Chungking Express by Wong Kar-wai

Category: Non-English

I suppose having watched Chungking a long time before Fallen Angels made me pass a remark which I am proud to take back. After much deliberation I would say Fallen Angels reaches my list of must see movies. Even though the future of the officer and Faye is debatable it's still much more concrete than in FA.

The movie has 2 stories, the first about blondie and the cop who's nursing a broken heart and the second about a cop and Faye.

WKW's penchant for shots of the skies is clear even more so since he was working heavily on Ashes of Time before this movie. There is of course the proverbial shots of clocks (dates in this one) that WKW is otherwise famous for. WKW initially wanted Chungking Express to be his Ashes of Time but in an urban setting and with his trademark emotionally stagnant characters along with Christopher Doyle's brilliant camera work he executes this well.

Watch out for his expression of Time & Space in this film (depicted how!). Yes, there's plenty of frenzied camera work as well. WKW's characters always evoke and this time around expiring canned food, jogging & the cop who keeps talking to everything around him to nurse his broken heart.

Recomendation level: 4/5 A little dicey to give it anything less but I am also not sure if it deserves to be a 5, purely because that is now meant for the best of the best films.

Away With Words by Christopher Doyle

Category: Non-English

Christopher Doyle is renowned for his work as a cinematographer, his collaborations with Wong Kar Wai are very legendary. His first film is definitely made from the heart and while the visuals are stunning the movie itself seems to have let me down a little.

Doyle still is in his element i.e. capturing emotions and people, the lighting and visuals created are stunning and you can rest assured that this movie leaves an indelible mark on your visual senses. I am not sure what to make of the movie on a theoretical level but I will leave that for now.

The film follows the lives of 3 people in HongKong; a Japanese dreamer, a British bar owner & a Chinese woman, their lives are centered around the bar but in their minds they have traveled the world. The movie has some funny moments as it does have its unique styles in cinematography.

Recommendation level: 3/5 just because it's Doyle. Most photography amateurs should definitely give this movie a watch. This movie is a little hard to categorize as a must see or must not see, so am going to leave it to you guys to decide.