Transcript of 70mm’s 2046 (2004) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday I sit down to talk about recently watched movies with my dear friend and artist, Danny Haas.
DANNY And so my biggest note is, “Am I an idiot?”
SLIM And our own spiritual advisor, Protolexus.
PROTO Honestly, how disrespectful is this? We haven’t watched the first one in the trilogy. I have a very vague recollection of what happened in In the Mood For Love, and now we’re doing number three…
SLIM Sequels Month continues with Proto’s pick, Wong Kar-wai’s 2046. Will we redeem ourselves after our controversial In the Mood for Love episode? Or will we be in the mood for a brand new co-host here at 70mm? Enjoy!
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM We got to kick off this episode big.
DANNY How big?
SLIM We’re reading the tea leaves out there. You know, we had another 70mm Summit. We rent that meeting room at We Work, we sit out there’s like a whiteboard, Proto’s drawing, sketching ideas, you know, mind board and we saw that Jurassic World Dominion is coming out in theaters. What’s the date on that?
DANNY June.
SLIM Sometime in June. I don’t know. So we will be covering — this isn’t the announcement. We’re gonna be covering Jurassic World Dominion. Okay? That’s a fact. On the main feed.
PROTO What?!
SLIM Yeah, we’re going big. Back to new release grind. And leading up to that, the Road to Junassic World will be — [Danny & Slim laugh]
DANNY You said it. Can’t believe you said it.
SLIM I can’t even say it, it’s so dumb.
PROTO When you were saying it, this sounds like a terrible idea. Oh my god! [Slim & Proto & Danny laugh]
SLIM The road to Junassic World will begin on June 6 with Jurassic World, directed by legend Colin Trevorrow. Proto, your thoughts?
PROTO I was feeling really good about this until you just said it on the show. And I’m thinking… these three movies… [Danny laughs]
SLIM Colin Trevorrow. Name five movies he screwed up. Can you? You can’t even do it! After Jurassic World on June 6, we will be covering the sequel, we’re going even bigger. Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. Danny, do you have fond memories of seeing that in theaters as a youth?
DANNY No, no, no. I didn’t see it until it reached VHS release. [Slim & Danny laugh]
PROTO This is the one where they run in the balls, right?
SLIM That’s the first Jurassic World.
DANNY In the second one they do it too, right? They run in the balls again. They return to the balls.
PROTO Yeah. See, I haven’t I don’t think I’ve seen Fallen Kingdom but I remember the balls from the trailer.
DANNY They return to the balls.
SLIM And then as mentioned before Jurassic World Dominion will end the journey. But we thought to ourselves, it’s not big enough.
DANNY Yeah. Wait, there’s more.
SLIM We gotta go to the source. We gotta go to the biggest fan of Jurassic Park Jurassic World for the road to Junassic World. And that is one of the hosts of the Movie Mixtape pod, Marcie, cherished member of our community, will be our guest for Jurassic World Dominion.
DANNY Biiiig Night.
PROTO This might be the biggest get of the show.
SLIM It could be. Could be. Will we survive this journey?
PROTO We might not.
DANNY Will she?
PROTO The end of that night. Where could we be?
SLIM We quit the show. All three of us quit the show. It’s like that Spider-Man cover with the costumes hung up on the trash can. We leave the pod.
PROTO Reconsidering our life choices. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM So that’s the big announcement for this episode. But May the Fourth happened this week, Danny.
DANNY Oh man.
SLIM Did you do anything special?
DANNY I just watched The Return of the Jedi. My fave. Five stars. Love The Return of the Jedi. And then I just watched all the reviews on Letterboxd roll in of our village enjoying the day as well. And celebrating the greatest film franchise of all time, that’s never had a bad movie. [Slim laughs]
SLIM I haven’t seen Return of the Jedi in a very long time.
DANNY Really?
SLIM Yeah. I used to watch it all the time when I was a kid, had the tapes.
DANNY Yeah. It’s a great one. It’s a good day to celebrate Star Wars.
SLIM Proto, what did you do to celebrate the Fourth of May?
PROTO The fourth of May, I was able to watch The Vagrant. Did you guys hear of this movie?
SLIM I have heard of that.
PROTO Yeah, I didn’t get to watch any Star Wars movies. I had, as they say, bigger fish to fry. And a movie that it’s burning a hole in my pocket. I had to get it on. So…
SLIM How was it?
DANNY Tell us.
SLIM Tell me about The Vagrant. People don’t want to hear about Star Wars. They want to hear about The Vagrant.
PROTO Do they really? Are we switching gears here?
DANNY We’re shifting.
PROTO The Vagrant, I gave it three stars. This is a BAT & SPIDER pick, upcoming. Slim, you watched it as well.
SLIM I did.
PROTO How about our boy, Bill Paxton, rest in peace.
SLIM God. His hair was electric in that movie.
DANNY Bill’s in it?
PROTO Yeah. Bill’s the star.
DANNY Oh really?
PROTO Yeah, Bill buys a house. He’s an analyst on the way to be a full — what is it, a full time analyst?
DANNY Transponster?
PROTO Big, big salary bump. But he’s got he so he buys a house and he’s got this vagrant that lives next door and it it drives him mad. Yeah, it’s really like a downward spiral for Bill Paxton but he is he’s gorgeous. This whole this whole movie. I really enjoyed this flick. I’ve never even heard of this. But 1992, The Vagrant, some nice, you know, camp in this movie. Sometimes that’s all you need.
SLIM Executive produced by Mel Brooks. When will we cover a Mel Brooks movie on this pod? I ask you.
DANNY You have the power.
PROTO Is it on the docket? I mean, let me pull up the spreadsheet.
SLIM Blazing Saddles Month.
DANNY Blazing Saddles 2.
PROTO Never seen it.
SLIM God. Has any modern pod covered that movie? [Danny laughs] Blazing Saddles, will it be the end of the show? Who knows? Young Frankenstein is mentioned in chat. That’s one of Amanda’s favorite movies, my dear wife.
PROTO Gene Wilder, you kidding me?
DANNY Our next guest. Amanda, please, Young Frankenstein.
SLIM Amanda has yet to listen to I think to one episode of 70mm and I don’t think that’s going to start when she guests on an episode.
DANNY I believe.
SLIM Just a reminder, around the corner. Bottom of the hour. Feature prezzo, 2046, Wong Kar-wai. The pick from Proto himself for Sequels Month.
PROTO If we get to it. We have a lot to cover. [Slim laughs]
SLIM We might not even get to it this episode. There’s so much to cover this week. I don’t think I did anything to celebrate Star Wars Day.
DANNY It’s okay.
SLIM Now that I think about it.
DANNY I celebrated enough for the three of us.
SLIM You did. How about all those reviews coming in?
DANNY It’s great!
SLIM Star Wars fans in our Discord popping in.
PROTO It’s big for a lot of people. I’ll tell you what.
SLIM Did you know that the director of Jurassic World Dominion, Colin Trevorrow, was originally the director for The Rise of Skywalker.
PROTO No!
SLIM Yeah.
DANNY Really?
PROTO When?
SLIM Before he got fired.
PROTO Wow.
DANNY Maybe we should just do that one next week.
SLIM Rise of Skywalker? [Slim laughs] Trevorrow Month.
PROTO Release the Treverrow cut.
SLIM Danny, what else did you watch? Let’s talk about King Kong, you watched King Kong? I want to hear about this.
DANNY Well, leading up to Kong, because of how busy my next couple of weeks are. I wanted to squeeze in Lost World and Jurassic Park III, and I forgot how Okay, those movies are they’re not as bad as I remember. But they’re fun. But after finishing Jurassic three, down at the bottom of the HBO Max just screen it was like you might also like King Kong and I have never seen Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Always one of those like I should have seen it and then it’s just far too gone. So even watch it and I remember people just kind of bagging on and not really digging it etc. How long it was and is very long movie four hours right? I loved every second of it. It’s incredibly girl. And it’s gorgeous. Like I don’t think a lot of the CG holds up. There are some I mean I hate saying that were the same that sentence it’s stupid but it’s never going to but there’s some green screen scenes that are kind of okay, for sure on the boat.
SLIM I mean can you put it up put it next to the Agatha Christie Poirot movies?
DANNY I haven’t it.
SLIM Some of that green screen is…
DANNY Yeah, I would say it’s better than that, but I just a lot of fun. And especially when you get back to New York with Kong those shots of New York and Naomi Watts is fantastic in a Dream pro. He’s great. I mean, this jumped up on my list on one of my favorite Jack Black movies. He’s so good in it. Not many people talk about it, and I would love to find a day where we cover this movie on this podcast.
SLIM Could have been Sequels Month, you know? As soon as that review came in, I just marked that off.
DANNY Sequel of what?
SLIM Spiritual sequel to the original King Kong.
DANNY Remake Month.
PROTO Wait, this is a sequel. Oh, I mean, we already did the first one, we did the original Kong!
SLIM It could have been a 70mm sequel. Actually, Remake month is a pretty good idea.
DANNY Yeah, it’s not a sequel.
PROTO Is this happening?
SLIM [Slim attempting a Carl Denham impression] Twas beauty killed the beast… [Slim laughs]
PROTO This is The Empire Strikes Back of the King Kong spiritual trilogy.
DANNY But one of the things that shocked me was after seeing like Godzilla and Godzilla vs Kong, and Kyle Chandler being in all these damn movies! He’s in King Kong too!
PROTO What?!
SLIM He’s got to have photos of some executive.
DANNY He’s in the Peter Jackson King Kong! In what world did he lose a bet to be in all these giant monster movie?
SLIM I think he won a bet. Right? Because he’s in all these like big production movies.
DANNY When he popped on screen I’m like, why is Kyle Chandler in this movie? Get him out of here!
PROTO Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
DANNY Anyway, so yeah, King Kong, it was fantastic. I had a great time watching it.
PROTO You know there’s a scene in that movie, the scene with the I don’t even know what to call them like the giant tapeworms.
DANNY Oh, the the like sucker things.
PROTO Yeah. Oh, it gets on top of the one dude’s head. Sometimes when I close my eyes I that that image pops into my mind. Oh, like that movie is so yeah, that like really took a hold of me that scene, it freaked me out.
DANNY It sucked on all of his limbs. Yes, go
SLIM Is that Andy Serkis as Kong?
DANNY No Serkis is the one that gets destroyed by the tapeworms. It’s rough.
SLIM The only person who has ever learned how to do motion capture was Andy Serkis. He’s the first kid only to ever do it.
PROTO Motion Capture savant.
SLIM Well, maybe I’ll jump in. I don’t usually go step in. I’m gonna jump for you to jump in because I watched a big one. You this week. I sat down on my couch. I’d actually I didn’t lay on the floor for this one. I sat on my couch. And I watched the Godfather Part Three. Oh, yes. Yeah, in 4k UHD. Al’s hair look great. I’ve never seen this. I always heard I think we talked about it last week was The Godfather Part Two. And I did DM, I asked it, I was like alright, Danny, you pick in Godfather Part Three movie. He said he had no intention. So I continued watching. Otherwise it would have kept my mouth shut that I was watching it. And I gave it four stars. It’s very, very different.
DANNY That feels very high.
SLIM It’s probably, it was probably three and a half stars until the end, I watched coda, the coda version, the re-cut, which I did some research research on. It’s not like drastically different. I’m looking at my letterbox for you, Robert Duvall. Man, it sucked him It sucked with him not being in this movie. Like they literally have the same character in it. But it’s just not him.
DANNY What?
PROTO Oh really?
DANNY They recasted?
SLIM No, I mean, it’s like identical character. It’s like, you know, a family lawyer who’s helping Michael with these deals.
DANNY Was there a reason he didn’t come back?
SLIM I was so annoyed, I didn’t even want to Google it.
PROTO I mean at that point, all you have left from the original is Michael.
SLIM Well, Connie, is in it. Oh, right. Oh, Connie is in it. And he’s his two kids are a big part of the story. Interesting. They’re grown up. Sofia Coppola plays his daughter. She has like a prominent role. And apparently she replaced Winona Ryder at the last minute because she got sick. Sofia Coppola, in my opinion, not good in this movie, when she went under your resting. It really took me out of it, to be honest.
DANNY What’s the time gap from this from two?
SLIM I think Al, I think he’s in his late 50s, early 60s. She
DANNY So like 15, 20 years?
SLIM Yeah, she’s well, she’s, I think she’s she may maybe she’s 18. Something like that. Also, I Al’s doing some like crazy things with his lips in this movie. And it reminded me of Big Boy Caprice from Dick Tracy his character in that movie, Josh really? And I looked it up and just pulled that Dick Tracy. I had to look it up because Dick Tracy came out that year all man’s mouth is kind of just like opening sometimes when he’s not talking, you know, it’s weird tick.
PROTO It was already by the character.
SLIM He was deep in character,
PROTO Yeah, I feel that time, that’s where Al Pacino is beginning to believe. And the opportunity that we know now that emerges.
SLIM He’s very different than portrayal in the first two movies. And I will say that he’s more Al Pacino in this. Diane Keaton is back though, as well. She plays a big role in this. The plot is pretty cool. I dug the plot. And it’s not a spoiler, but the the main gist of this movie, he’s, he’s trying, he’s selling he sold all his casino stuff. And he’s trying to finally go legit legit. So he’s trying to pay the Vatican off to repay their debts, and then take over a business at the Vatican owns, like this real estate business. And that’s his like out at the end, or like, not the end of the movie, but like, that’s his plan. So he’s like dealing with the Catholic Church, and the pope in this movie, which I thought was pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah. Four stars.
DANNY
That seems incredible.
PROTO I might have to watch this now.
DANNY People say they hate it though. And to not ever watch this film. That’s what’s so wild about your four banger.
SLIM I mean, we just watched the first two so it felt like I was on a high I had to rush.
DANNY Right. Well, speaking of your high so I jumped into the offer the TV show, based on the beginning makings of The Godfather and how hard it was to make this film. And while I don’t think it’s a good show, quality wise, I am enjoying the story of how tough it was to make this movie. I’m only it’s only two episodes are out. Miles Teller plays the producer that was like a nobody. I forget the producers name that got Mario Puzo together with Francis and started working on making this film. And Giovanni Ribisi is in it. And he plays the actual mafia head that is the one that’s trying to stop the golfer from getting made. It’s the it’s, I feel like everyone is playing like a caricature of the person they’re supposed to be playing like, it’s kind of silly ish. But I just kind of am enjoying the story. I like watching it kind of unfold. So if you’re in The Godfather, you might want to check it out.
SLIM What’s that on?
DANNY Paramount.
SLIM Paramount+. One of the P letters.
DANNY Yeah, it’s paramount.
SLIM We should say hello to some new friends on Patreon this week that joined us at 70mmpod.com or patreon.com/70mm. Josh, Jordan, Justin all joined this week got access to the VHS Village Discord, discounts on prints, uncut eps, Smoke Signals just went out to our supporters and we have, you know, 30, almost 30 apps just for supporters out out there. And also I want to give out our free year, letterbox pro every week we give out a free year of Letterboxd Pro, a disclaimer, I’m a Letterboxd employee. And that gets you personalized into your stats gets rid of ads, but you change your username if you want to. And then sort by your favorite streaming services. But PTFFilm shared on Twitter that they got those pins from the Letterboxd directors set series 2, that Danny designed.
DANNY My friend Peter!
SLIM Excuse me?
DANNY He’s a friend of mine.
SLIM Peter. Congratulations Peter.
DANNY Love it
SLIM Traynor in chat says “rigged”. [Slim laughs] Someone ban Traynor.
DANNY Casey’s pissed. [Slim laughs]
PROTO I did just want to say one thing I watched a few other movies but there’s just one thing I wanted to say for before it gets too far away. And I don’t get to say it. You know we usually talk about movies on here but sometimes we watch a TV show something we want to mention it I want to say that I’ve after I think over like 10 years of beginning of this series, Avatar The Last Airbender I finally finished it. And I just want to say if you’re somebody who enjoys animated shows, you know something maybe like the Clone Wars, that level of content. I would just recommend watching avatar I know I’m like the last person to watch it but if you haven’t seen it I just want to make a plea that anybody out there if you if you can hear my voice right now. It might be something you want to consider. That’s that’s all I wanted to say.
DANNY God bless.
SLIM I feel like I might have seen a selfie of you weeping at the finale of that show in some Discord. I’m not sure which one.
PROTO That was actually the first episode of the of the the next show that comes out based in this in the same world, The Legend of Korra.
SLIM Speaking of please, what about a viewing of Mamma Mia that was circulating in our Discord that you might have done?
PROTO This movie. Yeah, yeah, I was I was working. And I hear it was actually people were talking about this movie in the Discord. And I turned her and I hear music playing a turnaround. And my dear wife, JR Scrolling had turned on Mamma Mia. She actually thought it was the sequel. And she was like, “Oh, this is the sequel.” She’s like, “This is the only one that’s streaming right now.” And I said, I said, “Oh okay.” And I said, “Well, what I’m you know, I can come watch it with you in a bit.” So, I finished work, plopped over, you know, 20 minutes in, watched the whole movie with her. At the end, we find out that’s actually the first movie. [Danny laughs] Amazing. So I watched him in order. But yeah, a fun movie. You know, I didn’t I didn’t want to really talk too much about it because I think we’ll have to do this movie on the show.
DANNY Oh my gosh!
PROTO I think it’ll happen. The powers in my hands.
SLIM I can picture JR Scrollings laugh at the end of that movie, revelation where she finds out that it wasn’t the sequel. The patented laugh.
DANNY Yeah, we can hear it.
PROTO She was cackling this whole movie.
SLIM Okay, it’s time, Proto’s pick for sequels month. 2046. This was a difficult movie to attain obtain. I just forgot already that we had to buy our DVDs or search the library to even obtain this film to large holes and own a box set. Wong Kar-wai, 2004, this came out. Proto, can you prepare our audience for a discussion?
PROTO Chow Mo-wan is a writer who was working on a story entitled 2046 His story describes a future where a train network connects the earth and one stop is 2046 a place for the love sick that no one returns from. The genesis of the story is the apartment next to his number 2046. As Chow lives next door, he sees different tenants come and go. Some he loves some he helps and all are written into his story. As these tales are weaved together the life of his characters in 2046 are told as well. Ciao writes about others, but also can’t help but write about himself. The love sick, the heartbroken, the missed opportunity, the what ifs and never worse. Chow and his characters ponder these moments and wishing for a chance on the train to 2046.
SLIM I grabbed this on eBay, DVD. It amazingly came early so props to eBay seller, whoever that was probably something long ass number at the end of their name. What a journey for us. Remember last week when you announced this we all kind of crapped her pants. Oh show realizing that it was almost impossible to watch.
PROTO Crapping. Yeah, I do. I was scared. I was ready to make a change there on the spot to a different movie. I’ll be honest.
DANNY What would you have picked?
PROTO Sanjuro, I think, the other Kurosawa, that was my backup.
DANNY What could have been.
PROTO What if.
SLIM What if. So this is the alleged spiritual sequel to In the Mood for Love, which was a episode that we’ve covered in the past. That was a fun conversation. Like that really opened a lot of our listeners eyes to how we could have different opinions than the masses. You know, the criterion heads out there pinkies out crowd. I didn’t know this movie existed before Proto picked it. To be honest, Danny, what about you?
DANNY No, I had no clue. Especially since we did the middle movie in this trilogy. I didn’t even know there was one before or after this was even considered a trilogy of Wong Kar Wai so definitely a shocker when Frodo brought it up.
PROTO Yeah, I didn’t know that until after we did in the mood for love. But honestly, there is a connection to the other movies but I didn’t know what it was. I wasn’t sure what was going on or how they were related.
SLIM Traynor, dear friend in our Discord has he rated a three stars I actually thought it was lower than three stars. Unless he changed the rating. But he writes in his video about 25 minutes and I thought two hours had gone by unlucky He’s interesting pick four man ass May. So this is the part of the show where we you know, we all have three points that we jotted down during our viewing that we want to bring up. We’ll go roundtable so let’s start with Proto, this is your pick, what was the number one thing that you wrote down?
PROTO Thank you Slim. I think the thing that struck me the most while watching this is just the way Wong Kar-wai shoots a movie, like the form of his camerawork. To me, it feels so claustrophobic, like I felt claustrophobic watching this whole movie, where everything the way it’s blocked off, where just the character is in focus, and then everything else could could literally just be like boards of paint, for the most part. It’s so it’s so extreme in that regard. And I remember some of that from In the Mood for Love, but I feel like it wasn’t this No, not this heavy. Yeah. Like, it’s, it’s, like, consistent all the way throughout the movie. And I can’t remember like a movie where, like, where it looked like this?
SLIM Yeah, I was thinking that too at it. The way I viewed it, at least when I was watching it was I kept thinking about how cramped this apartment building was. I mean, it was given it was like making me extremely anxious. Like if I had to live in this building with a paper thin walls, maybe you could if you walk if you someone’s walking down the hallway that the same time you are like you literally have to go back in your room for them to pass. Like that’s how thin it was. It was just making me extremely anxious the whole time.
PROTO Well also that that one shot of where the one character would be on the phone and then in the background, you would see maybe into a hallway it was there was a portion of the wall that was green. Like I literally have to describe the like the shapes that I saw like I don’t know what room this actually was. I didn’t totally understand what I was seeing at times.
DANNY Yeah, it’s weird because I kind of loved it like I kind of I really I know Casey really disliked how it was framed and shot while we were watching it. There’s something about the way he blocks off his his scenes I kind of I really love and I mean his color choices. I mean, this is basically my number one but the way he every bit of frame I feel like is just gorgeously shot and lit and colored and performed. I mean, you could look at the back of Tony’s head while he’s standing in front of a green wall and it’s it’s gorgeous. There’s the he never really misses when it comes to style. In any especially me we said it in in the mood for love to but in this one we were talking sci fi and whatever they were trying to do with the CG trains but still, it’s still a gorgeous
SLIM Yeah, I think that was my main point from In the Mood for Love about how great it looked. Yeah, like everything popped. And I think we I think at the time that was streaming somewhere. So it looked even better. But I mean, for this viewing we all watched the DVD. Was that for 4080p? I don’t know.
DANNY The subtitles were blurry.
SLIM Oh my god, the subtitles. Who is in charge of DVD subtitles? I mentioned permission the Discord looks like I was watching an illegal scan of this complex. Because the the font was like 24 size taken up half the screen. It was insane. You mentioned the the color palette of the film, there is some debate, I think on the recent rereleased boxset, that they have changed on that release. So like the blu ray copies, I think look a little bit different than the versions that we’ve watched the Criterion blu-ray.
DANNY The Criterion blu-rays?
SLIM I think the Criterion blu-rays.
PROTO The controversy.
SLIM Thick controversy about the blu ray release. Paul says criterion had a green tint for sure. My first note I should probably wasn’t subtitles i read the subtitle fine was atrocious. But my first note was I think I fooled myself into thinking that this was more sci fi than it was. I think he has done other movies that maybe were more sci fi ish. But when we read the description of like women enter and exit a science fiction authors life over the course of many years, I thought that like oh, this is going to be a trippy journey. That would be almost like, you know, super meta, but it’s not. It’s like there’s 1/10 of this movie is about this storyline that he’s writing, even maybe even less. But it’s still very much in the mood for love moody drama between him and the female characters in his life over the years, which I honestly I wasn’t expecting.
PROTO Yeah, I was expecting more sci fi in some kind of form, as you’re saying. But yeah, you You know, I’ve seen his other some of his other movies to the Chungking Express, and fallen angels. And they kind of have, they’re not explicitly sci fi, but there’s scenes in those movies that I think I might have written in my review that reminded me of Blade Runner. But it’s also like the way that he shoots a movie, there’s so little that he’s revealing about the world that all he has to do is put one person in a costume or like show some kind of detail, or just like that, in this movie, it’s really just the train. That is the whole science fiction aspect of it. So he has like the CG portion. But then he has these scenes on a train with people who have just a totally different appearance, you know, it’s kind of like a pseudo futuristic look with like, spiky hair, or wherever they’re dressed. You know. So like, there’s that aspect. So he kind of creates that sense in other ways that you want it like he’s not spending 10s of millions of dollars to create that, but he’s just using like these little techniques, which is kind of cool. The way he portrays I think the the Sci Fi aspects of this.
SLIM Yeah, the intro like the first scenes of this movie, is, you know, there’s a narration happening about 2046 in the world, whether it’s train car, people go to 2046 to forget or whatever. And then they show like the train future city and I’m like, What am I watching? ps1 cutscene? Yeah, happening.
DANNY Almost at the library put the wrong disc in the case.
SLIM We throw out some more cash at the CGI team for this.
PROTO Do you guys remember that show I think was called Reboot. It would play on Saturday mornings reminded me of that show.
SLIM Let’s see. So Danny, did you give your weekend? Let’s hear your number one then officially.
DANNY So coming in. So tonight, I think I had no notes. I had one note written for this movie God and so I’m watching. I’m watching like video essays on YouTube. panic mode fabic.
DANNY It’s so my biggest note is Am I an idiot? Because I I’m listening to people explain this movie to me. And I still don’t get it. I don’t understand this movie. And even in the midst of watching it. I couldn’t keep up with whatever timeline we were in which girl was who Yeah, is who got stabbed in the beginning and tied. I was lost. I was lost 100% of the time of this film from the get go. And this is just like chalking up to be one of those. I mean, maybe Wong Kar Wai is falling into that Tarkowski mode for me. And it’s he’s just not for me, especially after not really loving In the Mood for Love, which is like his top film. But I’m seeing all these reviews for this and I’m just like this, I’m just a Normie when it comes to film, I want my Spielberg romps. Sometimes these, sometimes I connect with these, these more intellectual higher conversation movies, but this one just wasn’t wasn’t for me. It really wasn’t it was wild. But, it’s gorgeous.
SLIM Proto’s pre-show review: “2046, the year my cohosts let me pick another movie.” [Danny laughs]
DANNY Right? Like that’s what also I couldn’t even figure out what 2046 was. I was like, Oh, they’re traveling to a year on this trade. It’s like time travel. But then I’m like, No, it’s not time travel. It’s a place. But then I’m like, oh, it’s the neighbor. I’m so… lost. I’m not even playing.
SLIM I did had so we’ve talked about this being a spiritual sequel, but it’s kind of just a sequel, or he plays the same character. And it’s years later, he loses contact with his love in that film. So this feels like a legit trilogy. That’s also another thing. One of my notes was like, Oh, this is like a real deal. See, well, this isn’t a spiritual thing. This is kind of just the continuation which I also wasn’t expecting.
PROTO Thank you. Vindication. [Slim laughs] Yeah, I agree with Danny this movie is feels like a test that you have to take notes for while you’re taking it. You have to like figure out who is who because also it’s you know, it’s one thing for a movie to get lost in with its complexity. Say like you’re watching a film like Tennant like I kind of you have to like pay attention to what you’re watching if you want to understand it. But in this it almost feels like Wong Kar Wai is trying to confuse you and like make you lost by like giving you very little in terms of direction. Yeah, like you can. You can probably watch a video about it. read the synopsis online to get an understanding and then rewatch it and be like, Okay, I’m tracking with this. But it’s very hard to watch this movie right out of the gate and be understand what’s going on. Like, it’s really difficult.
DANNY Yeah, I felt so lost. And I even watched I watched a YouTube guy explaining this film. And he starts off by saying, this might be one of the most underrated sci fi films of all time. And I’m like, what is it? I don’t think so. There’s barely any sci fi in it.
SLIM I’d love to see a Blu ray of this. I feel like some of my viewing was impacted from watching a DVD on a budget, midrange 4k TV, you know, it’s not gonna look as good probably as like a, you know, a regular TV back then. Yeah. So I’d be curious to know how gorgeous this actually does look on a criterion blu ray. I also was confused. So I remember I looked up. Trainers review. And I was I was chuckling reading it as I was watching it. And I paused it to see my timestamp because he had said 20 minutes and it felt like two hours. I was at 21 minutes. So I’ll let me see. I went so I think it’s pearls number two, or what’s your second note?
PROTO Well, in terms of just different scenes in the movie, I think the one that stood out to me the most is his relationship with builing who is the high class prostitute who he begins a romantic relationship, but like the whole development of that was like insane to me. The way it started with him with that I just wrote down in my notes, the scene with the President. WTF, like that whole interaction of him trying to give I was like, This guy is a creep. Like, who is this guy like, it felt so strange seeing this in relation to everything else in the movie, of course it then like gets, that’s I feel like that kind of disappears later on. You know, it seems like he’s really forcing himself on this woman. But then they connect and then just trying to understand the relationship of her. You know, men pay to be with her and then this guy, but then they were like falling in love and then look the way the tables turn in the relationship. Like the dynamic that it was just, I was I was in all of like, what I was seeing, even if it was hard to understand what was happening. That was
SLIM Their relationship was my favorite part of the movie. I loved her in this movie. I think there was one scene that I wrote down where he tries to play a trick on his like coworker remember he or whomever and go through this Yeah, apartment. And then I think it’s I believe it’s her but when he first sees her come out of her apartment he like stares her down. Yeah, right like he looks at her for maybe a good 30 seconds down and then up and I wrote that note and I’m like, oh my god, what a stare calm down, Tony. But then I also saw I think in I can’t remember if I’d read this in the wiki or an essay, but they did say that you know His character as a way to almost compensate from losing Sue from the first movie like he goes hardcore the other direction becoming a ladies man. Like all like way hard in that. Oh yeah. Yoli says he’s broken now after all this longing for Sue after his wife shooting it’s like he’s filling a void so that was kind of where I saw things that for his character. So then yeah, so their relationship like that that scene where he has his half his mustache shaved and they’re like goofing around in her apartment. I love that stuff. That was that was those those scenes were tremendous. So she’s getting started started getting angry at him for not being with her you know? Yeah, let’s settle down here Tony.
PROTO Yeah breakup scene was unreal to be like them where you were you’re seeing like you’re thinking like yeah, this is it right? Like can we work this out but then the way he just pulls himself back from her and completely disengages is is wild.
SLIM Yeah, I felt really bad for her, dumbass Tony. Oh, so the that scene the scene with a shaved mustache? I do want to call so call out that that kiss that he finally gives sue to sue number two with the glove on have us interested to hear opinions from In the Mood for Love fans, if that was him finally, like consummating what he didn’t do with Su in that moment. Like that was kind of the build up after many years of him not having that? I don’t know like that’s my only assumption at that point because he was like suffocating her to death with that kiss.
DANNY Someone needed to come up for air at one point.
PROTO Was that the longest onscreen kiss ever? [Slim laughs]
DANNY I was baffled by that kiss, didn’t it happen twice in this film?
SLIM I feel like we probably missed a video essay. I can imagine that there are lots of 2046 fans probably pissed off at us for not quite getting it.
DANNY Just explain us the kiss. That’s what I want to know.
SLIM Explain it to us in a one star review on iTunes.
PROTO How disrespectful is this? We haven’t watched the first one in the trilogy, a very vague recollection of what happened in the mood for love. And now we’re doing number three.
SLIM You’re not getting it! Dann, what’s your next one?
DANNY
The next one, the Christmas song by Nat King Cole really was perfect for me. I don’t know why I love that. The first one the song slaps anyway. But Tony getting ready. Like that was that was a sexy ass scene with the Christmas song going. And I love that.
PROTO One of my notes is that I feel like he Wong Kar Wai does have an amazing ability to blend images with music. And people in places like he blends all the elements of a scene together so well, that I feel like the what he’s like, drawing out in that moment of like, sentimentality, it’s Christmas Eve, there’s like, you know, this guy, you know, love sick, he’s walking in, you know, while it’s snowing, like he just, you know, he’s creating that moment using like, every single element to like, dial to 11 that he can.
DANNY I was, I was sitting there thinking like, I know, our cultures aren’t that much. I mean, they’re different, obviously. But how in our culture, we’re always been at least in America, we’re always like, oh Die Hard’s a Christmas movie. I wonder if in Asian culture like oh, 2046 is a Christmas movie. [Slim laughs]
PROTO I was thinking that, like, I could see myself watching this. Maybe me and Ben Sandberg. Big, big Wong Kar-wai fan.
DANNY Ben, don’t turn us off yet.
PROTO Ben, come home, come to my home. We’ll watch some Wong Kar-wai.
SLIM Ben’s outside his house right now. He’s just staring next to the window of the Proto’s attic.
DANNY He’s pissed.
SLIM Proto, what’s your number three?
PROTO Well, one thing I well, I guess you mentioned the song. But yeah, the score itself too. It’s again, it’s just another really fascinating aspects of one car. But why movies of having a score that repeats itself, you know, and the like him creating these loops, or even the different acts between, you know, where Chow was interacting with different women seem to loop and have you no similarities than he also plays the same music throughout all of these scenes, scenes. And there’s like this repetition, but like with this slightly different change. So in the way that he uses the music I found, I loved it. I thought it was great.
SLIM I’ll be honest, I don’t even remember the music. Sorry, everyone. I’m just being honest with everybody here. This is a safe space, built this community to be a safe space!
PROTO Was that at the 50 minute mark, that’s where you fell through?
SLIM We built this to be a safe space! My third note, I just lost it. Oh, I do want to talk about the Sci-Fi elements here a little bit more. Like the train scenes. You know him in the cyborg?
DANNY There was a cyborg?
SLIM Yeah, when she was on the train car with him. She was like an Android. That wasn’t the real character.
PROTO Danny had given up reading the subtitles at that point.
SLIM So I thought those scenes were cool. But from for my view, I thought those elements just didn’t vibe for me. Like I felt the juxtaposition of the Sci Fi feature story. And the modern day stuff just didn’t work at all. For me, I would prefer to just be not even there. Or just keep the Sci Fi elements to like a few scenes later in the movie when he’s like writing the story. Like having at the beginning, almost just kind of threw me off a little bit too much. And my anticipation of what this movie was going to be about, then what it ended up ended up being so yeah, just my thought.
PROTO Yeah, I feel like they were too metaphorical. Just the even the stuff in the in on the train, you know, in relating to his life that it wasn’t really you didn’t really need as much as that was shown. Or you could have shown it in a different way. Like I feel like someone could make an amazing five minute animation about the train stuff, you know? Yeah. Do we need a new cut?
SLIM Let him finish my Last Action Hero cut. That removes the kid from the entire movie that I asked for. Danny, final note? You can wrap up too.
DANNY Okay, I’ll do both. I love Tony. I think he plays such a cool, he’s such a good actor, and it’s the way he smokes a cigarette really? Gets me. I love them with a cigarette. Wong makes the cigarette look so sexy. I mean, I want to smoke a cigarette just thinking about it right now.
SLIM Let’s smoke right now.
DANNY Can we fire one up? I just love Tony, that’s my other note. I think he’s phenomenal and this I really want to watch more of his filmography outside of Wong Kar-wai. My wrap up.
SLIM Wrap it up.
DANNY I think this movie makes In the Mood for Love look like a masterpiece. I feel like raising my mask my In the Mood for Love stars just by watching this film. I just didn’t, I didn’t connect with this at all. I think all of my stars go to Tony, the visuals, the Christmas song. I’m going to be at two and a half stars for this.
SLIM Two and a half stars from Danny.
PROTO Bless, bless, bless.
SLIM Bless up from Danny. Thank you for your honesty.
DANNY You’re welcome.
SLIM I’ll save Proto for last. Since this is pick my honorable mentions. I think I actually got them all I got all my notes. So at a time, I maybe had maybe three things written down for this movie. So I wasn’t Danny shoes. I was like, alright, we’re at the front load the show. We’re gonna have to talk about a lot of movies because the conversations gonna be short. So this is one of those trademark Not For Me movies. And that’s okay. The Bai Ling storyline was my favorite thing. But 20 minutes in I was like, God, and then like an hour and I was like, God, when does this like kind of work out for me. And it didn’t. So I’m at two and a half stars for 2046 as well. And that half star was for the Bai Ling storyline.
DANNY Before you go, Proto I watched an interview with Wong Kar-Wai talking about this film. And he actually says to watch this before In the Mood for Love, if you haven’t seen In the Mood for Love yet, which I thought was very interesting.
PROTO Spoilers, spoil his own movie, very bold.
SLIM Proto?
PROTO There was some great lines that I loved in this. I think where he says feelings can creep on you unawares. Just the whole, I think the other thing in this is that it’s hard to decipher even the theme of it, even as I’ve watched the movie and contemplated it. But even what the idea of traveling to this, this location 2046 means, you know, for lovesick people, for people who have you know, bad memories or what have you, or whatever it could be to represent. It’s kind of hard just to wrap your your mind around it. It’s not like a very straightforward theme or idea. And I think that’s one of the hard parts about watching this movie is that by the end of it, it feels like you almost you don’t really understand what it’s about. But I do appreciate that someone would make a movie like this that would be that difficult to understand or deal with things that aren’t as simple as, I don’t know, just like love or whatever. Or there were some shots that I loved. The shot of the silhouette of her with the sign above the building.
DANNY Oh, I love those sign shots. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
PROTO Oh and then also there was a lot of title cards in this movie. That Oh, yeah, kind of took me out of it. I don’t even know why they were in it so much. There was a period where the you know, communicating how many hours passed while on the train. I like the idea of like 1000 hours of this Android just like looking outside the window on a train. And I love that shot. But it also just kind of like broke the moment of all of these these title carts that kept popping up.
DANNY Still baffled there was an Android in this. Totally missed it.
PROTO So I’m at three stars for this.
SLIM Woow. Okay. What’s been going to say when Ben hears this? Your dear friend and Wong lover?
PROTO He’s probably not going to talk to me.
SLIM Yeah, he’s gonna cut you off.
PROTO I mean, he said on my review, he said, I’m not even gonna listen to the episode for my emotional health.
DANNY Did you dedicate In the Mood for Love to him?
PROTO I did. [Danny laughs]
SLIM Brandon wants to know in chat, has the Shrek threshold been met? The famous, infamous Shrek up is up. That’s a good question. I rated that one pretty highly. So I don’t know what the threshold was for that.
PROTO That might be seven stars. Because I think Danny was one, I was two.
SLIM 2046, according to VGER, the supercomputer who loves movies, the average rating of our supporters 3.62, only 8% of our patrons have actually seen it though. So you do the math. 2046 in the bag, sequels month continues on. We’re not stopping. We’re going harder next week. The show must go on the show must go on. We’ll talk about our pick at the end of this episode, but we have some letters and VM to listen to you can send us one at 70mmpod@gmail.com harm or just use the links on 70mmpod.com This one has a subject line. “Thank you Protolexus”
DANNY I’m gonna resend it real quick.
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL Hey guys, it’s Jasha here. Proto thank you for choosing 2046 As your pick, I’d never even seen a Wong Kar Wai film before. So you picking this, finally push me to dive in. And I’m happy to say that between our last DVD rental place we have in town here and a few on demand services that shoved ads on my face every 10 minutes, I actually managed to watch the entirety of one car wise love trilogy, and I love to three of them. I’m really looking forward to your guys discussion on 2046. I have a bad feeling that you’ve probably turned it to shreds by now. But alas, I’m looking forward to it nonetheless, I really, really dug the first of this trilogy days of being wild. And I was just wondering if you think that there will ever be a chance after 2046 that you’d give it a watch at least just to complete the set. You know? 70mm foes the whole Wong Kar Wai journey? Yeah, you know what, what? What do you want? Anyway, that’s me. I hope you’re all doing well. Danny, your style celebration art. It’s something else dude. So good. I’ll catch you all later!
SLIM Sold out by the way. That art is sold out at the distributor level. Proto, will we ever click on the journey?
PROTO I think we have to. I think made a great point. I mean, we’re so close at this point. Why not finish it? And we’re gonna watch eight Harry Potter movies. I think we can watch one more Wong Kar-Wai.
SLIM Should we record this on Ben’s front yard so he can’t —
DANNY Can we just have Ben on?
SLIM Ben can’t be on, he’s just got to sit next to us.
PROTO Just set up a speaker in his front lawn.
DANNY Sit here and explain this movie to us.
SLIM Thank you very much to that VM. Beautiful VM. Next email, subject line. Greatest of All Time comes from Brian. Hey 70mm, it’s Brian again. The Godfather is regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, but I have another submission. The Shaw Shawshank Redemption. Before my dad passed away this is the one we would watch together that feeling that overwhelms you When Morgan Freeman’s character says I miss my friend at the end of the movie gives me waterworks every time spoilers I guess anyone hasn’t seen Shawshank Redemption so much more to say to you awesome hosts thoughts on Shawshank as always thank you. You have thoughts on Shawshank, Danny?
DANNY I’ve never seen it. So looking forward to that Morgan Freeman scene.
PROTO Prison Month.
SLIM Felon Month.
SLIM Do you have thoughts, Proto?
PROTO It’s been so long that I don’t really remember much of it.
SLIM Wow. What if? Shawshank Redemption Frank Darabont. The king himself. Ever he didn’t? Isn’t he the guy that kicked off the Walking Dead TV show and then like, got fired and sued? Or something? Gosh, he’s not dead. Frank Darabont filmography, listen to this. You ready for this? The Green Mile. We could do back to back Shawshank, Green Mile.
DANNY I was about to make a Green Mile joke. I didn’t realize he did that.
SLIM Matthew the podcast godfather and chat so the Shawshank is the highest rated of all time on IMDb.
DANNY I don’t know what IMDb is.
PROTO Wow. Wow. That’s big.
SLIM The Majestic, Jim Carrey. Look at the background image on the Majestic on Letterboxd, let me paste this photo.
PROTO Jim Carrey vehicle, I’ve never seen this either.
SLIM Look at that photo.
DANNY What a great pick.
PROTO Cryptkeeper.
SLIM Can we get Proto on both of those faces please? Also, The Mist. I loved The Mist when I was younger. Never want to watch that again now.
PROTO 2007.
DANNY Who was in The Mist?
SLIM Thomas Jane.
PROTO Is this a Stephen King story?
SLIM Yes. Okay, on the novella.
DANNY How many Stephen King movies did you make Frank do?
SLIM Stephen King has like 1000 movies.
DANNY But Frank did a few of them, a couple?
SLIM Couple. I guess they’re BFFs. Brandon, I of course have seen the black and white version. I was hardcore into this movie when I was a kid. Well, not a kid doesn’t seven So that so there you have it. We did a Shawshank. But we’re not done yet for Sequels Month. Steve Austin would say we’re not done yet. Not yet by a long shot. Okay? Thank you. So for those intern tier supporters, you know, we have the intern tier, where we do watch along movies, the three of us watch a movie and we record it, have a have a high low time, three of us watching it. There’s also another bonus you get like your own channel in discord chat. And then Proto also produces his own exclusive audio content. The audio dispatches from Proto, there’s an IG account, tracking your progress so if you’re thinking about becoming an intern, that’s what you get. But we cleared this with the interns already and one of the most recent watching long episodes was Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones. So our next episode, right? Is it the anniversary, Danny?
DANNY 20th year anniversary.
SLIM Next week, we will be talking about that movie Attack of the Clones.
PROTO Happy May 12.
DANNY Celebrate.
SLIM Now we had, some would say miserable time, watching Attack of the Clones the three of us together you can listen to that audio on our Patreon. But proto Are you excited at all to go back? Rewatch and talk about this in Episode form?
PROTO I don’t know if I’ll enjoy watching the movie, but I’ll enjoy what talking about it with you guys. There’s a lot of great things to talk about when it comes to this movie, and we’re gonna get into it.
DANNY Oh yeah. We’re going to talk about it.
SLIM Right off the bat. I think we can safely announce that the art will not be for sale. Is that a safe that? He’s using code? Are you pumped, Fanny?
DANNY Oh, yes. Very much so.
SLIM Remember, just to set the stage, remember Samuel L Jackson, wielding that lightsaber during the movie?
PROTO Remember anyone wielding a lightsaber?
SLIM Every Jedi getting mowed down in seconds from anyone, from the robots. But next week this is this is real Brandon next week we’re doing Attack of the Clones. Streaming on Disney+. That’s our next episode for Sequels Months.
DANNY High grossing sequel of all time.
SLIM What?!
DANNY That’s not real. [Danny & Slim & Proto laugh]
SLIM Just a reminder, we announced the road to gymnastic world kicks off in June we’re doing the Junassic World trilogy. And we will end that journey with the foremost expert in the Jurassic universe, the Jurassic cinematic universe. Marcie, cohost of the Movie Mixtape podcast. She will be the guest for the Dominion episode. It’s a big ass June, coming your way.
DANNY Whoa. Sir.
PROTO You have to workshop that a little bit.
DANNY You gotta try harder on though.
PROTO This is the biggest ass… of a month… [Slim laughs]
SLIM Alright. So that’s it for this episode. 2046 Pro. Do you have any closing thoughts to take us into next week where we celebrate the anniversary the second prequel?
PROTO Yeah, that voicemail from Jashzilla really, that really struck a chord with me because I’m thinking, here we are enduring this movie. You know, not a lot of love for 2046 and it might not be for all of us, you know, not our favorite movie. But I mean, Jash, he discovered it and Wong Kar Wai and watch the trilogy and loved it. So gosh, I mean when you make somebody fall in love with a movie by watching it. What more can you ask for?
SLIM What more indeed. Next week, Attack of the Clones, buckle up baby!
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
