Even for a Wong Kar-wai film, Fallen Angels is lavishly stylized. New to the palette are black-and-white sequences with dollops of color, exaggerated camera angles that push in on characters’ faces in a way that’s more distorted than intimate; and a faster editing rhythm. The result—along with a plot that not only includes a hit man (Leon Lai) and the scout (Michelle Reis) who pines after him, but also an unstable prankster (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who takes over various food stands in the middle of the night and forces his wares, including ice cream, on “customers”—is something that feels antic, rather than romantic. It makes you wonder if Wong was explicitly attempting to make a comedy this time around. Kaneshiro, a veteran of Wong’s Chungking Express, has a comic impishness that’s right for the film, but the boyish Lai and remote Reis are less compelling figures. (Karen Mok and Charlie Yeung give broader comedic turns as more highly strung women who encounter the two men.) All of this makes you wonder how much credit should be given to Wong regulars like Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung for his particular brand of movie magic. Yet if Fallen Angels registers as minor Wong, it still offers major pleasures, including the recurring image of a motorcycle racing through a tunnel at night, the yellow traffic lines on the pavement perfectly aligned with the strip of white fluorescent lights above. The final shot of the film riffs on this, starting in close on Kaneshiro and Yeung’s faces as they ride the bike, the lines of light in the background. The camera then tilts, dreamily, catching the sky as they emerge from the tunnel. It’s a delicate gesture of romanticism that feels more Wong-like than much of the rest of the film.
