Do lok tin si / Fallen Angels (1995) – 3/5

Dive into Hong Kong’s world of crime for 100 minutes

„Do lok tin si“ or „Fallen Angels“ is a film from Hong Kong from 1995 and this one includes a massive amount of five different languages with four of them being Asian and also a bit of English, but not too much. The movie runs for minimally under 100 minutes, so it is not a long movie by any means, but also not super short. The big name here is surely director Kar-Wai Wong for whom this was one of his earlier career efforts. He is still making movies now in the 2020s or working on projects at least, even if he has not been particularly active for almost a decade. But he is also not retired and he would have every right to be at the age of 66 now. He was there a long time before the others, the South Korean filmmakers (and also Japanese) who made massive waves in recent years. Without a doubt, Wong is considered one of Asia’s most influential filmmakers from the last 50 years, maybe even from history. I am not sure if I could agree with such a statement, but I still think his approach is somewhat interesting on many occasions. He was under the age of 40 when he made this one we have here and it is not a special anniversary now as this film had its 25th anniversary just two years ago. This film was shown in my city far, far away from Asia just a few days ago and there is a second showing coming up and both happen to be on the occasion of an Asia-themed film series and I think it is a great idea and I will happily go and watch other upcoming films there, some anime, others live action like this one here. In general, it is superb that old films are brought back to the big screen this way. So, now let us focus on the outcome here: The script is also by Kar-Wai Wong and this is no exception at all as he is an auteur and pretty much every single time also wrote the screenplay for his films. He has worked on almost 40 projects by now over the course of soon 35 years, so he was extremely prolific before the last ten years, even if admittedly many of those were also (very) short films. But still, his is a body of work that many would kill to have. No pun intended if we are looking at the film’s plot here.

Unfortunately, I cannot say too much about the cast members. I think the actors all did a fairly fine job, but I cannot say I am really eager to check out their bodies of work immediately and watch other films they appeared in, but I have nothing to complain about at all when it comes to the cast here. Maybe my loss that I did not really recognize any of them. They were also still fairly young almost all of them. Another thing that came to mind is that the actresses were really breathtakingly stunning here. Well, most of them. The one who played Punky it was I think maybe not so much, but there were other intentions with her character anyway and she was not about being really desirable like some of the others. I think I am talking about Reis and Yeung or maybe I should say about the characters they are portraying here. I guess the male actors are also not too shabby no matter if we are talking about their range or their physicality, but it should surprise nobody that with sequences like the masturbation scene, it is the females in here that you will remember the most. Sensuality is something you always find with Wong-Kar Wai and this refers to this film here, but also of course to the more famous Chungking Express. I must say I was a bit disappointed by that one, but maybe I just have to watch it again at some point. This one here I liked more, even if I was still not completely convinced as you can see from my rating. I heard people say that this movie here is indirectly Chungking Express 2 or that he planned to turn both films and all the characters into one initially and then realized that it would become way too long, so he made two films instead. They also came out almost at the same time. There are definitely a few parallels. One thing that is very easy to identify with the filmmaker is the exact camera work/position. I heard people say he was inspired to do what he did by some old French filmmakers and I think there is something to it if you have seen the works from Truffaut or Godard. The latter is over 90 already now by the way.

However, let’s stay with KWW now. I can see why the way he moves his camera in a very agile fashion may not be to everybody’s liking and I must also include myself there. I am having a hard time here and there to appreciate the approach. How the camera is never static and sometimes right into the protagonist’s faces where it is difficult to not ask yourself how the actors perceived what the filmmaker was doing there. However, at the same time I can see the creativity attached to it and it is all good. I have not even talked about the plot we have here. Or several plots. It is all connected somehow, even if it feels a bit confusing here and there. At the heart of the story is a contract killer who explains to us how he loves about his job that he never has to really decide himself who lives and dies, but he just follows orders. He is also not really a sociopath who enjoys killing. Just a professional and while he seems fine with his field of work, we also find out on one occasion that he has other plans like to buy a diner and lead a normal life like everybody else, even if near the beginning he still says such a life would not work for him. It was him who asked how much the diner would cost, wasn’t it? If not, then ignore my elaboration here. But I see the parallel too there. I mean if he runs a restaurant, he also basically only follows people’s orders, so the job is not completely different to his current profession. In any case, no matter who it was, here you got the connection again of places where you eat in public. This was crucial and at the center of the entire Chungking Express, so another parallel between WKW’s movie, at least these two.

Another parallel is the music. The filmmaker loves using international songs, English-language songs for his films and those are mostly pretty good and inspiring and I had to check back after the movie which songs I heard and even put some on my MP3 player. Nice selection we have here. Strong soundtrack. Still, the more frequent inclusions are still in Asian languages, but for me as a European, it was mostly, but not exclusively, the English songs that stayed memorable. The best example is of course the song you hear towards the very end briefly before the closing credits happen, but also you hear it during the closing credits. It’s a very famous number. I will spare you the exact title that is maybe more known than the name of the band, so you have the element of surprise. As for the Asian music, I already said that I enjoyed it a lot as well and perhaps my favorite tune there was also in the last third of the movie, namely the music that played briefly before we see one character watch an old man on a screen. It was his father I think. The song there was okay too, but I preferred the one right before that when we see said character with a suitcase. The ending is pretty spectacular from several perspectives. We see the contract killer perform another job, but his targets are warned this time and it goes wrong which of course had to do with him ending his business relationship with another character. A character that I was curious to see more from and I would have watched a film that had her at the center of the story. Obviously too late now. Pity. As a strong contrast to this botched killing where you could have guessed kinda that it would not go according to plan really, we have the exact opposite, namely full-on harmony between two characters when they drive off on a motorbike and we listen to a romantic song at the same time. But with what the male there said right before that, it is still no truly happy ending. It did feel right though.

If there are lengths to this film, you will not find them at the end. It’s not too many anyway and the film should not have been kept much shorter. Definitely not under 90 minutes. Overall, it’s a film I enjoyed enough to recommend you to check it out as well and I also think it is a film that you will maybe understand better if you give it a second watch. Even if it sounds a bit superficial maybe, I must still say the prejudice is kinda true that I as a Caucasian from Europe had to really stay focused to keep the Asian characters apart. Of course, it is easy with the girl with the „European“ hair, let’s call it that, but the rest was a bit more on the challenging side here and there. This is also why another watch would not be the worst idea. I will probably go for it at some point, but not right away. For this, the film was just not good enough. What I enjoyed the most maybe if we ignore the music for a brief moment was the depiction of Hong Kong’s streets and what the place looked like as a whole. It was desirable and frightening at the same time, also with all the city lights, intentionally used by WKW of course, and also the colors used and with that I am referring really to literally all the colors, also the ones from the clothes the characters are wearing. Everything. Finally, perhaps my favorite sequence was the one inside the bus it was I think when one character returns from his job (a hit) and he runs into an old buddy who recognizes him right away. Of course, you could also say it is a bit unrealistic because what are the chances, but I enjoyed this scene, the entire interaction between these two very different men, also what the other character had to say. And the twist that the protagonist would not go to the wedding because you surely could have expected to see him there later on in the movie, but when he destroys the invitation and throws it away immediately, it is very clear that he is not interested, does not want to be associated with this lifestyle. He’s a stranger in the night instead. Very good scene. And good movie. There are surely more strengths than weaknesses. Go watch it.