The film Fallen Angels (1995) by Wong Kar Wai is a visually stimulating piece, and the cinematographer Christopher Doyle adds so much interesting variation that each scene feels different from the last. The plot line, also written by Wong Kar Wai, is similar to that of Pulp Fiction, in that it takes unrelated characters and weaves their stories together. These two characteristics, the distinctness of the scene filming and the convoluted plot, are combined to create a surprising dynamic of fluency. The characters themselves are the main driving force throughout this film, with most of their dialogue coming through inner monologue. Monologues allow the viewers to see the thoughts of the characters without them interacting with other characters. Because of this distinctness of character development, the three main characters, one of which is mute, speak very little… yet it works. This character system is aided by the setting of almost-always-nighttime Hong Kong.

The movie begins with the dispatcher/agent (Michelle Reis) scouting out a mahjong parlor and cleaning up a dinky apartment across from train tracks. She draws out a room plan and marks where the targets are. Wong-Chi Ming (Leon Lai) receives this plan, and begins his monologue. “One’s profession is often determined by one’s personality. I love my job, no decision making.” He loads his guns and goes to the mahjong parlor, and a variation on Massive Attack's "Karmacoma" by Nogabe and Robison Randriaharimalala's begins playing to his footsteps. “Cause im cool” is the theme of this song, and it continues as he executes the targets in the parlor, and abruptly ends as he gets on the bus to leave. An extreme fish-eye close-up by a handheld camera forces us to peer into the Killer’s eyes, and it is hard to tell whether or not he can keep up his “cool” facade. A subsequent debt-collection gone wrong forces him to confront his lifestyle and forces him to end his partnership and get out of the business.

The killer’s agent, a nameless character who is apparently excellent at her job, is much harder to cleanly analyze, as her facial expressions change very little over the course of the film. We know she likes the money and soon learn that she also loves the man. Another fisheye scene of her sifting through his trash hints at a potential obsession. She seems to know a lot about him, and visits one of the bars her frequents.

Here we are treated to our first mirror scene, as a right panning camera comes around a corner to find the agent sitting on the left side of a semi-circle bar. The camera continues panning and shows us her reflection in the mirror behind the bar, she leans back and the mirror refracts her reflection as faux-red light covers her exposed neck. Next she moves to the jukebox and a zooming/panning camera gets in very close as an ethereal “Speak my language” begins playing. The aesthetic of this scene is pure, and as the slow moving camera touches her legs the lustiness flows in.

The song continues as a shaky shot from the train shows the agent in the bed of the apartment. We cut to her in bed masturbating, turned on by her brief stint at the bar the Killer frequents. The picture below is a screenshot of the scene, and I think the texture and color overlays are very interesting. She is wearing a black leather dress with fishnets, on a red and green plaid bed, with polka dot wallpaper lit dimly by yellowed windows. Another aesthetically driven scene emphasizes what Mr. Kar Wai wants us to think about when we see the Agent, the aesthetic of her nameless character. The camera is again lightly fish eyed and shakes slightly throughout this passionate scene.

After this scene we are introduced to Ho Chi Mo, who is hiding in a smoky laundry closet from the police in his Father’s hotel. As a boy he ate a can of expired pineapples and is now mute, so all of his dialogue is through monologues or hand movements. This form of expression is done very well by the actor, who seems to express more than most of the other characters without uttering a single word. Ho “is his own boss”, breaking into people shops after hours to run it while they’re gone. Often forcing himself on his ‘customers’ Ho is a source of comic relief in a rather depressing cityscape full of people with shaky relationships.

Ho, however has a heartwarming relationship with his aging father, whose wife was killed by an ice cream truck. To spite/show love, Ho often returns to his father’s hotel with ice cream. Their love/hate relationship is one of the only realistic and lasting relationships Kar Wai gives us, and the many scenes with the two interact are much cherished.

One night of breaking into shops late night, Ho meets a woman named charlie and follows her on a tirade of revenge against her imaginary(?) ex boyfriend’s new flame ‘Blondie’. After interrogations and a few fights, Ho and Charlie rest in a café and rain begins to drip down the window. Ho confesses his love during slow black and white scene with a Blues riff playing in the background. “Women are made of water”, Ho thinks, and leans over to her to absorb some of her beauty. The shutter on the camera here is held open to show high amounts of exposure, and extras shuffle around the background to imitate a long passage of time. Both actors move extra slowly as to not interrupt the exposure, and the rain dripping down distorts the picture, completing the aesthetic of a dream.

Several plot-based events occur after the dream scene, but I believe an analysis of a later scene will begin to wrap up my analysis of this film well. This mise-en-scene analysis is of a scene from 1:18:30-1:23:45.

The Agent and Wong-Chi-Ming are sitting in a café, and the camera is lightly moving throughout the shot. The lighting is coming from different angels, but hides half of both parties’ faces. They are both smoking, and the Agent takes a big drag before asking “Are we still partners?” Wong-Chi-Ming confesses privately to the audience he doesn’t know how to answer her question, and shuffles around uncomfortably before taking a big puff and, as his face is enveloped by shadow, he says he is ending their partnership. The agent tries to fake a smile, but her shaking hand betrays her, she is furious. The only color in the frame is her bright red fingernails. “Do me one last favor” she says as the setting changes.

The camera looks out from a vehicle moving through the rainy streets of Hong Kong. Headlights and street signs reflect off of the windshield, the “Noir” aesthetic is strong here. Rain has previously been used in scenes with Wo-Chi-Ming and the prostitute, but there is no rain, just puddles here. Shaky camera work as well as an angled frame makes it seem as though we are looking from a person’s perspective.

The Agent is filmed with another angled frame, with a very closeup shot of her neck and the phone she is holding. Her red dress accompanies the other red colors behind her, as is the post-production coloring of the shot. A hectic, stressful variation of “Karmacoma is playing here, no lyrics at this time. The camera shakes its way up to her face, and she makes a call unlike the ones before, “Id like to place an ad for my friend”, “I want the front page.” She sits down on her bed and sighs, but revealing no facial expression of regret.

The music cuts momentarily as the scene cuts to slow shots of clouds moving over Hong Kong buildings, then to the Killer sitting in a restaurant. The playback from here to the end of the scene is slower than reality. Classic cause im cool “karmacoma” plays as he leans over and admires the bubbles in the fish tank. He smiles, as he is likely reminiscing about the jukebox he used to communicate to the agent with from the red-lit bar.

We once again cut to the Killer in a bathroom, washing his hands and wiping his face. There is a thick, grey, grainy veneer over the lens in this scene. He leans into the mirror and looks at himself, it is obvious to the viewer he does not want to be here, and is likely saying “this is my last job”. The camera continues looking at him through the mirror as he wipes his hands on his jacket, and walks to the door. 

As he reaches the door he collapses against it, slightly closing the door. The grey veneer has faded to blue, and it it is not just the mirror because we see the wall is glowing blue too. Once again he wipes his face and shakes the water off his hands. As he reaches into his jacket and pulls out his gun, a comical explosion sound is played. We hear him cock the guns and the camera rotates away from the mirror to him exiting the bathroom.

A slow walking shaky cam gives us the perspective of the Killer as he walks over to a crowd of people around mahjong tables. Several explosions play as he begins shooting, but not as he actually shoots. The crowd pulls out their guns and gunshot sounds play as several of them return fire. Wong-Chi-Ming runs away down the stairs, returning fire. As he gets downstairs, the thumping beat of karmacoma fades into a twisting chaotic whine. More gunmen come in from the outside, and the killer’s vision begins to blur as he spins; surrounded on all sides by gunmen. 

Fake blood splatters once from Wong Chi Ming, and the spinning camera speed up to an unviewable blur, then finally settles on a gunman, who fires a single final shot. The camera pans upward and the exposure is cranked all the way down until the only thing recognizable is the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. Christopher Doyle continues to rotate the camera looking at the ceiling as the Killer begins the monologue from the start of the film. “I’m lazy, I like others to arrange things for me”, he says, as we once again see clouds floating over Hong Kong buildings. The significance of this scene is not ignored, it is very clear that the Wong-Chi-Ming’s greatest flaw was his laziness, he knows it too. We hear a whooshing and the music fades to a sad whistle as he adds, “But ive been doing some thinking, I need to change.” The irony is not missed, this monologue is not from the present, as we know he acted too late. A chaotically filmed sequence of scenes is the memory we are left of the Killer, very different from his prior cool and collected appearances.

Ho takes the next few scenes, recounting memories of his late father through films taken from before his death. Eventually, we exit memory lane and come to a familiar style of scene. Very closeup fish eyed shot of the Agent, seemingly recovered from her Killer trauma. Several nondescript men get into a fight, and doesn’t look back at all while enjoying her noodles. After the fight is over and all but one man leaves, she looks back, and we notice with her that is Ho who is lying bloodied on the table. They know each other from his time hiding in smoky laundry closets, and she lets her hair down much like she did when conducting business for her partner. A bloody Ho is featured in an over-the-shoulder shot of the Agent, and he says while they would probably never be friends, he found her very alluring that night. The film closes with a shot of Ho and the Agent on his bike as the Agent thinks “I feel such lovely warmth” while “Only You” plays in the background.