Fallen Angels

Name: Fallen Angels
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance, Crime
Released: January 30, 1998
Duration: 90 min
Rating: 71

1998

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Ratings

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7.8

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7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Ratings

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Fallen Angels

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino International | Release Date: January 30, 1998 | R

Summary: Set in the neon-washed underworld of present-day Hong Kong, Fallen Angels intertwines two exhilarating tales of love and isolation in a blitz of ultra-hip style and classical cinematic sensibilities. (Kino International)

Director: Kar Wai Wong

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, Romance, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 90 min

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Critic Reviews

100

TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox

Even Wong's detractors, who consider him more stylist than auteur, will have a tough time dismissing the extraordinary emotional depth he achieves here. Read full review

Kevin Thomas

An exhilarating rush of a movie, with all manner of go-for-broke visual bravura that expresses perfectly the free spirits of his bold young people. [22 May 1998, Pg.F9]

Lisa Alspector

Writer-director Wong Kar-wai makes these five self-consciously idiosyncratic types--often seen through distorting lenses in cinematographer Christopher Doyle's somber, garish Hong Kong--fully and instantly believable. Read full review

Josh Larsen

Even for a Wong Kar-wai film, Fallen Angels is lavishly stylized. Read full review

Edward Guthmann

It's hard to follow, the characters are ill-defined, and the wide-angle shots used by Wong's perennial cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, are deliberately unflattering. Read full review

G. Allen Johnson

Fallen Angels is proof that Wong will try anything, and the result is an eclectic mix of images and disjointed editing, sounds and rhythms that are at times as powerful as any piece of filmmaking likely to be seen all year. It can also, every once in awhile, be tedious and trying. Read full review

Empire Neil Jeffries

A colourful and stylish romp, for sure, but a feeling of restlessness sets in long before the series of false endings that finally bring it to a close. Time passes, things happen, but nobody emerges very much wiser. Read full review

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User Reviews

dazednconfucius

Apr 25, 2021

pretty sure this is the greatest movie ever made. that's it, that's my review.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ahmedaiman9999

Oct 19, 2018

I can see why Fallen Angels is considered to be a follow-up to Chungking Express. In fact, it's kinda set in the same universe; as there are many references, and too many things the two movies share. But Fallen Angels expanded on its predecessor's trippy atmosphere and visual style. TheI can see why Fallen Angels is considered to be a follow-up to Chungking Express. In fact, it's kinda set in the same universe; as there are many references, and too many things the two movies share. But Fallen Angels expanded on its predecessor's trippy atmosphere and visual style. The result is an extremely entertaining hypnotic experience that you can't help keeping your eyes glued to the screen throughout its 95-minute run time.

From the technical standpoint, Fallen Angels isn't just as flawless, or just as phenomenal, as Chungking Express, but it's actually stand s out from the latter's for being more practical. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Chungking Express is overly stylized as some people, but in Fallen Angels; the songs, the music, the colors, the use of black and white, and almost everything we see or hear adds to the story, and if not to the story, then to the experience itself. Because Kar-Wai Wong knows how to convey emotions and feelings, maybe more than any other filmmaker!

Alas, Chungking Express is far more superior to Fallen Angels from the narrative standpoint. I don't mean that Fallen Angels's script lacks cohesion (I shouldn't ask for that anyway), or smart dialogue (Actually this movie has many great and quite subtle lines), but it, undoubtedly, lacks interesting characters. Honestly, I was quite engaged with the killer's story and his partner, but the mute's storyline and the crazy girl who is getting over her breakup completely annoyed me. At the beginning of He's story, I was actually somewhat entertained. There were some hilarious moments that really made me laugh out loud. But soon I felt that this storyline overstayed its welcome, and I found the whole thing very annoying, and extremely tedious. It's baffling because I think the storyline is well-structured, and everything should have worked very well, but I really don't know why the characters turned out to be unbearable, at least for me.

That said, the mutes story has some of the most memorable moments in the movie, besides the above-mentioned funny scenes. Also,Takeshi Kaneshiro, who played He, the mute character, is a remarkable actor, an there is no better proof than the way he changed his reactions and facial expressions by the end of his character's arc.

I wasn't surprised that I didn't get moved by the end of the mute's character's arc, but what surprised me is that I felt very little, if any, emotions towards the killer by the end of his storyline. While I found myself engrossed in the killer's story, almost instantly, once the movie returned to it, I think the mute's story detached me emotionally from the killer's. At the end of the movie I was almost entirely emotionally disconnected from all the characters, and the movie left me a bit cold.

(7.5/10)… Expand

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36	#36 Best Movie of 1998
77	#77 Most Shared Movie of 1998