Cinema Gadfly

13. Chungking Express

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My guest for this month is David Blakeslee, and he’s joined me to discuss the film I chose for him, the 1994 Hong Kong drama film Chungking Express. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.

Show notes:

  • Wong Kar-Wai is an acclaimed director from Hong Kong
  • The location of this film was inspired by the real life craziness of Chungking Mansions
  • David’s blog, Criterion Reflections, is one of my absolute favorites
  • CriterionCast, his other gig, is the best Criterion site I know of. So much great stuff there
  • They did the first episode of their mainline podcast on this very film, go check it out!
  • Nanook of the North used to be the oldest film in the Criterion Collection, now it’s The Phantom Carriage
  • The original line-up for the CriterionCast podcast was Rudie Obias, Travis George, and my friend Ryan Gallagher
  • Ashes of Time was the film Wong Kar-Wai was making when he took a break to make this one
  • Fallen Angels is the “spiritual sequel” to this film
  • In the Mood for Love is Wong Kar-Wai’s most celebrated film
  • The early films of Wong Kar-Wai were more in the vein of directors like John Woo
  • The character of Faye in this film is an almost perfect example of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl
  • In 1994, the 1997 transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong was on everyone’s mind
  • California Dreamin' is probably the best known song that The Mamas & the Papas ever made
  • The Cranberries song Dreams was covered for this film by Faye Wong, who plays the character of Faye
  • The cop in the first half of this film is played by Taiwanese-Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro
  • This was the last film that legendary Taiwanese actor Brigitte Lin ever made
  • The Criterion edition of this film features noted British writer Tony Rayns on the commentary track
  • This is the film that made Tony Leung famous
  • Tony Leung’s apartment was the real life apartment of the film’s cinematographer, Christopher Doyle
  • Quentin Tarantino used his new fame after Pulp Fiction to draw attention to this film and get it released in the US
  • Death by Hanging is a complex film from Japanese director Nagisa Oshima
  • The Eclipse Viewer is David’s main podcasting gig, I highly recommend it
  • He co-hosts the show with Trevor Berrett who contributes to a literature blog called The Mookse and The Gripes
  • Their most recent episode at the time of this podcast is about the melodramas of Raffaello Matarazzo
  • David gave me my first experience in podcasting when I joined him to discuss Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup

    • Sadly this film is currently not available for rent or purchase in the US anywhere that I can find. If you know someway to watch it, please let me know and I’ll update these notes.

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    Cinema GadflyBy Arik Devens
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