Mystery Train (film)

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Mystery Train
Poster for Mystery Train
Directed by	Jim Jarmusch
Produced by	Jim Stark
Written by	Jim Jarmusch
Starring	Youki Kudoh Masatoshi Nagase Screamin' Jay Hawkins Nicoletta Braschi Elizabeth Bracco Rick Aviles Joe Strummer Steve Buscemi Tom Waits(Voice Only)
Music by	John Lurie
Cinematography	Robby Müller
Editing by	Melody London
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	May 1989 (Cannes Film Festival) November 7, 1989 (USA)
Running time	113 min.
Language	English Italian Japanese
Budget	$2,800,000
IMDb profile

Mystery Train is a 1989 anthology film written and directed by independent film director Jim Jarmusch and set in Memphis, Tennessee. The film comprises three different stories set on the same night. They are linked by one run-down hotel run by Night Clerk (played by Screamin' Jay Hawkins) and his dishevelled bellboy (Cinque Lee, younger brother of director Spike Lee), a scene featuring Elvis Presley's "Blue Moon" and a gunshot.

[edit] Plot

The first story, "Far From Yokohama", features a teenage couple from Yokohama, Japan--Mitsuko (Yuki Kudoh) and Jun (Masatoshi Nagase)--travelling across America and making pilgrimage to Memphis. Mitsuko is obsessed with Elvis Presley, and even, in one scene "deduces" that Elvis was the basis for Madonna and the Statue Of Liberty. Their story follows their holiday, including an exhaustive trip to Sun Records and the film's sex scene. Their story also features a cameo by legend Rufus Thomas as an old man in a train station.

The second story, "A Ghost", follows a stop-over with an Italian widow (possibly Mafia), Luisa (Nicoletta Braschi), escorting her husband's coffin back to Italy. Stuck in Memphis for the night (after being conned twice and stuck with armfuls of magazines), she is forced to share a room with Dee Dee (Elizabeth Bracco), a young woman who talks constantly. When Dee Dee does finally shut up and get to sleep, Luisa still doesn't get any sleep, after a visit from Memphis' most famous export...Elvis Presley.

In the final story, "Lost In Space", we meet Dee Dee's husband, Johnny (aka Elvis, much to his chagrin, played by former Clash front-man Joe Strummer). Having drunk himself silly after losing his job and brandishing a gun, Johnny, along with his buddy Will Robinson (former stand-up comic Rick Aviles) and brother-in-law Charlie (Steve Buscemi), robs a liquor store, severely wounding the owner in the process, and spends the night hiding out in the hotel getting drunk. While there, Charlie realizes that Will shares the same name as Will Robinson from the TV show Lost in Space, which Johnny's never heard of. So they proceed to tell him about the show, which Will says that's how he feels now with Charlie and Johnny, Lost in Space. The next morning Charlie discovers that Johnny isn't even really his brother-in-law, which angers him because of what they've been through. Johnny then tries to shoot himself, and during the struggle Charlie gets shot in the leg. Come morning the three escape a police car that isn't even looking for them.

[edit] Trivia

Jim Jarmusch's long-time girlfriend Sara Driver makes an appearance in the movie as an airport clerk.
Tom Waits makes a voice appearance as the radio DJ