Did Omar Apollo watch Chungking Express?
Yes, I am blogging again.
Lately I’ve had a lot of questions about Omar Apollo, mostly is he dating Frank Ocean,1 but that’s not what this post is about.
This post is about Apollo’s Spotify Singles, more specifically his cover of California Dreamin’. For those of you who aren’t connoisseurs of foreign cinema,2 California Dreamin’ by The Mamas and the Papas is a critical part of Wong Kar-wai’s breakthrough 1994 film Chungking Express. The love interest of the last two thirds of the movie, Faye, obsessively plays the song over and over again.
I watched Chungking Express a little over a month ago and immediately after I watched it, I hated it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it for weeks. Then I realized it may be one of my favorite movies of all time.
As Letterboxd user, @michbitch wrote Chungking Express “captures the collapsing logic that is so intrinsic to infatuation and longing.” The movie consists of two different stories that both focus on recently single policemen in Hong Kong. Both policemen find themselves infatuated with women who the audience know break the law. The first woman is involved in drug trafficking and the second woman consistently breaks into the policeman’s apartment, but the policemen are blinded by their loneliness, infatuation, and desire for love.
The woman in the second half of the film, Faye, repeatedly plays California Dreamin’ which provides her an escape from her mundane life. She plays it while working at the late night snack bar cranking it up so high that it stops her from thinking. She also plays it while she cleans and re-arranges the policeman’s apartment that she breaks into. California Dreamin’ defines the second part of the film and the characters’ desire for something more which leads to their delusional infatuation.
Wong has very specific style. He uses an unusually slow shutter speed which has a hazy dreamlike effect.3 The slow shutter speed blurs reality in the same way that the characters’ reality is blurred by their loneliness and infatuation. The style accentuates the characters’ delusion and the whirlwind nature of their relationships.
After watching Chungking Express, I couldn’t help but associate California Dreamin’ with the film and its weird tone. Within the first few seconds of Apollo’s version I immediately thought of Chungking Express and it somehow sounded like the film itself.
Apollo recreates the hazy dreamlike nature of Wong’s films in his cover of California Dreamin’. His version begins with a slow dark synthetic drum beat, compared with the guitar plucking of the original. This immediately clues the listener in that Apollo’s version is slowed-down, moodier, and less hopeful which matches the tone of Chungking Express. Gone is the cheerful tambourine and it’s replaced with a slow synth. The combination of the dark synthetic drum, slow synth, and the drawn out way Apollo sings the song makes the song blurry and surreal in the same way that Chungking Express is visually.
Even the visual for Apollo’s cover seems to be a nod to Chungking Express!
He manages to make the song sound the way Chungking Express is visually, whether this is intentional, I don’t know, but I will say Chungking Express is on Frank Ocean’s list of his favorite movies.
See my Twitter for my take.
I watched two Wong Kar-wai movies in one weekend and I now I think I am some sort of film critic.
Think Moonlight, Lost in Translation, and the music video for Bittersweet (ft. LeeHi) by Wonwoo and Mingyu all three were inspired by Wong’s distinct style.