Analysis and Reflection on The Movie "Weighed But Found Wanting"

”Most people work 9 to 5. I’m the opposite. My job is simple; I visit friends now and then. I don’t know any of these people. They don’t interest me either. Soon, they’ll be gone forever. ”

This is how we’re introduced to the character The Killers’ Agent, played by Michelle Reis, in the movie Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai, Do lok tin si, 1995): a nameless woman dressed in latex and leopard print, pushing dumplings with shaky hands into her mouth as we view her chest-up like a splash of color separating her from the bleak green background. Her voice-over may gingerly allude to prostitution but the Partner works with bodies in other ways - arranging for them to be killed. She never sells her body, and she doesn’t have sex on-screen (in fact, in an internal monologue she mentions that she hasn’t been close to a man for a very long time), yet her very being is steeped in lust and want. Partner seems to be an archetype of it - from the way her character arc relies on her wanting her partner-in-crime, to how she dresses and acts, to how the light and angles frame her. In this essay I will study how the character of the Partner is made through costume, color, angles, and props and how Wong Kar-Wai made it so that she seems to be in control of her own eroticism.

Costume is one of the most important, and often one of the most underrated, parts of a character. In the book The Film Experience, authors Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White write about the role of costume and make-up in film, pointing out that when its function is to highlight a character they draw out important parts of that character’s personality. In Fallen Angels Partner’s character not only has important parts of her personality drawn out by her outside as it instead becomes one of the metaphors for her entire being. Bangs are covering painted dark eyes, her lips are red, and clothing short and revealing. It does match the overall atmosphere of the movie, as costumes and related accessories often contributes of the ”visual impression and design of the film overall”, but it’s also a prime example of how female seduction is viewed from the outside. We become aware of Partner’s own awareness of this facet of her personality in her last scene when she’s sitting at a restaurant where the character He Zhiwu also is present. Partner’s just lost her, well, partner who was her romantic interest and the drive for her erotic demeanor. She’s wearing a regular long-sleeved shirt for the second time in the movie, the first time being when she was washing clothes with no love interest around. Her hair is up and eyes unpainted - until she makes eye-contact with He Zhiwu and we’re treated to a close-up of her face as she removes the pin from her hair and lets the bangs cover her eyes like they did before. She then asks him to drive her home. This in-your-face action tells the audience that yes, her way of dressing is directly linked to her demeanor, and yes, she’s aware of its erotic power. - ColorKar-Wai makes strong use of color in his movies, strong enough that many articles and videos about him focus on his ”color obsession”, and one can interpret the use of color as symbolism; for emotions, events, and maybe even as a connecting thread between people and places. In Fallen Angels saturated neon lights up the eternal night, subway stations and led lights blinding. It’s no wonder the scenes in which Partner is the focus follow the same trend, and may directly reflect the character’s being. If we pick out the different color schemes in scenes where Partner stars, two main ones are constantly recurring - green and red. It feels as though they are tailored for every specific event.

Corrigan and White write that color is one of the most important things in the image’s composition and it complements our experience of what is happening on the screen, they go on to declare that ”for example, when used effectively, metallic blues, soft greens, and deep reds can elicit very different emotions from viewers”. What they don’t do is explain exactly what emotions they bring out in us. Jon Fusco, however, does. In an article written on the webpage ”No Film School”, he writes about the psychology of color in film. According to him, every color used in film can have both negative and positive connotations and they hone the emotions of the scene. Red symbolizes - among other things - passion, rage, desire, danger, and love. Green symbolizes - among other things - perseverance, renewal, fertility, and envy. In the introduction of this essay I made the claim that Partner seems to be an archetype of lust, ”a very powerful feeling of wanting something”, and these two colors along with all that they represent are an extension of the definition. The two colors intertwine constantly. When she’s cleaning the apartment the green from the outside mix with the refrigerators warmer hue, the masturbation scene’s where her red purse contrasts the neon green clock in the background and the covers of her bed are checkered green and red, bumping into ”Blondie” in a subway station which has red walls and green led lights. Emotions are conflicted and intertwining, envy and desire clashing.

There are scenes in which one color is entirely dominant though - red and yellow as Partner rubs up against the jukebox, green in the final scene in the restaurant. One somber moment in black-and-white as the song ”Wang ji ta” (”Forget him”) plays in the background. In the last two scenes of Fallen Angels the scenes are more than influenced by color as the entire screen is cool green (see first picture), and here we may focus more on the ”renewal” and ”perseverance” of green’s psychology - through diegetic narration Partner describes her new life, how she works with different people now and doesn’t work in hotel rooms any more. ”I firmly believe… one mustn’t get emotionally involved with with one’s partner. ”Bathed in green light, she’s persevered through hardship and been renewed. Until He Zhiwu props up behind her with a face full of red, and she lets her bangs down. AnglesCorrigan and White write that any interpretations considering angles must be made carefully. So, without further ado, here are some for Fallen Angels. Kar-Wai plays with field depth a lot, especially with deep focus - where multiple planes of action are shown at the same time. The Film Experience gives an example of deep focus in the movie The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyles, The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946) where it creates relationships within a single image - where two sets of people meet happily in different rooms while all still being visible and the theme of isolation is present through the distance.

In Fallen Angels’ deep focus-scenes with Partner however, the resulting symbolism may be slightly different. Unlike The Film Experience’s example of deep focus where the four characters are shown in medium long - and long shots, Partner is less of a dialogue-driven character and more of a monologue-driven one and we see her in medium close-ups or in actual close-ups which set her apart completely from the people around her. While The Best Years of Our Lives may use deep focus to amplify relationships, Fallen Angels dampens them. Partner is living in her own world and angles, camera distance, and field depth used when she’s on screen consistently keep her as the main character. Even in her final scene with her partner in crime - though he has the voiceover, she’s in the foreground. In other scenes, the audience gets cu’s of her face, legs, and hands with almost no consideration for the surrounding set. She dominates the entire screen. Exposing a woman’s body to the camera is old news - sex sells - and the majority of the time it is exposed for a male character’s sake, or (most of the time) for the male audience. Yet, without forgetting that the director is a man and the movie has been directed from his point of view, the erotic filter through which we view Partner seems to be what she considers herself to be, or at the very least a reflection of how she’s feeling. The camera work may be just another aspect of her outfit. The most sexualized scenes starring her are shot in empowering ways. For example, the masturbation scenes are shot using a low-angle shot, which by making its subject seem bigger and taller evokes power and strength.

On the other hand, this can also be an example of the ”headless woman” phenomena - in which female characters/models have their bodies but not faces shown on screen - strengthening their roles of objects, not subjects. Even though this usually happens in advertising through posters and pictures, these are scenes where the term can be applied. PropsOver 1 million people die every year in China from smoking-related injuries and the government is cracking down hard on smoking by banning it in public places. In 1995, when Fallen Angels was released, China faced similar issues. According to a study made by the JAMA network, more than 300 million men and 20 million women were smokers, ”making China the world’s largest actual and potential national market for cigarettes. ” These statistics are very much reflected in Fallen Angels as the main characters smoke in seemingly every shot. When Partner is not smoking another oral action is part of the scene; her wearing a mask, applying lipstick, eating, and drinking. ”Props acquire special significance when they are used to express characters’ thoughts and feelings”, Corrigan and White write, and cigarettes in Fallen Angels are instrumental props that make it easier for the actors to express emotion through the way they are held and smoked.

The cigarette in Partner’s first masturbation scene is held calmly and completing the sensual image, while it in the dialogue between her and her partner and crime is cradled with overly shaking fingers while the rest of her body is perfectly calm and collected. The decision to make a female character whose arc relies on wanting a man is a problematic one and one that can easily become a cliché if done wrong, yet if done right can be visually stunning and narratively interesting. In Fallen Angels case, it balances on the edge. Partner is a rounded character that, despite Kar-Wai’s love of characters that appear to be out of this world, feels real. She long for a man that she wants just because she may not be able to have him and this longing shines out of her through costume, color, props, and camera work. When the man decides that she wants out of this fragile game of dress-up, she ends it, and him with it, before starting over. It’s a story of a character who knows what she wants and the neon world she lives in bends to her will.