Story
Logline
In the City of Angels, six eccentric strangers cross paths after near-death experiences, interweaving the journey of love, death, and the human spirit.
Synopsis
"Angels Near Death" is a dark comedy with interconnected stories that come together to form the tapestry of life, or intertwined lives, like many strings woven to create a hangman's noose. In the City of Angels, Oscar, a set dresser lost in the machinery of cinema, works tirelessly with blood, sweat, and tears until spilling his own blood transforms his life in ways he never expected. His girlfriend, Victoria, a dedicated actress who plays a sinister spirit in the horror film "The Mother's Bed," blurs the line between performance and reality after work, turning their apartment into her personal haunted ground. Alice, once a novelist, leaves fiction behind to report for "The Hollywood Disaster," only to discover that life itself often surpasses even the wildest stories. Her fiancé, Henry, switches from avant-garde filmmaking to nursing, convinced that while art can inspire, only hands and bandages can truly heal a human wound.
Art, a photographer obsessed with capturing death through photo montage, follows his subjects to their final moments only to realize that his own passing becomes his greatest masterpiece. Cher, directing the outrageous slasher "Chopsticks," in which a Chinese girl wields kung-fu against scumbags, soon realizes that the chaos on screen is spilling into the real world. Six eccentric strangers meet on body and soul in the spiritual world, where dreams go to die, embarking on an expedition to resurrect themselves and live beautiful lives again.
Director Statement
"Angels Near Death" is a love letter to the cinema that raised me, and a quiet cry to those who still believe in its power. I came to Hollywood with a dream: to tell a story bold enough to mark its time, something that might echo the way "Star Wars" once did. However, as the world grew more fragile, I felt my imagination dim. Before my student visa expired, I made this film—not as a goodbye, but as a gift. A gentle reminder that cinema still matters. And if it finds its way into someone else’s heart, I hope they walk away with this truth: dreaming is not a luxury—it’s the light we carry through the dark.
Director Statement
“Angels Near Death” is a love letter to the cinema that raised me, and a quiet cry to those who still believe in its power. I came to Hollywood with a dream: to tell a story bold enough to mark its time, something that might echo the way Star Wars once did.
However, as the world grew more fragile, I felt my imagination dim. Before my student visa expired, I made this film—not as a goodbye, but as a gift. A gentle reminder that cinema still matters. And if it finds its way into someone else’s heart, I hope they walk away with this truth: dreaming is not a luxury—it’s the light we carry through the dark.—Hungyu Kuo
