Fallen Angels (1995) on Netflix
A hitman, Wong Chi-Ming, and the partner he has never met arrange jobs by fax and letter. Mute ex-convict Ho Chi-mo sells goods taken from other people's businesses and keeps meeting Charlie.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.5/1061,211 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
Wong Chi-Ming works as a hitman, and the woman he calls his partner handles the arrangements. They have been business partners for nearly three years and have never met; she sends him plans by fax and letter and keeps his apartment clean. Wong wants out of the killing. Ho Chi-mo is a mute ex-convict who lives in the Chungking Mansions with his father and, after dark, breaks into shops and sells what he finds. Charlie keeps telling him about Johnny, who left her.
Cast
- Chan Man-Leias Wu's Father
- Toru Saitoas Sato
- Wu Yuk-Hoas Man Forced to Have His Clothes Washed
Show all 20 cast
- Fai-Hung Chanas The Man Forced to Eat Icecream
- Man-Lei Chanas He Zhiwu's father (as Chen Man Lei)
- To-Hoi Kongas Ah-hoi
- Lee-Na Kwanas Woman Pressed to Buy Vegetables
- Yuhao Wuas Man forced to have his clothes washed
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Fallen Angels (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Fallen Angels began as the third story Wong Kar-wai wrote for Chungking Express, about a lovesick hitman. He cut it because he felt Chungking Express was complete without it and its darker tone did not fit that film's lighter mood.
- Wong Kar-wai wanted English trip hop band Massive Attack for the soundtrack but found the music too expensive, so he asked his Hong Kong composer Frankie Chan to write something similar. The prominently used track "Because I'm Cool" by Nogabe "Robinson" Randriaharimalala re-orchestrates Massive Attack's "Karmacoma" and samples it.
- Wong Kar-wai deliberately gender-reversed the character traits of his earlier Chungking Express: Brigitte Lin's gun-wielding passed to the hitman Leon Lai plays, while Faye Wong's sneaking into strangers' flats became Takeshi Kaneshiro's character breaking into shops and businesses.
- To set Fallen Angels apart from Chungking Express and try something new, Wong Kar-wai and cinematographer Christopher Doyle shot mainly at night with extreme wide-angle lenses, holding the camera as close to the actors as possible to give a detached effect.
- Fallen Angels is the last film Wong Kar-wai fully shot in his native Hong Kong before he moved on to more ambitious international productions.
- The Fallen Angels soundtrack includes a dream pop version of "Forget Him" sung by Shirley Kwan, a reworking of Teresa Teng's original, and one of the very few contemporary Cantopop songs Wong Kar-wai ever used in a film.
