So, its basically three stories set around an Elvis-themed motel in Memphis. As the film progresses you see how all the characters are connected. For instance, the first segment follows a Japanese Rockabilly couple, Mitsuko and Jun, on their pilgrimage to America. They check into said hotel and are later seen making love in bed. In the second segment, an Italian woman named Luisa checks into the hotel with an American woman, Dee Dee, and the two hear the Japanese couple making love through the wall. Then, in the third segment, Johnny (Strummer) Charlie (Buscemi) and Will hide in the hotel after shooting a liquor shop owner. You soon realise that Dee Dee is Johnny's estranged wife. When Mitsuko and Jun leave in the morning they hear a gunshot. Later in the film this turns out to be fired by Johnny... and so on and soforth.
The three stooges, l-r - Johnny (Joe Strummer), Charlie (Steve Buscemi) and Will (Rick Aviles)
As with most films I like, its the details that make this film so special. The Japanese plum that Mitsuko gives to the bellboy in the motel instead of money; the DJ on the radio (voiced by Tom Waits); the many T shirts that Mitsuko has in her suitcase; references to the TV programme Lost in Space; the allusions to Elvis that appear everywhere, he even appears as a ghost at one stage; the way that both versions of the song 'Mystery Train' (Junior Parker's version and Elvis' later one) are played. They are used at the beginning and end of the film as Mitsuko and Jen arrive and leave Memphis by train. So that the song literally becomes the sountrack to their journey by train, as they travel further and further into the enigma that is America.
Screamin' Jay Hawkins as the motel owner and Cinque Lee as the bellboy. The object on the right is the Japanese plum, a gift from Mitsuko as she doesn't understand the custom of tipping hotel staff.
The moment where Elvis appears as a ghost to Luisa.
It's one of those films that has just the right mixture of comedy, drama and sadness. The theme music is very mournful. In the hotel room, Mitsuko lies in bed while Jun looks out the window at Memphis and says how cool it is to be young and in America. There are some very funny moments, but its very subtle humour. Screamin' Jay Hawkins is a revelation as the stern but outlandish hotel manager. In another great scene, Johnny plays pool in a local bar. The regulars call him Elvis because of his quiffed, greased hair much to his annoyance. He turns around to the mostly black clientele and says "I don't call them Sam and Dave do I?" to which one of them replies "hey man, my name is Dave." Such a simple line but such a howler.
Steve Buscemi is on top form here as well. This is an earlier incarnation of his usual hapless, blue collar loser who never seems to have anything go right for him. It's a character he's perfected in other films such as Fargo, The Big Lebowski and Trees Lounge. In terms of predictability its up there with Woody Allen's Jewish neurotic, but much the same as Allen, it always works. In Mystery Train he plays a barber who maintains a tolerable relationship with his brother-in-law Johnny (who he later finds out isn't his brother-in-law as Johnny and Dee Dee aren't married). Johnny reveals this revelation after accidentally shooting Charlie in the foot (the same gunshot Mitsuko and Jun hear as they leave their room). To which Charlie replies: "I don't believe this. You're not even my brother-in-law and now you've f***ing shot me!"
In a very small, subtle way it's the sort of film that makes you feel glad to be alive. I guess in part because of the details but also just the fact that a movie like this has actually been made. It sounds bizarre but it is such an an intricate, specific film, one which would only have limited appeal to a certain amount of people. Every time I watch it, I just smile inside that it exists.
Ah what the hell, another shot of Strummer for good measure.
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