Wong Kar-wai, who has always pursued elegance and alienation, chose a surreal theme that describes the love of killers. In the list of Wong Kar-wai's works, "Fallen Angels" attempts to show the chaos and pain of everyone's inner world by describing the sense of distance between people. The peculiar relationship between the protagonists makes the whole film cast a strong tragic color.
The interlocking plot
"Fallen Angels" tells the story of a group of killers. Before that, they did not know each other, but developed feelings that are difficult for ordinary people to understand. In the film, Wong Kar-wai tries to ingeniously connect the lives and love of the five killers through a two-part story, forming a wonderful closed loop.
Angel No. 1 and Angel No. 2 have never met, but they are a golden combination of “work” together. The loneliness and curiosity of Angel No. 2 are unfamiliar and fall in love with Angel No. 1. That day, Angel No. 1 prepared the golden basin to wash his hands, met Angel No. 5, and met with Angel No. 2 through her. The two lonely people had a good impression of each other, but Angel No. 1 knew very well, “The best partner It shouldn't be emotional". In the end, Angel 1 tried to do it alone without Angel 2, but was shot dead.
The strange angel No. 3 happened to meet the broken-hearted Angel No. 4, and they met to avenge the cheating boyfriend No. 4, through a series of bizarre experiences, Angel No. 3 was moved by Angel No. 4. Later, when the two met again, Angel No. 4, dressed as a stewardess, didn't seem to remember him at all. Desolate No. 3 met the same lonely No. 2 encounter, and the two left together with inexplicable loneliness.
The self-subversion of Wong Kar-wai
Before "Fallen Angels", Wong Kar-wai's films always adhered to the traditional narrative method of "transition and succession", the story was told smoothly, and everything was talked unhurriedly.
However, in "Fallen Angels", Wong Kar-wai breaks the habit and his narrative perspective is divided among the five main characters. The seemingly fragmented story makes this film abstract and incomprehensible. Together with Wong Kar-wai's unique lens language and line design, it visualizes the detached relationship between the five killers.
Wong Kar-wai's style lens uses
emotional depression and relationship alienation to be the main theme of this film. Wong Kar-wai, who has always emphasized the artistic conception, boldly adopted alternative shooting methods in the film-wide-angle lens used in a wide range.
When the wide-angle lens is aimed at the protagonists’ exaggerated and deformed faces, they are obviously two people standing together, but they feel that the distance between them is tens of thousands of miles apart, which creates a strange sense of space alienation, especially the wide-angle lens in indoor scenes. The cooperation with the lighting brings the psychedelic color of a bit of chaos in time and space.
Takeshi Kaneshiro's unique show
In "Fallen Angels", Wong Kar-wai unexpectedly chose Liming, Li Jiaxin, Kaneshiro Takeshi, Yang Caini and Karen Mok to play five "angel killers". If you look back at the current standards, Liming and others are a bit jerky in acting and emotional catharsis, but Takeshi Kaneshiro, who cooperated with Wong Kar-wai for the second time, performed well.
Takeshi Kaneshiro plays Angel No. 3, which is more complicated than others. In the film, although he is a dumb man, he likes to break into other people's homes, and he likes to buy and sell to others. A large number of scenes make the image of a neurotic killer who is oppressed by life become more three-dimensional. The feeling of loneliness of that silently pays for feelings, but can't get the other's attention, makes people feel pity.
It can be said that the wonderful performance in "Fallen Angels" is the pinnacle of Kaneshiro's personal acting skills. Even in the later "Sleepless City", "Red Cliff", and "Taiping Wheel", Kaneshiro could not surpass his previous perfect performance.
