The NetFlix jacket description of Fallen Angels:
'A disillusioned Hong Kong killer (Leon Lai ) embarks on what he hopes to be his last hit...all the while realizing that to truly get out of the game, he must overcome his romantic obsession with his rarely seen partner (Michele Reis). In a seemingly unrelated subplot, a mute ( Takeshi Kaneshiro ) tries to get the world's attention in his own unconventional way.'
Sure, if you chose to interpret it that way, some of the synopsis mentioned above did seem to happen, but I suppose that if this jacket description tells the story of this film, then I could easily describe Mozart’s Don Giovanni as some songs and incidental music arranged to tell how and why a libertine ‘gets his’ in the end. There are always broader and deeper issues present.
I admit that I am not sure after watching it, if I can tell the story of the film any better than the jacket does ( I did not find him ‘disillusioned’, as much as tired, nor did I find the mute’s actions the equivalent of vying for the world’s attention either ). The narrative does indeed follow a ‘contract killer’, Ming ( Leon Lai ), whose hits are set up by his ‘partner’, Michele Reis, and Ming’s decision to end the business partnership and her reaction to that decision. They do seem to be obsessed with each other, however it felt more erotic, than romantic to me. Along with this narrative, there is a rather sweet story of He Zhiwu’s (Takeshi Kaneshiro ) devotion and love for his father and He’s illicit operation of various other person’s shops after hours ( due to his own lack of capital ) and literally pummeling customers into partaking of his wares.
But it sure felt like loss and transience. Each of the 3 principal characters moves through life, the expiration dates reached, their situations change, and through the change, loss occurs; a loss of a life, loss of a partnership, loss of a first love, and loss of a father; oh, and along the way, plenty of other bit players lose a life along with plenty of blood to boot.
I thought of one translation of the Tao, ‘No. 23 To Speak Rarely is Natural’:
To speak rarely is natural.
That is why a gusty wind doesn’t last the morning,
a downpour of rain doesn’t last all day.
Who does this? Heaven and Earth.
If even Heaven and Earth cannot go on for ever,
how much less can human beings!
Therefore those who follow the Way assimilate to the Way;
the virtuous assimilate to virtue,
those who have lost assimilate to loss.
Those who assimilate to the Way are happy to gain it,
those who assimilate to virtue too are happy to gain it,
and those who assimilate to loss are also happy to gain it.
When trust is insufficient, there is distrust.
Part of the commentary on ‘those who assimilate to loss are also happy to gain it’ reads;
The inner meaning of loss here is reduction of selfishness, pride, egoism, greed, and possessiveness;
assimilation to loss can refer to a purely internal process or to the process of using the external loss,
when it happens, as a means of approaching loss in the inner liberative sense.
I liked that last portion; approaching loss in the inner liberative sense. It seemed to fit my understanding of the film. Each character reached some liberation by the loss, as painful as that loss was. Was it the grand ‘assimilation’ of the Tao? Probably not, but it’s not for me to say.
There are beautiful bits of dialogue (most said in ‘voice over’ ) that I enjoyed, along with shots in scenes which to me conveyed the transience and loss. Some of the dialogue:
Every person has their own past, even if you are a killer.
Going through a person’s trash you can learn a lot about a person.
Find out too much and you lose interest.
Just when I needed a raincoat, he returned to my side. It would be so great if it rained for ever.
You might forget my face, but not my bite.
I know that fragrance very well.
I wasn’t used to smelling it on another woman.
I never liked this fragrance very much, but this afternoon, I smelled it on another woman.
I have gotten used to life without a partner.
Some of the shots from the scenes:
Jet airliners glide, just feet it seems, above buildings in the night; clouds moving across the same night sky
A subway train runs past the apartment the killer uses to wait in, his partner’s nose pressed to the subway window hoping for a glimpse as she speeds by.
An empty chair spotlighted, TV on, playing the video of his father, the deaf son’s remembrance of his father before he leaves.
That beautiful piece of music No. 1818 from the Wurlitzer the killer uses to tell his partner he plans to quit.
I liked this film very much, enough to recommend it and to say ‘see it’ to anyone who would, but I don’t think that I described it. If you go on to see it, and saw it only for the scene with the mute massaging the pig carcass and watching Charlie rant about Blondie and her and He’s search for the nowhere to be found Blonde and received as much joy from these portions, that I did, that should suffice for some of the reasons to. You will undoubtedly have your own.