Sorry, this movie sucks

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

**Very Little Spoilers** Knowing that Shirley Kwan's 'Forget Me', which I absolutely love, is in the soundtrack of this movie with an interesting title like 'Fallen Angels', I kind of expected this to be quite a masterpiece, especially with the good reviews I read in both Amazon and IMDb but alas, it's one of those over-rated movies again.I wasted S$20 of my money on this DVD since I can't rent it anywhere, and the Code 1 DVD cost S$63, almost a robbery.I like seeing Leon Lai, who plays a hired assassin, at the start even when he starts shooting at people with no purpose as who hired him and why. Then there's Michelle Reis, with fringes so long I can hardly see her face at all, no thanks to the shaky camera, which is very irritating.Just when some bits may get interesting like the guy massages the dead pig, the camera switch to a new scene and there's literally no story.It has a feeling that it's trying to be a cool movie but there's no story and character development and I don't care about all the people in it but I'm just waiting for the movie to end since I've already paid for this DVD.Rated 4/10 due to: one of my favorite song in the soundtrack- Forget Me Both Leon Lai and Michelle Reis are among my favorite stars. I was anxious to see them both together again after watching the TV series 'The Legendary Rangers'.But even with this 2 gorgeous actors, the film is wasted because it has not made full use of the enormous potential from the main title and only worth one viewing for the factors mentioned above. It could have been made like Leon The Professional but it's just a piece of crap. Rent it if you must, but not to buy at all. I regret buying the DVD.

Wong Kar-Wei is an acclaimed film director, with many incredible films to his credit, such as "Chungking Express", "In The Mood For Love" and "2046", amongst others. This story is mainly about Ming. a hired killer who tires of the game. This stylish film is set at night, and its sinister overtones are effective. Hong Kong has never looked this forbidding. That being said, to me, its not one of Kar-Wei's essential works. You are not supposed to like Ming, but you are also supposed to care about him as the main character, and I don't. By the end, I grew kind of tired with the style of the film, possibly too much of a good thing. By all means see it, but just know that there are veritable classics Mr. War-Kei has done. While good, the film doesn't reach that platitude.

Wong Kar Wai doesn't play by the rules, and those who respond positively to his films wouldn't want it any other way. While he's recently gone a little more measured and controlled with style (relatively speaking) with In the Mood for Love and 2046, it's mostly in that he's now using things like dollies and steadi-cams. Looking at Chungking Express and, particularly, Fallen Angels, he reveals himself as a filmmaker total in trust with a style that in other hands would be simply amateurish. His camera, led on by Christopher Doyle, follows along these characters like in a slightly feverish documentary, with the accompanied narration adding the emphasis on inner thoughts and details. It's a crime drama, but it's also a fresh way to look at material that has a little bit of quirk, a heap-load of attitude, and at least a good lot of romance, or the lack of it or the pining for it with these characters. It's equally sweet and rough-edged, like an adorable motorcycle.For plot, there's not much: two male characters, one is a hit-man who's starting to feel the pressure of his job (ironically, he describes it as being a good one early on as "I'm a lazy person. I like people to arrange things for me"), and breaks off from his partner, a woman who cleans up his 'messes' of mass destruction, and then falls for a strange blonde girl. The other is a mute ex-con who robs people by being obnoxious at various one-night-stand type of jobs, and in the process meeting a girl whom has a freak-out one night (there's an amazing scene, I should add, where in one shot we see him fall completely for this girl with a soft blues song playing behind him describe this as his first love). At least, that's as much as I gathered from the essentials; there's also a sub-plot with the mute kid, He Zwhiu, and his father as he starts to videotape him all the time. But Wong isn't interested in plot mechanics as two central facets: mood of a scene on technical fronts, and a sensibility that's close to poetic intent.Wong's camera moves in a way that is a little dizzying, and it feels like it should be a shamble, a fiasco of an art-house item that doesn't transition well to the US. But it becomes apparent that its form is, at least, consistent to the intent at hand. We're so aware of the style that the characters are seemingly organic from this urban, post-modern spread. They're more than a little alienated (watch that shot where the woman is in the café, and the fight breaks out behind her without flinching an eyelash to the situation), and they have the tendencies of youth trapped in a situation they can only break out of (for one it's a way of life as work that gets mixed up due to emotions with the partner, the other with his father and going past disrobing the homeless and conning a family with ice cream).Wong Kar Wai presents this amusingly at times, a brisk sense of humor dropped in to let the audience know 'it's OK to laugh here and there, they ARE human after all with all their idiosyncrasies'. But at the same time there's a sorrow to the material that is given life by the hand-held, by the shots of characters in mirrors, by mixed media, by black and white shots thrown in, by editing that cuts off the head of the 180 degree rule here and there, by pumping in sad music and it does come close to diluting the emotional impact of the characters's fates. And yet, Wong has the soul of a romantic at heart, so to speak, and despite the fact that there's some pretty violence scenes in the picture (done in that hyper-speed style that is a little slow, a little fast in a way, as one has seen in many HK crime films) there's an intelligence that steers it from being TOO sloppy.This may be arguable, to be sure, in either direction; some may even call it a masterpiece of post-modernism as well as those who can't stand it period. I don't necessarily think it's even Kar-Wai's best film. But it inspires so many fresh images and thoughts I can't discard it as a warped slip-up from an otherwise avant-garde darling. If anything a film like Fallen Angels lifts up his reputation as the Chinese answer to Godard (minus, of course, the Maoism and the reading excerpts of books on camera).

This movie is super dope! There's nothing more intellectual to say. So I will just ramble on about all of the cool things about Fallen Angels. First the music is tight. It says I'm cool a bunch of times and has a really cool beat. I really liked the part where they are walking in a lobby and up an escalator. This movie is both funny, and sad. It made me very sad and reevaluate my life, and the things that I have that I take for granted. I guess that's kind of an intellectual thing to say. But that's it. On to more superficial reasons why I like Fallen Angels. The people where cool clothes. The entire film was shot in a wide angel lens. There are multiple spontaneous fight scenes. One of the Characters name is Blondie. The lighting is not very realistic in some parts, especial in the kitchen with the mute boy because there is a lot of green light seeming to not come from anywhere in particular, but anyway..... even though the lighting is not very realistic it's COOLER that way. This movie is basically just a cool work of art. It's DOPE.