Neon guts

Disclaimer: The following article contains graphic content and disturbing scenes. Read at your own discretion.

The little boy made a run for the treeline amidst the sounds of heavy machinery, a barrage of bullets, and slogans of suppression. He quickly hid in the treetop and gazed at his village—or what was left of it. A gust of wind picked up the ashes from the razed remains of a once-lively refugee camp. The inhabitants were immigrants, hailing from the Khanate. What seemed a haven soon turned into a burial ground as Chinese troops took the residents captive and many were killed in the name of ethnic cleansing. The boy ran as far as he could and ended up in Hong Kong.

He was overwhelmed by the neon lights, dazzling jewellery, incomprehensibly fast automobiles, and ladies beckoning him at every turn. As night fell, he found shelter beneath a bridge under construction. Unbeknownst to him, a figure approached and swiftly drugged the boy with a piece of cloth. He awoke suddenly, startled by the phosphenes that flashed in his eyes and witnessed a troubling sight. Multiple people of diverse ages were sharing a meal, many with disfigured faces and missing limbs. He was soon brought to the head of this institution, whose plump figure and gold-toothed smile made his authority clear.

“You will kill people for me, kid,” he said. The boy nodded without a thought. “Now go have a meal. Your job starts soon,” the man added as he dismissed the boy. Perhaps due to the shock of having his entire community killed, the boy was unfazed by death or corpses. Whether it was a fortune or a curse, a client of the plump man took an interest in adopting the boy. The boy initially refused the offer multiple times until he couldn’t anymore. He was relieved to learn that the man merely needed a replacement for his dead son as he knew the twisted perversions of the city.

He was obliged to go to school and do everything a normal child would do. This situation would typically be a dream come true, escaping the hellscape that leeched off of murder. However, he had become addicted to bloodlust. Subconsciously, he craved violence. This proved problematic as he got into altercations everywhere, leading him back to where he began.

Years passed, and the boy turned into a full-fledged assassin. He kept an impeccable record, leading to a constant influx of clients. Still, this situation wasn’t satisfactory to him. He wanted something bigger. So, he looked through his choices and stumbled upon an organization specializing in assassinations. As he approached them, they gave him a subordinate, a girl they called the Killer’s Agent. Initially, he thought of her as baggage, but observing her work changed his mind. She planned all his assassinations, mapping out where the targets would be, the optimal weapon, and the best time to carry it out.

A peculiar fact about the pair was that they never actually met. Though they shared the same cottage, they were never allowed to be together due to the organization’s rule strictly separating business from pleasure. However, this rule was in vain, as they developed a sense of familiarity. Over time, with renewed companionship, the neon lights that had once overwhelmed the killer now enveloped him in a sense of solace.

Fin (or are we?)

Wong Kar-wai (I remember it as bas kar bhai) is phenomenal in his works. At first glance, Fallen Angels seems to be a film held in high regard due to its aesthetically pleasing visuals. However, beneath the haunting beauty of each frame lies a story that captures your attention like no other Bond film. In an era where assassins possess tons of gadgets and contraptions, Wong Kar-wai chose to humanize them and their agents.

Like the prelude above, the story of fallen angels is set in a concrete jungle. This setting facilitated the director to display the vanity of people in cities, scurrying like ants, messed up in their heads, and reluctant to let go of emotions and impulses. This enabled the actors to nail their characters, as there was no need to conjure complex emotions they never felt. Most of them had already spent a good part of their youth in urban penitentiaries. 

The fact that the movie never felt offbeat or exaggerated is thanks to the actors, as their portrayal of their characters worked in perfect sync with the state they were in. Scenes that put their vanity and grief on display took an eerie hold of me.

To summarize, while the revolutionary shots with ARRI cameras and Kinoptik lenses, combined with addictive camera movements and color patterns and the face cards of the cast were the main reasons the film became famous, its story, in my opinion, deserves equal credit.

Fin (For real this time)

This article is inspired by the movie Fallen Angels by Wong Kar Wai