Fallen Angels (1995/Kino International Blu-ray)
Picture: B Sound: B Extras: C+ Film: B-
It is
amazing how Wong Kar-Wai has such a major following in the U.S. that he is
among the earliest foreign directors to see several of his works hit Blu-ray. I have not been his biggest fan overall, but
I will say that with the kind of cinematography that accompanies his work,
having Blu-ray helps us see the world he constructs more clearly. Fallen
Angels (1995) started as a part of Chungking
Express (his previous film in 1994) but became the successful flip-side to
that work instead and Kino International has decided to make it one of their
first Blu-ray releases.
His work
is haunted by colonialism (including neo-colonialism, post-colonialism and
related issues) and he uses his characters to try and explore the effects of
cultural changes by interior character studies of those in relationships and
their issues in not being able to integrate into each others lives or the
changing world around them. This is not
to say that world is as distant as The South in Gone With The Wind or Communist Revolution in Dr. Zhivago since the effects are more subtle and can be more
profound.
With two
sets of lovers as the de facto title characters, Kar-Wai twists the Gangster
genre (especially in Asian cinema, but with Classical Hollywood in mind) around
a bit as one pair is a hitman and girlfriend who sets up his hits, as distant
and cold as the gangster/gangster moll relationship as ever been to the point
of being darkly humorous, while the other couple is also as distant: a phone
sex gal and petty thief who get to know each other by sound first. Sound plays an interesting role in his films.
Then
Kar-Wai adds his look and feel to everything, in the way he uses color, the
types of lenses he wants, the angles, the fleeting world he has his characters
and us live in. Many thought this was
not as involving a film as Chungking
Express, but I felt it was more cinematic (the way Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Part One is more cinematic
than its character-driven second part) and believe its critics are missing some
of his best cinematic moments to date.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is a mix of different types of stocks
and images to the point that it is fragmented, even like a documentary to some
extent, yet is also about his ideas of change and what is at the moment. Director of Photography Christopher Doyle
delivers the visuals and with Kar-Wai, they have become one of the more
prolific filmmaking teams of late. The
clarity of the images here come across very well, but the purposeful choices of
stylization and images that are not always clear hold this back overall, but I
doubt this could look better on Blu-ray, something I could not say about the
Criterion Blu-ray (unreviewed) of Chungking
Express.
The film
is sometimes noted as being originally a monophonic theatrical release, but the
only soundtrack here is a Cantonese DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix and
while the music has very impressive articulation all over the soundfield, it
also shows the limits of location recording and sound effects. Still, I doubt this will ever sound better
than it does here either.
Extras
include Trailers, Stills, 3 Behind The Scenes featurettes and an on-camera
interview with DP Doyle. Kino will next
issue Kar-Wai’s Happy Together on
Blu-ray, which we will cover soon, so look for it.
For more
Kar-Wai, try this coverage of the In The
Mood For Love DVD:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/99/In+The+Mood+For+Love+(Criterion+DVD
- Nicholas Sheffo
