2010-10-10

Fallen Angels: Angel Talk



In 1996, Christopher Doyle released his first book about the production of a movie directed by Wong Kar-Wai. The version I own is the hardcover version. The paperback version is said to contain some postcards as an extra, but I've never seen pictures of these.
The book itself is divided into four sections:



SMILE provides information about the locations where Fallen Angels was shot and it also introduces us to the cast and some important members of the crew. (The text is always provided in English as well as in Japanese.) On the fourth page you see below, Doyle complains about the fact that a scene they shot at Petticoat Lane ended up on the cutting room floor. Luckily, it turned up as an extra on the US BD release for example!




SIGH deals with further aspects of a movie like script, music, make-up. We also get a few strange photographs which don't really remind one of Fallen Angels, just like the picture on the front cover.



EMBRACE consists of nice collages of stills and quotes from the movie. There are even lyrics of the songs of the soundtrack! Funnily, we also get the lyrics of a song named "Go Away From My World", which wasn't even used in the end. And although we are all so familiar with the movie's images, these collages are extremely beautiful to look at!



KISS, the final chapter, shows shots of Hong Kong how it looked back then in the mid-90s.



Personally, I don't like the photographs as much as I like the ones in Doyle's following book Buenos Aires. But this is only a matter of personal taste, both books are great releases I'm proud to own!