Day 6 (March 25): The Cranberries - Dreams

Image result for cranberries everybody else is doing itToday's song, 'Dreams', is from The Cranberries' 1992 album Everyone Else is Doing It, So Why Can't We? It's a great song! It's pleasingly timeless and strikes a nice boundary between neat guitar riffs and melancholia.

Honestly, though, I am writing about 'Dreams' as an excuse to talk about where I heard it from. Or rather, where I heard the Cantonese cover - Wong Kar-wai's 1994 film Chungking Express. Yeah, I know, la-di-dah, he's into foreign films. I'm an English student who loves cappuccinos and wants to get into creative writing. You might as own the stereotype.

I'd caught a couple of Wong's other films on MUBI recently, and I know a little of what to expect from him: a great soundtrack, Tony Leung looking pained, lots of very bright red and blue, a shit ton of yearning. But Chungking is the first one I properly had fun with. It's quirky, and witty, and just a little bit weird. There's a drug deal revenge subplot thrown in there. A man talks to a towel. Just go with it.

I truly believe that if Chungking Express had been made even 15, 20 years later, then Twitter would be absolutely devouring this movie, 'California Dreaming' edits and all. This is your off-kilter, blackly comic yearnfest. I think it's in the Criterion Channel in the US, and I tracked down a pretty cheap DVD copy over here. You have no excuses, for we are locked in our houses.

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