Mystery Train: Memphis Blues Again
By June 16, 2010
What seems so extraordinary to me about Mystery Train, watching it again twenty years after its deadpan arrival, is not just how fresh and vivid—how utterly timeless—it remains but the Read more »
- United States
- 1989
- 110 minutes
- Color
- 1.77:1
- English
- Spine #521
SYNOPSIS: Aloof teenage Japanese tourists, a frazzled Italian widow, and a disgruntled British immigrant all converge in the city of dreams—which, in Mystery Train, from Jim Jarmusch, is Memphis. Made with its director’s customary precision and wit, this triptych of stories pays playful tribute to the home of Stax Records, Sun Studio, Graceland, Carl Perkins, and, of course, the King, who presides over the film like a spirit. Mystery Train is one of Jarmusch’s very best movies, a boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to an iconic American ghost town and a paean to the music it gave the world.
Cast & CreditsOpen
Cast
| Jun | Masatoshi Nagase |
| Mitzuko | Youki Kudoh |
| Luisa | Nicoletta Braschi |
| Dee Dee | Elizabeth Bracco |
| Night clerk | Screamin' Jay Hawkins |
| Johnny | Joe Strummer |
| Will Robinson | Rick Aviles |
| Charlie | Steve Buscemi |
| Bellboy | Cinqué Lee |
| Ed | Vondie Curtis-Hall |
| Man in station | Rufus Thomas |
| Sun Studio guide | Jodie Markell |
| Newsvendor | Sy Richardson |
| Man in diner | Tom Noonan |
| Airport clerk | Sara Driver |
| The ghost | Stephen Jones |
Credits
| Director | Jim Jarmusch |
| Producer | Jim Stark |
| Screenplay | Jim Jarmusch |
| Cinematography | Robby Müller |
| Editing | Melody London |
| Music | John Lurie |
| Associate producer | Demtra MacBride |
| Line producer | Rudd Simmons |
| Executive producer | Kunijiro Hirata and Hideaki Suda |
| Production design | Dan Bishop |
Disc Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Q&A with Jarmusch in which he responds to questions sent in by fans
- Excerpts from the 2001 documentary Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell on Me
- Original documentary on the film’s locations and the rich social and musical history of Memphis
- On-set photos by Masayoshi Sukita and behind-the-scenes photos
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by writers Dennis Lim and Peter Guralnick
From the CurrentView the Current »
Film Essays
Mystery Train: Strangers in the Night
By June 14, 2010
All writing is travel writing, the axiom goes. And for Jim Jarmusch, perhaps more than any other filmmaker working today, all movies are travel movies. It’s not a slight to call him Read more »
Videos
Announcements
Ask Jim Jarmusch
December 22, 2009
When we released Jim Jarmusch’s films Down by Law and Night on Earth, the supplement Ask Jim, in which he answered questions viewers wrote in about his films, was so popular that we’ve decided to do it Read more »
News
Unveiling the Mystery
June 07, 2010
Fans of Jim Jarmusch in the Columbus, Ohio, area may want to steam down to the Wexner Center for the Arts tonight for a release party for Criterion’s new DVD and Blu-ray special editions of Mystery Read more »
Press Notes
Press notes: Mystery Train
June 28, 2010
“Jim Jarmusch outdoes himself with Mystery Train,” exclaims Michael Rubino in a DVD Verdict review of Criterion’s new Blu-ray and DVD editions of the American auteur’s quirky trip to Memphis Read more »
