It is rare for movies to elicit a feeling, that I can only describe as, cinematic cathartic release. As though the movie is a living breathing element that has some how reached into the very heart of the viewer and pressed a cinematic button or released a cinematic lever that has laid dormant for so long. Very few movie over the years possess this ability, but Fallen Angels (along with Wong Kai Wai's Chung King Express) has successfully achieved this.
Many people have panned Fallen Angels as being a confused, incoherent, meandering mess of overly stylised visuals and sound. Although this can be granted (though we shouldn't really listen to such comments), I feel that it is the wrong way to approach this movie. Fallen Angels doesn't merely use hyper kinetic camera movements and vivid imagery to create an avant garde narrative. I feel that there is something more important being said in this movie. If you look closely enough you will notice that there is something in Fallen Angels that is telling the viewer about the power of cinema and the power of images.
There is something in the spontaneity of the direction, the merging of story lines, the fast paced editing, the changes in camera angles, the eclectic soundtrack, the varying perspectives, the merging of genres. What I feel is being said, is that cinema is designed to invigorate the soul. Cinema awakens feelings that has been left numb by a sterile waking life. The writer Brecht said, 'art is not a mirror to be held up to reality, but a hammer in which to shape it'. It is with this thought in mind that I approach Wong Kai Wai Fallen Angels.
Unlike the works of Brecht, Fallen Angels isn't a movie that is overtly political or making a political statement of any kind. But, like Brecht's work, it is a remedy to the state of inaction that many people feel is conducive of there everyday lives. It is a cry for attention in order to remind the viewer that despite the inherent vulgarity of the world around us, if we look at the world with the right eyes we can see a glimpse or even just a flicker of beauty, which by itself can change the course of our lives.
Wong Kai Wai has put experimental cinema at the forefront and has woven a dark and brooding story about the absurd underbelly of life in pre-handover Hong Kong. It is a comic/tragedy, but all the whilst-like all great tragedies- there is a feeling that life's richer more undefinable elements will come through by the end.
Overall, without losing myself in too much metaphysical fornication, Fallen Angels is a master class in cinematic flare.
Many people have panned Fallen Angels as being a confused, incoherent, meandering mess of overly stylised visuals and sound. Although this can be granted (though we shouldn't really listen to such comments), I feel that it is the wrong way to approach this movie. Fallen Angels doesn't merely use hyper kinetic camera movements and vivid imagery to create an avant garde narrative. I feel that there is something more important being said in this movie. If you look closely enough you will notice that there is something in Fallen Angels that is telling the viewer about the power of cinema and the power of images.
There is something in the spontaneity of the direction, the merging of story lines, the fast paced editing, the changes in camera angles, the eclectic soundtrack, the varying perspectives, the merging of genres. What I feel is being said, is that cinema is designed to invigorate the soul. Cinema awakens feelings that has been left numb by a sterile waking life. The writer Brecht said, 'art is not a mirror to be held up to reality, but a hammer in which to shape it'. It is with this thought in mind that I approach Wong Kai Wai Fallen Angels.
Unlike the works of Brecht, Fallen Angels isn't a movie that is overtly political or making a political statement of any kind. But, like Brecht's work, it is a remedy to the state of inaction that many people feel is conducive of there everyday lives. It is a cry for attention in order to remind the viewer that despite the inherent vulgarity of the world around us, if we look at the world with the right eyes we can see a glimpse or even just a flicker of beauty, which by itself can change the course of our lives.
Wong Kai Wai has put experimental cinema at the forefront and has woven a dark and brooding story about the absurd underbelly of life in pre-handover Hong Kong. It is a comic/tragedy, but all the whilst-like all great tragedies- there is a feeling that life's richer more undefinable elements will come through by the end.
Overall, without losing myself in too much metaphysical fornication, Fallen Angels is a master class in cinematic flare.