Chungking Express, renowned Hong Kong director Wong-Kar Wai’s breakout hit, opens with beautiful shots of the district Tsim Sha Tsui, showing just how fast everything and everyone moves in the gorgeous neon lit city. There’s nearly something moving in the film, from background characters to the camera, which makes the moments where it slows down so much more special – and the only thing this city slows down for is romance. 

Fallen Angels is a companion piece to Chungking Express, releasing just a year later. Where Chungking Express is almost cloyingly sweet, Fallen Angels is dark, shot entirely at nighttime, where the warmth of the sun can’t mask just how lonely the characters are. Where Chungking Express uses repetition of songs to show the nature of falling in love, Fallen Angels uses it to show the unrelenting pain of heartbreak, how the smallest things remind us of the person we used to love. 

So, what are these movies about? They certainly both have plots – Chungking Express is split into two halves, both stories about policemen falling in love; Fallen Angels is also split into two halves, one following an assassin, the other following a mute prison escapee. But the plot doesn’t really matter, they are both about the vibes. The warm, neon glows, the catchy music to drown out the noise, the messy, chaotic, stunning camerawork, every aspect of Chungking Express is chosen to meticulously create the perfect breakup movie. Because no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much you may be lost, you’ll be okay, you’ll learn to love again. In a short 103 minutes, Wong-Kar Wai will heal your shattered heart. 

Fallen Angels gets to the same destination through a different route. While Chungking Express might get there through pure escapism, hurtling you into a bustling city with no time to be left alone with your thoughts, Fallen Angels is slower, more contemplative, more reflective. It’s okay to cry in the bar, to have a midnight meal at McDonald’s, to make that nighttime motorcycle run when your feelings become too much to bear. Even in this dystopian, dark city, you’ll learn to love again. In an even shorter runtime than Chungking Express, Fallen Angels will, at just 98 minutes, heal your shattered heart. Apart, Chungking Express and Fallen Angels are masterpieces, both profoundly beautiful in their technical aspects, but together? Watching Chungking Express and Fallen Angels back to back creates the strongest anthology film of all time, creating a 200 minute epic about love and loneliness, misery and magic, light and dark. Let it wash over you, get lost in the TV glow, spend a restless night with this Wong-Kar Wai masterwork and let yourself heal.