Lai Cheuk Yin Arthur

3035571486
CLIT2007
Fallen Angels – one-page journal
The overall cinematography broke quite a few rules, which made the scenes looked strange,
distorted, just like the relationships between characters, or looking at the film from a bigger
picture, it’s about a twisted city before 1997 handover (Hong Kong). Wong and Christopher
Doyle shot most of the movie with wide angle lenses, even when filming close ups, making
the faces look twisted, which is very uncommon. The movie was also mostly shot with
handheld camera, a method commonly used to make films look more realistic, but in Fallen
Angels, the handheld camera is often used to capture some ridiculous actions. The colors in
this movie is also uncommon. Most films mainly use colors like orange and blue, which suits
the skin color of human faces, but Fallen Angels is full of green, red, yellow, and this makes
human faces look even more strange. Since most characters in the movie can’t communicate
normally with others, the uncommon cinematography seems to visually reinforce they’re
living a twisted life in a twisted city. Characters are also often framed with window frames,
door frames, mirrors, small rooms to show that they’re “trapped”. Also, the way Fallen
Angles film the streets, the MTR, the bar, even Lee Ka-yan’s clothes, reminds me of Blade
Runner (1982), a city where human connections are so distant, the replicants feel more
human than humans. This feeling from Blade Runner can also suits Fallen Angels’ characters
perfectly.

To understand the relationships and minds of the characters, I think the best way is to watch
all the black and white scenes. I counted there’re about 8 B&W scenes/shots in Fallen
Angels, almost every relationship between characters have one B&W scene.

Leon Lai doesn’t want stable relationship because he can’t settle down, has no root, he’s not
sure can he stay alive, and he doesn’t want to end relationship, so he won’t start a stable
relationship with both girls (like Leslie Cheung’s character in other Wong’s films). This is
also why he throw away the wedding invitation in his first B&W scene, the other B&W
scenes are when he thinks being killer is exhausting, when Karen Mok asks him will he go
meet Lee Ka-yan, and when he’s preparing for his final job that he doesn’t want. The feeling
of wanting to settle down, finding root, afraid of losing others, has always appeared in
Wong’s films, which maybe expressing the feeling of HK people before 1997, when they’re
about to be “abandoned”.

Lee Ka-yan’s B&W scenes are about Leon Lai ending their partnership, and when she listens
the song “Forget Him”. This shows her character, she desperately wants a real relationship
with Leon Lai, instead of just a partnership, and the B&W scenes are where Leon broke her
heart. Karen Mok’s character is also very similar, Mok may even be using Leon as a
temporary replacement of her ex-boyfriend too. This is very similar to Takeshi Kaneshiro’s
character too, his B&W scene is when he thinks he’s just a “store”, a temporary shelter for
Charlie Yeung, and second B&W scene is when he watches his father’s video after his death.
He wants an intimate relationship with Yeung, instead of being a “store” or just a “partner”,
and he also doesn’t want to be a son who can’t talk to his father. They want it personal, not
strictly business. This father-and-son relationship was also used in Happy Together as a
metaphor for bad relationship between China and HK, makes me wonder is this theme of
“emotionless partnership” also a metaphor for China and HK after 1997? But this doesn’t
mean Wong has a totally negative view on the 1997 handover, Fallen Angels ends with
Takeshi Kaneshiro having a better relationship with his father, he also rode motorbike
together with Lee Ka-yan at dawn, the first time in the film not filmed at night, suggesting a
better future relationship. Kind of like in Chungking Express, both male characters let go of
their past relationships and happily start a new one, a clear metaphor about HK’s future can
 Lai Cheuk Yin Arthur
3035571486
CLIT2007
Fallen Angels – one-page journal
be positive after 1997. And of course, Wong’s 1997 film is named Happy Together (although
it can be sarcasm, because Happy Together is about a relationship that shouldn’t start again).