23 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
23 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
wong kar-wei's " fallen angels " is , on a purely visceral level , one of the most exciting films i've seen in a long while .
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unfortunately , wong seems more interested in experimenting with his camera than creating tangible characters for the audience to root for .
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ordinarily , that alone would be enough to sink a movie , but in the case of " fallen angels " , this is not so .
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every shot in this film is exciting just to * look * at .
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wong does really interesting things with the camera , but he doesn't allow the pyrotechnics to completely take over , as was the case with last years dismal " knock off " ( which contained a shot of a foot entering a shoe .
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ugh . )
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the movie follows three pairs of lost souls as they struggle to find some meaning in their lives .
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i can't say much more than that as i didn't really know what was going on most of the time .
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in fact , it wasn't until about halfway through the movie that i was able to distinguish between each character .
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the constantly moving camera doesn't really allow for the audience to associate with any one character .
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we're always kept at a distance from these people , i suppose in order to further add to the feeling of alienation felt by the characters .
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" fallen angels " is a refreshing change-of-pace from most hollywood films , which never bother to try anything different , at least on a visual level .
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in fact , i'd go so far as to say that " fallen angels " is more challenging visually than any mainstream hollywood film i've ever seen .
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sure , there's directors like robert rodriguez who enjoy turning violence into operatic orgies of death , but to see a filmmaker like wong who actually assaults the senses with images is truly something worth celebrating .
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but if wong wishes to become a legendary filmmaker , he needs to work on incorporating an actual story into those awesome images .
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there were far too many instances during " fallen angels " in which i asked myself , " now who are these people again ?
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is this that first couple or the second couple ? "
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it was impossible to keep track .
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perhaps he could let the audience know right away which character is which , by introducing them to us with " name cards " , as in scorsese's " mean streets " .
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that's really besides the point , though .
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wong kar-wei has proven himself , through very few films , that's he's a movie-maker to watch .
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let's just hope that he hones his storytelling skills with his next few movies .
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