it’s not for everyone.
TRAILER
Fallen Angels (a Chinese film directed by Kar Wai Wong) is spectacular. Stylistically, it is completely breathtaking. Thematically, it’s incredibly powerful. I don’t have any criticisms, which is rare. I have never seen anything quite like it.
So please, please see it. I don’t think it’s too difficult to find. Dr. Campbell, this means you. And Stephanie. And Ben. And everyone, really. I said that I’ve been thinking about this movie for the past three days, but I still haven’t even begun to explore everything I’d like to. I don’t even know if I have the right to try to approach it until I’ve seen it again.
Just…there are no words. (Still.) Perhaps I’ll think of some, but don’t hold your breath. I think I’m in love.
Agreed, this is a remarkable film. I personally like the more over-the-top Chinese gangster film’s like Hard Boiled. John Woo really invented (well, not really) the two-handed pistol approach in high-action scenes, and Hard Boiled is just so far over the top that it is not only compelling but really a gas. One criticism I find with Wong Kar-wai is he takes himself a bit too seriously, He is obviously reframing Woo’s stuff (like Hard Boiled and The Killer), who has re-framed many before him. However, Kar-wai seems to be trying to create a Hong Kong/Tarantino mashup given the “independent feel and young, disaffected gun crazed couple.” Frankly, I find this a bit ironic because so much of Tarantino’s work is directly lifted from Hong Kong, Kar-wai’s “tracking him back” so soon after his explosion almost seems like filmic opportunism. This is proven even more so by his following film, In the Mood for Love, which was just a bad, “Sony Classics” style European art film - kinda pretty and an absolute mess narratively.
So there’s a round-about criticism of a pretty powerful film. Like the Anarchy Player, by the way ;)