Mystery Train

The movie Mystery Train is one movie that effectively told us three different stories. The first segment of the movie was titled " Far from Yokohama. " It told the tale of a Japanese couple whose love of the 50's, Elvis, and Carl Perkins led them to visit Memphis. This segment was so very entertaining and unique. It was nice to see Memphis through their eyes. The female half of the couple, Jun was such a sweetheart. She was a huge Elvis fan and she seemed to enjoy Memphis although it was clearly less splendid than her hometown of Japan. The male half of the couple was Mitsuko. He was almost Jun's polar opposite. He was extremely laid back and not easily excited. Mitsuko was obsessed with Carl Perkins, and not entirely convinced that Elvis was the king of Rock and Roll. He added something special to the story, and it was nice to see the couples mild arguments and their contrast in personalities.

The second segment was entitled "The Ghost." It was the story of an attractive and gentle Italian woman Luisa who found herself stuck in Memphis after having a flight delay. She had not intended to visit, and she did not fit in to the landscape of the city at all. She almost seemed to trusting and gullible to be a Memphian. This portion was entitled "the Ghost" because of a hilarious story that a homeless man told Luisa about the ghost of Elvis. Luisa was not quite gullible enough to believe his story, yet payed him for it all the same. Towards the end of the story, she finds herself sharing a room at the Arcade Hotel with a talkative woman named Dee Dee. Their contrast in personalities was an absolute pleasure to watch.

The last of the stories was "Lost in Space." This story dealt with Memphis from more a resident's perspective opposed to a tourists perspective. Three guys go on a sad yet humorous series of adventures that included everything from playing pool to robbing a liquor store and killing a man. They too end up at the cheap Arcade hotel. This story was a lot darker than the other two.

What I personally enjoyed most about this move is the unity in the plot. It is very difficult to construct a movie with three different segments and groups of characters, yet one setting. The way in which the movie was written was absolutely ingenious. Additionally, I thing this movie was a unique attempt to portray Memphis with all of it's splendor and glory, and all of it's many flaws. I would definitely recommend this to my friends.