Fallen Angels

Impressions before seeing it
I had heard that this was originally meant to be the third part of Chungking Express, and that gave me an intellectual boner. Then I forgot that fact and remembered it again about halfway through the movie, when I subsequently got another boner... Intellectually, that is.

How was it?
As you may be able to tell by the poster, this movie uses the fish eye lens a lot and contains cuts to first-person speeding through tunnels and roads. At first glance it gives you that sense of "what a rush!", but I think it's meant to show you that these characters are always on the move, not literally but in the sense that change is frequent. Especially for the mute character who seems to take up a new job every night. And the fish eye lens slightly distorts most of the movie, but that's what point of view is, subjective distortion, and given all of the voiceover narration I'd say point of view plays a big part. So right off the bat it gives you that sense that you're seeing something from the viewpoints of dynamic characters.

Speaking of characters I have to say that the females were kind of annoying. Well, two of them anyway. One seemed excessively childish and the other was crazy and obsessive. I'm not sure if there was a reason for it or not. Michelle Reis's character was okay though.

But the best part is that it does have the same feel as Chungking Express (you know, interesting characters forming even more interesting relationships) and even some references that I was delighted to see, such as a line about expired pineapple, a Chinese woman in a blonde wig, and the appearance of the ever popular bistro where much of the other movie took place. Awesome.

Recommendation
If you liked Chungking Express, you'll like this one, and vice-versa. That is all.