Left Field Cinema

The Director: His work is as visceral as it is ethereal. Simultaneously naturalistic and fantastic; often subtextually metaphysical. Wong is a visual poet telling human stories, with a natural sense of pace he has achieved his status as one of the worlds finest contemporary directors by combining seemly contradictory elements, creating singular themes of loneliness, isolation, and human connections within the plurality of modern life in Asia. His less than impressive late 1980’s debut, As Tears Go By was fairly conventional, but with the first signs of what would come later, with the briefest touches of genius. However it was The Days of Being Wild that proved Wong’s worth and showed his true potential, and first collaboration with Christopher Doyle which would later form a near perfect relationship between a director and cinematographer, with perhaps only Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist topping the pairing. The vitality of Hong Kong is genuinely captured on the ground level by Wong, taking the viewer deep into the veins of the city. Wong was to shift location to Argentina, with possibly one of the greatest portrayals of alienation, both self inflicted and externally applied in 1997’s Happy Together. A story of two gay men who continue to remember the time when they were “Happy Together” but can’t make their relationship work because of the toxicity generated when they’re in close proximity for any extended period. Although a little light on plot, it takes Christopher Doyle’s breathtakingly photography to the next level and proving that Doyle is one of the greatest cinematographers working in colour film. Although an inferior film to Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, it is the film that brought Wong deserved attention after winning best director at Cannes film Festival. As if he had reached his stylistic zenith, Wong would take his next film in a completely different direction visually while retaining a story about lost love, and the fleeting moments between potential lovers, 2000’s In The Mood For Love is arguably his greatest film. As always Wong and his cast draw their characters through heavily improvised scripts, resulting in a gut wrenching film about a man and a woman who realise their spouses are having an affair with one and other, and consider having an affair themselves. The antithesis of Happy Together in style with measured, balanced tracking shots in mouth watering slow motion, it is equally as gorgeous to look at but for completely different reasons. The dreamier, cerebral follow up 2046 is a visual feast but possibly too elusive in its content to be as utterly engaging as In The Mood For Love. Still another impressive achievement.

With his first English Language film, My Blueberry Nights out earlier this year Wong appears to have taken his first misstep since his debut and fallen into a continuing trap of outsider directors trying to recapture their lightening in a bottle for and within the Hollywood system. After Susanne Bier’s disappointing Things We Lost in the Fire, and Michael Haneke’s arguably pointless shot for shot remake of Funny Games it seems clear that 2008 is not a good year for modern world cinema masters to be playing away and this seems to be a fish out of water effect – their environment informs their technique which then extends to the end product; take that away and the rest falls apart.

The Films: Chungking Express and Fallen Angels are two halves of the same film and represent together three stories about love in the bustling centre of Hong Kong. They proved to be too long in their entirety and so the third story was separated and formed Fallen Angels. Chungking Express is the first of two stories. The first part follows the woman in the blonde wig, played by Brigitte Lin who has fallen out of favour with her boss after a shipment of heroin goes missing. Whilst on the run she meets Cop 223 played by Takeshi Kaneshiro, who has recently broken up with his girlfriend and buys tins of pineapples with a 1st of May expiration date, either he will have reunited with his love by this time, or their love will have expired forever. The second story follows Cop 663 played by Tony Leung he has broken-up with his air hostess girlfriend played by Valerie Chow, and begins a retrained and peculiar relationship with Faye played by Faye Wong the new girl at the local lunch counter the Midnight Express which is the only thing to connect the two stories, both Cop 223 and Cop 663 eat at the Midnight Express.

Of the stories, the second is by far the superior and there are a few reasons for this, firstly it is longer than the first part which then in turn gives the characters more time to be fleshed out and rounded, the second and arguably the more important is that the first half lacks the chemistry between its central couple that the second part achieves. It’s interesting, because the first half on paper seems to have more going for it, a criminal backdrop, violence and intrigue. Don’t misinterpret this critique; the first part is still an excellent short film in its own right, which is a testament to how compelling the second part is that it manages to completely supersede its precursor. Not only that but in the opinion of this reviewer Chungking Express manages to be one of the top ten films of the 90’s simply on the strength of the second part.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Chungking Express is its visual style. A thousand words could be used to describe this but none of them will ever truly capture Doyle and Wong’s poetry in motion which through truly inspired and unique cinematography achieves something very, very rare. Their distinct hand held style gets them close to the action, so close that no matter what format you view the film in you get a truly honest sense of location; but simultaneously the film is for large sections treats the audience as voyeurs observing these struggling couples from behind a jarred doors, in mirror reflections or from behind a bustling crowd, through this technique there are some excellent uses of deep focus. Along with this they’ve combined a dizzy sense of motion (the shots are rarely static) and dazzling colours, opulent yellows and deep blues, along with many others from a wide spectrum. Although there has clearly been some heavy colour grading it all feels natural; in contradiction with the heavy use of artificial light. It’s almost an hour into the film before we receive our first glimpses of sunlight, and even then it’s very brief. Otherwise it is almost entirely lit from the varying lights of the city, often combining warm and cold light in effective ways: at one point the woman in the blonde wig walks through a red light followed by a blue, followed by another red and so on. This explosively exciting cinematography is matched by Chungking Express’ speedy editing, often jumpcutting scenes and moving to bizarre cutaways, it all breezes by at an extraordinary pace for a film which doesn’t really have many events. Its effervescing style is both deliciously distinctive; elusively hypnotic and captures the beauty of this intoxicating metropolis. If these adjectives seem vague and flakey then I apologise, but honestly no words will suffice; perhaps the best description which others have used is kaleidoscopic.

This aspect is one which helps elevate Chungking Express to masterpiece status. Another aspect is Faye and Cop 663’s unquestionable and unquantifiable sexual chemistry. Faye has a magical energy which once again evades definition or explanation; likewise, Leung’s stiff, ridged but quietly contemplative, sweet, and heart broken Cop 663 contrasts well, but the attraction between them is what makes the film. Even when they’re not in the same room as one and other, the connection can be still felt, and this is what Chungking Express is about, the brief and fleeting connections between people worlds apart in the bustling city state of Hong Kong; connections created between characters who barely know each other. Wong uses all of his narrative restraint in keeping the two stories simple and yet utterly involving. He gives us narration and idiosyncrasies of all the major characters; be it the Woman in the blonde wig’s continual wearing of sunglasses and a raincoat, as she doesn’t know “when it will rain or when it will shine”; Cop 223’s obsessive compulsion - buying tinned pineapples with a May 1st expiry date; Cop 663’s habit of talking to a bar of soap, a towel or even cuddly toys, or Faye’s slightly irritating continual playing of “California Dreaming” by the Mamma’s and the Pappa’s (audiences will be forgiven if they’re a little sick of this song by the time the closing credits role.)

The characters are also reverse clichés in many respects, not so much now but in the year of the production the stereotypical Hong Kong police officer was basically Chow Yun Fat’s Inspector Yuen from John Woo’s 1992 action flick Hard Boiled. A dedicated police man whose life revolves around his occupation, who’s ruthless with a firearm and shoots first asks questions if the plot gives him room to. If we’re honest the evolution of this stereotype hasn’t been too profound in the years that followed, post hand over and we’re still seeing this sort of dedicated portrayal in Wai-keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak’s Infernal Affairs. Granted Tony Leung’s portrayal of Chan Wing Yan in Infernal Affairs is far more complex than the characters of an average Woo film but it still amounts to the same type of police officer; flawed and dedicated to the point of being totally engulfed by his work. In Chungking Express neither Cop 663 or Cop 223 can be described as hardened tough guys, 223 gets to briefly chase a criminal in the early stages of the film but other than this minor exception neither of them are seen doing any police work, their stories are not about their jobs, but about them as people. This is a master stroke from Wong as it allows the narrative to abstract itself from the potentially sensationalised nature of city policing. Cop 663 and 223 are instead shown to be real human beings, emotional, heartbroken, and grieving for the relationships they’ve lost; rather than being the typical laconic male figure of strength and solidarity they are instead a rather talky pair, needy and desperate for affection. The Woman in the Blonde Wig is also another contortion of a noir cliché, taking the femme fatal role, and instead of making her cold heart melt Wong keeps her totally consistent, ruthless and professional up to the end of her story. Then there’s Faye the lively girl working at the midnight express, a free spirit and a true eccentric, traditionally this sort of behaviour in woman is portrayed as “nice, but needs to be controlled by her strong willed husband” well here, like the Woman in the Blonde Wig, Faye stays faithful to her spirit right up to the end and never compromises her lifestyle for a man. In this sense both of the female leads don’t develop much, but they’re not in need to development, they are who they are and there’s no problem in that; it is both the cops who need to sort their lives out and get over their lost loves.

Wong shot the film in a two month lull while the much bigger shoot of Ashes of Time had ground to a hault. He literally shot Chungking Express on-the-run. Never stopping to breath they completed the shoot in chronological order within 24 days; they did this through low-budget and resourceful film making using crew’s houses and flats as locations for the homes of the characters. This guerilla style is part of the method which allowed Wong to capture the kinetic vibrancy of Hong Kong, a bustling street scene is actually shot in a bustling street, a person’s house is actually a person’s house. Night or day, light or dark Wong shot it how it was. Writing the scenes the night before the shoot, the film feels fresh and desultory - because it was, never given time to stagnate everything moves faster than you’ll ever expect.

Now onto Fallen Angels, which shares a lot of common ground with Chungking Express but offers a clear development thematically, structurally and stylistically. Its easy to see why this story was separated and chosen as a stand alone film; firstly the plot line is superior to both the stories of Chungking Express, it to features two couples and two stories, but here Wong gently weaves them together rather then playing them out individually. This helps maximize their impact as each panders to a remorseful sense of love lost, and aligns with the continuing personal collisions in life. The story switches between a hitman played by Leon Lai who decides to quit his job and severe ties with his business partner and end their sexually charged but never detonated relationship; and a mute (played by Takeshi Kaneshiro who also played Cop 223) who likes to break into peoples shops and is a perpetual shoulder to cry on for a heart broken woman he meets one night and falls in love with. Depending on how you interpret it, Cop 223 and the mute are the same character, they have the same name He Zhiwu, and he states through narration that he became mute after eating a tin of pineapples which had expired, although no longer a cop he still has the curious belief that all types of love have an expiry date. Though here his love expires without a pre-determined date, and without him ever expecting it.

He is a major physical connection with Chungking Express, there are other subtler ones, for example two scenes at the Midnight Express, a supporting character becoming an air hostess and mentioning of the Chungking House. This is most definitely a continuation, but instead of using law enforcement as the occupations of its male protagonist this time they are the law breakers.

The plot retains similar ingredients but pushes the extremities of this neon washed world, Fallen Angels is far more violent, briefly presenting us with a few bloody shoot out scenes with two handed gun play. It is also more sexually explicit, featuring two scenes of female masturbation. But these scenes are thankfully fleeting rather than pervasive, they’re used for establishment and then used again later for maximum emotional impact. The concentration is still on the hearts of these criminals and their associates rather than their nefarious activities. The character of He is of particular interest as his plot shifts from unrequited love to paternal love in a heartbreaking sequence involving a video camera and his cantankerous widower of a father. Here it offers a solution to the perpetual disappointment of romantic love by supporting the consistency of a families love.

In the hitman’s arc he leaves his business partner before they ever have a chance to have a real relationship and settles for a bizarrely irritating woman with peroxide blonde hair (another subtler link to Chungking Express) their relationship can not last because his heart belongs to another. Leading to their emotional break-up which then sets the stage for an almost pre-existing tragedy.

Fallen Angels improves on Chungking Express in terms of soundtrack, which is as dark and moody as the films imagery. Continuing a trend of repetition but not pushing it so far. The soundtrack is an inspired eclectic mixture using tracks from artists like Massive Attack and The Flying Pickets and combining them with a distinctive original score. Visually Fallen Angels is an almost direct extension of Chungking Express, extension because what was started with its predecessor is here expanded on and actually improved. Christopher Doyle this time employees a distinctive fish-eye lens for most of the film, filling every frame with peculiar movement making shots seem like a flying insects point of view and concentrating particularly on the green lights of the city. Losing daylight altogether as Fallen Angels is most definitely a film about the lost souls of the night. This time we’re exposed to countless garishly intrusive Western company logos like Mobil, or MacDonalds. The film looks like a contemporary set Blade Runner, the effect Ridley Scott devoted so much effort towards achieving for his Sci-Fi classic is captured in Fallen Angels by simply looking out of a window as elevated trains run by at dizzy speeds, cars flash by in an instant and artificial light is constant. Wong and Doyle also switch to monochrome for brief moments of emotional significance, the effect is compelling and actually has a function rather than gimmick for gimmick’s sake. Once again no words can accurately describe this films style or energy, and like Chungking Express it needs to be seen to be understood.

Personally I consider Fallen Angels to be the superior of the two films with a more erotic and sexy undertone, a darker and structurally more interesting story and a continuing exploration of the characters idiosyncrasies. Which leads to Fallen Angels final trump card - its hilarious. For large stretches of the film while He takes over the plot, comedy is the central element, with laugh out loud results. The consequence of this is that by the films final act the earlier comedy informs the audiences pathos during its climax.

To my surprise Fallen Angels is not currently available on UK DVD, although Chungking Express is, this leads me to believe that Fallen Angels was more of a b-side movie, something left over from an earlier masterpiece which Wong decided to release anyway. I was happy to be proved wrong in this assumption and to discover Fallen Angels is a masterpiece in its own right. The DVD is available from North America and Australia on regions 1 and 4 respectively, so UK viewers can import this film for less than £20 from Amazon.co.uk market place if you own a multi-region DVD player.

M.Dawson