Thursday, January 20, 2011

Chungking Express and Double Indeminity (23/100)

I also watched first two Godfather movies, but everybody knows about them already, right? I think they're overrated, but they're still pretty darn good.

Chungking Express (1994) 

A really unique movie with one of the coolest intro themes I've ever heard:

I think it's a really suitable song for this movie and it's visual style. The movie itself is a Hong Kong film directed by Wong Kar-wai, but it's  bit hard to classify it as one genre or another. It's a romantic drama, but it's not really a film that work because of it's plot. This movie is mainly for people who just really love film in general. Quentin Tarantino is quoted to have said: "I just started crying. Not because the movie was sad, but I'm just so happy to love a movie this much.'' And damn, if that isn't good enough praise for you I doubt anything I can say here will convince you to watch it. The whole atmosphere kind of reminded me of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction actually, if only because of it's charm.

It's a really subtle film. I've only seen it once, but I aim to revisit it soon because I can tell there are a lot of things I missed. The movie itself is divided into two essentially unrelated story arcs with characters only briefly coming into contact with each other. I was a bit confused by this and didn't realize that the story arc had changed for quite a while (due to my incompetence or just not paying attention remains up to question). It's not a casual film, and it's not really a film with any very serious message (none that I've found at least), but it doesn't try to be. It's a celebration of film and a pretty damn good one at that.

Double Indemnity (1944)

For some reason, I can't for the life of me see why, I never really got into detective films. What little of the genre I've seen I've loved, and there's just something about the film noir style that I find irresistible. Maybe it's all the snarky cynical characters, or the cat-and-mouse detective work, but I just love the genre.

It's about a love affair between a life insurance salesman and a married woman who plot to pull off the perfect murder by killing her husband and get away with the insurance money, but obviously things don't work to plan, and well, you'll have to see it for yourself.

Anyway, I sincerely urge you to watch this movie ASAP. It's one of the most entertaining works of cinema I've seen in a while. I found myself watching with a huge stupid grin on my face the whole way through. It's an amazing film with a clever plot and some awesome dialogue. It's barely aged and it's still remains exciting it all the intense parts, and if you're looking for a movie to watch over the weekend make it this one.

6 comments:

  1. i wanna see that! i dont think im able to tho.

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  2. Me like that opening music. Following.

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  3. sounds like Crash or something might check it out

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  4. i was reading through the list and got really confused when i saw "the fly" on there. really, times magazine? good luck on your quest of becoming a buff.

    86thatish.blogspot.com

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