#647 - Chungking Express

Michael and Us

Luke Savage and Will Sloan

Society & Culture

4.5 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1994, Hong Kongers were counting down to the looming Mainland handover. But some of them were also counting down to the expiry date on a can of pineapples. We discuss Wong Kar-wai's CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994), a quintessentially Hong Kong movie with universal resonance. PLUS: Checking in on Canada's Mark Carney government, and the unconscionable western media response to Israel's targeting of Palestinian journalists. * Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus Luke's substack - https://www.lukewsavage.com/ Come see Will will at one of the stops on his book tour: LOS ANGELES - August 30, book signing and Q&A with Dana Gould at Artbook - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ed-wood-made-in-hollywood-usa-la-book-launch-with-will-sloan-dana-gould-tickets-1560019523389 LOS ANGELES - August 30, "Ed Wood on VHS" at WHAMMY - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ed-wood-on-vhs-feat-the-sinister-urge-1960-presented-by-will-sloan-tickets-1568174324619 CHICAGO - August 31, "Trust Fall" at Davis Theater - https://davistheater.com/special_events/trust-fall/ TORONTO - September 12, Glen or Glenda screening at the Paradise Theatre - https://paradiseonbloor.com/movies/glen-or-glenda/ * "Mark Carney won on a promise of strong but fair Canada. This is how he is betraying that vision" by Luke Savage - https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/mark-carney-won-on-a-promise-of-strong-but-fair-canada-this-is-how-he/article_4d53c228-bf60-411d-b6e3-be93669eba8e.html "Postmedia masquerading pro-Israel 'advocacy polemics' as news" by Jeremy Appel - https://www.readtheorchard.org/p/postmedia-masquerading-pro-israel "Chungking Express: Electric Youth" by Amy Taubin - https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/766-chungking-express-electric-youth "Poet of Time: Wong Kar-wai on Chungking Express" by Tony Rayns - https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/poet-time-wong-kar-wai-chungking-express

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, welcome back to Michael and us, everyone. I'm Luke Savage. With me as always is Will Sloan. Looking forward very much to the discussion.
0:22.9	This is the second episode we've recorded today. And just to give you all a peek behind the curtain,
0:28.4	after we finished the first one, I was feeling a little out of it. I was feeling a little down, frankly.
0:33.5	I had fun talking about the final episode of the John Clee's G.B. News joint The Dinosaur Hour. That's right. We've watched all eight episodes and you can find them at patreon.com slash Michael and us. There's an episode of our show for each one. Correction. Are there not 10 episodes of the Dinosaur Hour? I believe there are 10 in total.
0:54.6	If there are 10, then whoever was keeping tabs them on IMDB lost interest after episode
1:01.0	number eight, which, hey, I don't blame them.
1:02.8	But no, we had a fun discussion about that, but I was feeling like I was in a fugue state.
1:08.6	We didn't have anything definitively slated for our second episode for the week.
1:12.3	And we were having this very one-sided production conversation where Will, very helpfully, kept suggesting ideas.
1:20.7	And he kept saying, well, okay, well, if you're in the mood for such and such, we could try this.
1:25.1	And I was just giving him nothing.
1:27.2	And I was feeling very
1:28.4	disappointed myself. Like, what is going on? Like, did I have too much caffeine? I actually do think
1:33.1	that's what happened. I had, like, one espresso too many this morning. But I thought, like, maybe I've
1:38.4	just OD'd on the dinosaur hour. Like, maybe there is only a finite amount of dinosaur hour content a single podcaster can
1:46.1	absorb without losing their will to live. Having said that, you know, I feel born again. I have
1:51.8	recovered in the few hours since we finished our previous recording session. We watched an
1:57.5	unspeakably beautiful movie that I feel like has been a long time coming on this podcast.
2:02.6	And I'm looking forward to talking about that very much.
2:05.4	It is a testament to what a good film it is that we watched that I feel genuinely uplifted.
2:11.3	My mood is much better.
2:12.8	But I don't know.
	...

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