Review | The Fallen film review: tale of sex, drugs and murder from G Affairs director is stylish but tasteless
- Hong Kong filmmaker Lee Cheuk-pan’s visual flair and style is undeniable, but his eagerness to shock comes at the expense of a powerful narrative
- An increasingly confusing tale of crystal meth production and deadly double-crossing is exacerbated by a disturbing lack of respect for women
2/5 stars
English and Chinese are not the only murder victims in this second feature by emerging Hong Kong filmmaker Lee Cheuk-pan. Visually striking yet narratively inept, The Fallen is a twisted and flagrantly unrealistic tale of sex, drugs and gratuitous violence, set around the mayhem engulfing leaders of a powerful international criminal syndicate.
The film’s style echoes that of its director’s promising debut, G Affairs ; its manipulation of colour tones, incongruous use of classical music and elliptical storytelling are all seen here. But Lee’s fondness for sensationalism backfires in this production, which, for all its visual flair, fails to engage with its characters’ inexplicable behaviours.
More than 20 years after she fled from her drug kingpin father “the Don” (Melvin Wong Kam-sang), long-time drug addict Rain Fuyu (Irene Wan Bik-ha, last seen in 2016’s Love in Late Autumn ) returns to stake her claim to family leadership.
She quickly develops a rapport with the 23-year-old Snow Fuyu (Hanna Chan), who believes she is the Don’s illegitimate daughter. Rain also works as a reluctant informant for the police.
A power struggle is under way between syndicate elder Vulcan (Eddie Chen, proud of his sloppy command of Mandarin Chinese) and the Don’s “overseas-educated” adopted son Tempest (Kenny Kwan Chi-bun, hamming it up with unintentionally bad English), who has a strange sexual attraction to Rain. Despite her drug-induced hallucinations, the prodigal daughter manages to play both sides – but why would she do that?