		Year: 1995 Director: Wong Kar Wai Starring: Takashi Kaneshiro, Leon Lai, Michelle Reis, Karen Mok Genre: Arthouse Literal title translation: 'Fallen Angels'

Wong's semi-sequel to 'Chungking Express'. 'Fallen Angels' again concentrates on telling a series of interwoven stories. The first concerns hit man (Leon Lai) who is beginning to question both his career choice and his relationship to his previous partner (Michelle Reis). The second looks at an enterprising ex con (Takashi Kaneshiro) who breaks into and runs other people's businesses at night.

By the time this was made Wong Kar Wai had proved himself the best arthouse filmmaker in Hong Kong. He had firmly established his style and this allowed 'Fallen Angels' to be an extremely well conceived piece of filmmaking. Wong Kar Wai seems capable of writing extremely hard hitting and poetic dialogue and 'Fallen Angels' contains some classic lines. With this film he has tried to aim it more squarely at the younger generation while at the same time delivering more disturbing and fast moving scenes than he has before - such as the shoot outs involving Leon Lai. Takashi Kaneshiro is good in the same part that he played in 'Chungking' but this time his character has a more tragic and darker edge. The same can be said for the rest of the cast. Michelle Reis delivers her best performance to date which is both sympathetic and hard at the same time, showing that she was largely wasted in the succession of damsel in distress roles she has played in the past. This is a tragi-comic, romantic film that keeps you interested and guessing right until the end. You cannot help but be impressed by the way in which Wong tells his stories. 'Fallen Angels' also contains one of the most impressive final shots in Hong Kong film history.

One for the trip hop generation and in my opinion Wong's best film due to the sheer confidence in which he constructs his narrative. Like the rest of Wong's films you can watch this again and again and each time gauge some different emotion or see something hidden within the narrative that you did not see before.