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 . 
unfortunately , wong seems more interested in experimenting with his camera than creating tangible characters for the audience to root for . 
ordinarily , that alone would be enough to sink a movie , but in the case of " fallen angels " , this is not so . 
every shot in this film is exciting just to * look * at . 
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 . 
ugh . ) 
the movie follows three pairs of lost souls as they struggle to find some meaning in their lives . 
i can't say much more than that as i didn't really know what was going on most of the time . 
in fact , it wasn't until about halfway through the movie that i was able to distinguish between each character . 
the constantly moving camera doesn't really allow for the audience to associate with any one character . 
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 . 
 " 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 . 
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 . 
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 . 
but if wong wishes to become a legendary filmmaker , he needs to work on incorporating an actual story into those awesome images . 
there were far too many instances during " fallen angels " in which i asked myself , " now who are these people again ? 
is this that first couple or the second couple ? " 
it was impossible to keep track . 
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 " . 
that's really besides the point , though . 
wong kar-wei has proven himself , through very few films , that's he's a movie-maker to watch . 
let's just hope that he hones his storytelling skills with his next few movies .