Took a look at Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels again, and had to note how much it owes to Chungking Express, down to the character who ate pineapple out of an expired can, and the killer and woman who fronts for him, a situation that could have developed from the first film only with the sexes reversed (I hear these stories were first considered as a segment in the earlier film). It's slightly grungier than the usual Wong Kar Wai and blood spatters the camera lense more than once, something I don't remember happening in his other pictures; I guess he tried it, didn't like it, never used it again.
For the assassination scenes he quotes heavily from John Woo, only he doesn't have Woo's clarity ; I know, I know, he's probably not interested in that, is probably trying to deconstruct the Woo action sequence (the way he's supposed to have 'deconstructed' the 'wuxia pian' genre in Ashes of Time), and my being irritated by his incoherent editing and camerawork is most likely due to my conservatism with regards to action sequences...but I'm annoyed nevertheless.
I'm glad I saw it, though I don't think it ranks as among his best works; it doesn't have the lightness of touch or freshness or freewheeling innovative structure of Chungking (might even go so far as to call it recycled Chungking), and it doesn't have Tony Leung to give it an added dose of charisma (tho it does have Karen Mok, who is wonderful as Blondie).
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