Fallen Angels (1995)

Wong: She's become a part of my life these past few years. But things always change. I desperately want to tell her that I want to quit, but I don't know how to start. So I've devised another way. [Speaking to someone]: "A woman may come asking for me in the next few days. Give her this coin. Tell her 1818 is my lucky number". 1818 - the number of one of the songs in the jukebox. When she hears the song, she'll understand my message.
.....
[Song in the background]: Forget him, and it's like forgetting everything. All sense of direction seems lost, like losing oneself. Forget him, and it's like forgetting the joy of life. It's like a stab in the heart, bleeding and in agony.......

Fallen Angels has two parallel stories where few of the characters from both stories would cross paths. Wong (Leon Lai) is a contract killer who works with his partner (Michelle Reis) for the past three years without having ever really met. She feels emotionally involved but doesn't want to get too close to him as she is afraid she might know too much and thus lose interest. In another part of the city, He Zhiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is a mute young guy who leads an irresponsible lifestyle, breaking into other peoples' shops and working during the night when no one else does. He still lives with his father in a one bedroom apartment and falls in love with the effervescent and weird Cherry (Charlie Young), only to be forgotten when she finds someone else.

I'm not sure what draws me to Wong Kar Wai's movies anymore. After In The Mood For Love and Chungking Express (still my favorites amongst all his works), there hasn't been a real plot in his works. It was almost absent in Chungking Express too, unless we consider the disappointments in love as his constant recurring themes. May be it reminds me of Sin city in some ways on those boring nights when I'm sitting at home staring at my screen for long. Or may be it's the visual experience that you start missing only once it's over. The smoke drifting aimlessly just like those nights in the all too familiar green, yellow and red lights in the background, the close-up shots and the hazy distant shots too moving in tandem. The stunning cinematography, the random thoughts in the voice-overs with the lack of real human conversations are what carry his works and the experience is almost like watching Haruki Murakami's words painted in action. The loneliness of his characters are almost forced upon you to move you into a world of melancholy that becomes an addiction you so wish you didn't have. May be I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. May be I shouldn't have watched it. May be I will keep coming back for more.

Rating: 7/10