Trylove

Wong Kar-wai’s masterpiece IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE is an unimpeachable culmination of his best filmmaking tendencies, honed to a devastating sheen. In this story of two reticent would-be lovers bonding over the infidelity of their spouses, to be “in the mood for love” means to recognize who you are when you love, the roles and identities that come with loving outside yourself, and the ablution of self under the innate human desire for connection.

48:36 - The Aaron Grossman Wong Kar-wai Filmed Apartment Quality Index (AGWKWFAQI)

1:17:59 - Cody’s Noteys (The Noteys-Approved Tony Leung Chiu-wai Alignment of Character Report [NATLCWACR])

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas” by Nat King Cole from the IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE soundtrack.

CW: Depictions of sex work.

The Wong Kar-watch continues with HAPPY TOGETHER, a searing portrait of love in places of unbelonging (and Wong’s only Cannes winner to date).

We’re joined by returning guest Jenny Ackerson and writer Aegor Ray for our discussion, which delves into ill-fated relationship of Fai and Po-wing, two Hong Kong ex-lovers stuck in Buenos Aires, as well as Wong’s portrayal of unglamorous queer love in ways that both leverage and buck his trademark visual panache.

Follow Aegor at https://twitter.com/itsteensy

Follow Jenny at https://twitter.com/ackersonjenny

"Peak Male Performance: Young Frankenstein (1974)" by Aegor Ray at Bright Wall/Dark Room: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2020/11/25/peak-male-performance-young-frankenstein/

"Out of the Depths: Winter Stories" at Mizna: https://mizna.org/art/out-of-the-depths-winter-stories/

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Chunga’s Revenge” by Frank Zappa from the HAPPY TOGETHER soundtrack.

CW: Depictions of mental illness.

Just a year after CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994), Wong Kar-wai found out he couldn’t stay away from that story – so he found another, more perverse way to tell a tale of Chungking Mansions and the Midnight Express in FALLEN ANGELS. More explicitly profane than the Wong films we’ve covered so far, it still retains his signature yearning, longing, and lusting – but this time, with a bloody, horny, funny, beaming sheen that makes it unique in his filmography.

23:37 - The Aaron Grossman Wong Kar-wai Filmed Apartment Quality Index (AGWKWFAQI)

1:14:58 - Cody’s Noteys (The Long-Awaited Wong Kar-wai Game Show)

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “First Killing (Karmacoma)” by Frankie Chan and Roel A. Garcia from the FALLEN ANGELS soundtrack.

Wong Kar-wai’s “inverse stories” structure really hits its stride in CHUNGKING EXPRESS, illustrating love as fleeting, important, slow, and instantaneous with the not-quite-parallel stories of the blonde, the cop, the MPDG, and… the cop.

Jenny is back to help us discuss one of Wong’s better-known films (and one of her favorites), which she says uses a “call and response” style and characters that embody the different ways people value time with those they love through routines and rituals – all, of course, in service of Straight-Up Vibes™.

Follow Jenny on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ackersonjenny and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/jennyack/!

1:15:26 - Cody’s Noteys (Trylibs: Love in a City)

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & The Papas from the CHUNGKING EXPRESS soundtrack.

From the opening shots of Wong Kar-wai’s DAYS OF BEING WILD (1990), it’s clear that the real world is less important than making its characters – and its audience – feel. Harry calls it “almost Lynchian," using vague timelines and liminal spaces to foreground moment-to-moment emotion rather than adhere to a prescriptive structure. Without a single clear perspective or identity, it’s communicating the essential dependency every person has on the people and world around them. Whether or not we realize it, we all draw strength from that dependency – but some wield it against each other.

1:09:08 - The Aaron Grossman Wong Kari-wai Filmed Apartment Quality Index (AGWKWFAQI)

1:13:02 - Cody’s Noteys (Cheung Chrivia)

1:26:01 - Aaron fucks around, finds out

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

“Years of being obscure” by David Bordwell: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2008/06/24/years-of-being-obscure/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Perfidia” by Xavier Cugat, the Mambo King.

Are you making choices for now or for the future? AS TEARS GO BY, the debut film by acclaimed Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, occasionally feels like a sketch of the oeuvre to come – but in its strongest moments, it’s an essential part of his filmography.

Returning guest and Wong Kar Wai stan Jenny Ackerson helps us pick apart the film’s use of visual form, tragedy, and hubris as they would come to define the filmmaker’s heartfelt signature.

Follow Jenny on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ackersonjenny and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/jennyack/!

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Take My Breath Away” by Sandy Lam from the AS TEARS GO BY soundtrack.

We actually did it.

For our 100th episode, we’re very lucky to be joined by six close friends and returning guests for a dramatic table read of the script of A GOOFY MOVIE (1995) written by Jymn Magon, Chris Matheson, and Brian Pimental. Thanks to Jenny Ackerson, Eric Leith, Charlie Mackin, Kyle Olson, Matt Yost, and Seth Zarate!

Also, Aaron got Jim Cummings (Pete) and Rob Paulsen (P.J.) to wish us a happy 100th, which is the coolest thing that’s ever happened.

Thanks to all our listeners, guests, friends, and supporters for justifying 100 episodes of Trylove!

0:45 - Introducing the cast

5:19 - A special message from Jim Cummings and Rob Paulsen

7:26 - Act I

12:01 - “After Today”

39:59 - Act II

1:06:57 - Act III

1:25:00 - “I2I”

Jenny Ackerson: https://twitter.com/ackersonjenny, https://letterboxd.com/jennyack

Eric Leith: https://twitter.com/Unintellivision

Charlie Mackin: https://twitter.com/charliemander13, https://letterboxd.com/charliemander/

Kyle Olson: https://twitter.com/KOlson5581, https://letterboxd.com/kdo5581/

Matt Yost: https://twitter.com/mattyost_, https://letterboxd.com/mattyost_/

Seth Zarate: https://twitter.com/snzarate, https://letterboxd.com/snzarate/

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. “I2I” backing track arranged and recorded by James Garrison Summers (https://www.youtube.com/c/JGSMusic/). You can guess where the rest of the music came from. I don’t need Walt’s shambling corporate corpse breathing down my neck.

This is it. The definitive ranking of all things Trylon, all things 2020. Join us as we throw down to pare down another year of movies, podcasting, and noteys. It all ends here.

20:51 - Best “Trylove in the Time of Corona” Episode

34:30 - Trylon Event We’re Saddest About Missing

45:13 - Best Trylon Dry Run

1:04:18 - The Rashominies Award for the Movie Most Egregiously Longer Than RASHOMON (1950)

1:09:33 - Best Score

1:19:11 - Trylon Movie We're Saddest About Not Recording On

1:30:00 - Best Film Series at the Trylon

1:46:09 - Best Director

1:49:00 - Best Trylove Guest

1:55:29 - Favorite Trylove Episode

2:03:22 - Best Cody's Notey (Cody Recused)

2:10:37 - King of the Trylon

2:16:34 - Queen of the Trylon

2:25:23 - Best Picture

2:48:40 - Just Skip to All the Awards

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. I’m not going to list the outro music because I fear I’ll be put in jail.

CW: discussion of sexual assault as plot.

As jidaigeki, samurai period pieces, Kurosawa’s films often level critiques against power structures by depicting their effects on laypeople. Kihachi Okamoto’s SWORD OF DOOM touches on those with a tale of violence set amid the resistance of the Meiji Restoration in 19th century Japan, using distinctly un-Kurosawa styles to heighten reality just ever so much.

Tatsuya Nakadai’s unhinged, wayward swordsman, Ryunosuke, doesn’t have A moral code. He has what he thinks is THE moral code – until he’s confronted by a better Toshiro Mifune’s Shimada practitioner with the exact inverse ideology.

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: Selections from the SWORD OF DOOM (1966) score by Masaru Sato.

Not quite a feel-good Christmas film nor an acerbic character piece, REMEMBER THE NIGHT seems to forget what it wants to be after the first act. Mired in early WWII sentiments (and prejudice) about traditional values and self-sacrifice, it risks being scuttled by its uneven parts – but it’s spared the worst thanks to some dynamite performances from Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)" written by Stephen Foster and performed by Fred MacMurray from REMEMBER THE NIGHT (1940).