Double Billing: Night Trips–Chaos After Dark

Hello, I’m back to doing something that is predominantly self serving. That being said, I hope my self-indulgence still brings some satisfaction: Aditi once again uses her movie and music knowledge to provide lucky readers with one-of-a-kind double bills once again!! (Name still to be determined—suggestions are more than welcomed; they’re needed…) 

I’ve kept a list of concepts to use for double-billing, with many more undeveloped ideas fluttering around in my head, begging to be written. After the first installment that surrounded my Letterboxd Top 4, this time around I wanted something a bit more specific. On my exchange in Japan, aside from the usual going-out, I’ve been watching a lot of movies—the perks of living alone. I recently rewatched a favourite of mine which had been in my ‘Double-Bill’ ideas for a while. This, paired with consistently spending time in the neon-sticky life of Tokyo, seemed only appropriate to inspire my second round of double bills.

So I present: NIGHT TRIPS—Chaos After Dark. These movies are bustling, hazy and catastrophically entertaining, as if you’re stuck in the dark, with no promise of the next day. 

AFTER HOURS (1985) (dir. Martin Scorsese) 

After Hours is likely the first movie people think of when thinking of films set only at night. On top of that, it’s an amalgamation of everything that can go right during the dark, and most of all, everything that can go wrong. Any choice made by the protagonist, Paul Hackett, played by Griffin Dunne, even if it seemed harmless initially, steers him further into catastrophe. This descent sparks from his choice to hookup with a mysterious, beautiful woman. You tense up and laugh and wait for the film’s endless night to wane, pulling you into its almost surreal, absurd situations. 

Unsurprisingly, the soundtrack is perfectly apt. ‘Midnight’ by Howard Shore encapsulates the hurriedness of hours passing in the night through the sound of an everpresent ticking clock. Staticed blips reverberate along with electronic keys to create the mysterious, pulsing feeling you get when watching After Hours, making ‘Midnight’ one of the standout tracks of its soundtrack. 

Music Pairings: 

With After Hours, I’d pair two songs both part of the 80s New Wave. ‘The Metro’ by Berlin is heavy with quick synth, creating a rushed, tense atmosphere—one that could pair with Paul’s night trip in New York City. The upbeat fanaticism of the song is punctuated at the end as electronic imitations of sirens appear and begin to decrescendo, an abrupt introduction that adds onto the after-hour image. Similarly The dB’s ‘Lonely Is (As Lonely Does)’ contains a similar synth pulsing in its instrumental, though it’s much slower and sparser. In this, the emptiness of After Hours takes hold, the gaps of silence in between the rampant chaos. Paul runs around the city, blinking around the lights—much like the tune of the song—as he wonders how he ended up here after anticipating an easy night. 

STRANGE DAYS (1995) (dir. Kathryn Bigelow) 

I first watched Strange Days at uni when the Film Society was showing it last year. My two friends sitting on either side of me, would turn around whenever something would happen, when Angela Basset first appeared on screen, whenever we were shocked at the plot. Strange Days is a brilliant sci-fi film, with enough fantasy to distance itself from reality and with enough reality to keep it very grounded. We follow Lenny Nero, played by Ralph Fiennes, through dim, crime-laden streets, in order to sell virtual-reality recordings that twist into violence. There is one scene in the film which warrants extensive criticism; a first-person POV sexual assault scene that shocked me and my friends when we watched it. I still skip it. Yet, the rest of the story is dense, consistently paced across the runtime, never faltering. On top of the acting, plot and setting, the soundtrack is brilliant—a mixture of tri-hop, punk rock, electronic and orchestral. The most popular track ‘Overcome’ by Tricky is my personal favourite. With soft, cut breaths in the background to a heavy drum beat and ambient instrumental, the song directly transports you into the city in Strange Days. In a club watching the haze. Ignoring reality by trapping your mind in a virtual world. 

Music Pairings:

‘Fixed Income’ by DJ Shadow does the same thing, and feels like it could have been part of the OST, had it been released before 1995. While having a thick bassline, the song is intricate with other instruments, in particular electric guitar. There are no lyrics but a whispering voice for a second, “It is dark but also not.”. Everything is unreal and beating. This message is also mimicked in ‘Take Me Back’ by Single Gun Theory. Underneath a sultry, dreamy voice that begs to return to a place before regret, an ambient soft-pad and simple bass line make the song repetitive yet captivating. It’s fitting in one of the night-clubs in After Hours, where despite having scenes in the morning, eternally feels in the dark.      

ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT (1999) (dir. Makoto Wada)

Diverting from the technological stream of the other two movies/songs, Round About Midnight is all about jazz. Crime, comedy and music combine to create a movie so rife with entertainment that it slips right into the same category of nightly disorder. A jazz musician slips out of the bar he’s performing at and witnesses a murder, teaming up with the girl who’s being pursued by the same killers. We are swept along the night life of Tokyo to solve the murder before midnight. In the simplest way: this movie is incredibly fun. A noir that’s simultaneously goofy and screwball. What more could I ask for? 

Music Pairings:

I couldn’t find anything from its soundtrack unfortunately, so the three recommendations are all personal. ‘Taboo’ by Duke Pearson serves as a good starting point, with a mellow swing dominated by piano. It’s the starting at the bar, watching the band perform, frequently bopping your head to the jaunty yet level rhythm. Still, the song seems to also be hinting at heightened intensity just from its title alone, waiting to burst forward. 

So we do, in an immediate, short burst from Toshifumi Hinata’s ‘Drive My Car’. For a 54-second song, it is immediately catchy; the standout being a loud and piercing trumpet that is resemblant of a James Bond movie. This encapsulates the dramatics of Round About Midnight, its absurd mystery that causes our characters to run around town in search for an answer. ‘You Make Me Cool’ by Masayoshi Furukawa is the sound of the city and its contradictions. Cool in its flute and guitar. Surprising through the sudden eruptions from the brass instruments that eventually become consistent towards the last minute of the song. Overwhelmingly catchy through Furukawa’s smooth, low voice, “I’m sorry I’m a cool cat baby.”  

FALLEN ANGELS (1995) (dir. Wong Kar-Wai) 

Wong Kar-Wai and neon colours are closely intertwined; the director utilises it in almost all of his works. Audiences can’t think of hazy, neon lighting in any movie without thinking of him, myself included. All over social media there are Wong Kar-Wai-inspired trends, where users edit their cities in a piercing, lurid glow with voiceovers from the director’s films. It’s usually Chungking Express or Fallen Angels. The latter is swirling with this unreal atmosphere, lit with vibrant shades of green that make the audience unable to look away from the screen. Fallen Angels follows two intertwined storylines; one involving a hitman who wants to leave his criminal life, his agent infatuated with him and the woman he has a relationship with; two–a mute ex-convict on the run from the law and a woman dumped by her boyfriend. More than the plot, the movie explores the loneliness of these characters in an equally alienating city. Their desire to form human connections seeps into the cinematography and set, almost exclusively at night. Green with envy, blue for melancholy. Red for love. 

Fallen Angels predominantly uses a tri-hop soundtrack to serve alongside the psychedelic, atmospheric visuals of the film. A track that’s played frequently throughout the movie is ‘Because I’m Cool’, by Nogabe ‘Robinson’ Randriaharimalala. The song samples Massive Attack’s ‘Karmacoma,’ a tri-hop staple with a slow, sultry beat. 

Music Pairings:

Following the same tone, ‘City’ by Beauty’s Confusion would fit the soundtrack of the film; a soft beat underneath a subtle, zipping synth and mellow keys. It blends into moments of Fallen Angels where the characters wander around a colorful yet distorted Hong Kong. There also can’t be a Wong Kar-Wai double billing without a Faye Wong song. Aside from being a musician, Faye Wong is known for her role in Chungking Express, which also uses one of her songs, ‘Dream Lover’. Her dream-pop tracks go hand in hand with Wong Kar-Wai and Fallen Angels is no exception. Though in Mandarin, when the movie has predominant Cantonese song, ‘新房客’ (Xin Fang Ke) is the perfect fuzzy and entrancing track to close the movie off. It starts off with an enigmatic instrumental before Wong’s voice comes in, dulcet and high. But it’s the last minute and a half of the song that stands out to me particularly. The singer harmonises with the violins until it drops off to just instruments again; this time relaxed yet whirring, like the final scene of Fallen Angels. Drenched in neon green, the ex-convict and his partner ride his motorbike through Hong Kong. She’s holding onto him, unsure how or even when this night will end but says, “I’m feeling such warmth this very moment.” 

Hopefully everyone wakes up and sees that morning has actually arrived.