This weekend, Watch From Home comes with the C factor: crime, cops, clubs. From pacy to slow-burn, the following film and show recommendations are sure to keep you entertained and informed at the same time.
Chungking Express (1994)
Crime, romance, Hong Kong and Wong Kar Wai. Or maybe just Wong Kar Wai—one of the most compelling reasons to kickstart your weekend. Nobody explores love and longing as Wong does.
The film has a simple plot of two heartbroken cops finding love again. The two stories are told in a sequence, only to be connected by a take-away food stall. Cop 223, He Qiwu, was dumped by his girlfriend and buys canned pineapples with the expiry date coinciding with one month of their breakup.
There is a mystery woman in a blonde wig and maybe it's not the end of the world for Cop 223, who is fond of the takeaway joint where Faye has started working.
Cop 663, too, is dealing with a breakup and frequents the same stall. Faye has secretly fallen for him and begins to break into his house. While she cleans and rearranges his house, that seems as joyless as the man inhabiting it, Faye manages to keep it a secret. Eventually, Cop 663 is back to his cheerful self. Perhaps, there is something to look forward to once again.
The beauty of Chungking Express lies in the hotness quotient of its protagonists. Tony Leung, Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Faye Wong disarm the viewer with their charm. It is complemented by the psychedelic flashes on the screen that would become Wong's signature in subsequent years.
If you are a lover of Wong Kar Wai's cinema, this is the film for you. If you have not explored his craft yet, start with Chungking Express. That's where it all began.
Where to Watch: Mubi, Netflix
The Chestnut Man (2021)
From love and Hong Kog, let's move to crime and Copenhagen. This Danish crime series is based on the eponymous book by Søren Sveistrup. There is something chilling about Nordic crime dramas, and no it is not just the icy landscape.
The Chestnut Man open with a scene of multiple-murder on a farm in 1987. The narrative then shifts to present time where a young woman's body is found—with a hand missing—in a playground. Then, there is a missing young daughter of Rosa Hartung, Denmark's Minister of Social Affairs.
As detectives Naia Thulin and Mark Hess go about investigating the murder of the young woman, they find a connection with the minister via a play figurine found at the scene of crime: a chestnut man. The figurine bears the fingerprints of Rosa's missing daughter.
As investigation proceeds, more dead bodies turn up and so do some skeletons from the past. And, of course, a lot more of eery-looking chestnut man figurines.
This gruesome tale of murder has at its core a heartrending story of lost childhood. A pacy 6-part series, The Chestnut Man is your go-to watch for this Saturday.
Where to Watch: Netflix
The Club (2021)
If a serial killer is too much for you, how about a reluctant killer who is seeking atonement? The Club, a new Turkish show, is all about second chances or the lack thereof. Set in the Istanbul of 1950s, it is a neat blend of personal and political narratives.
The Club has some deftly defined characters, as is becoming the hallmark of Turkish films and shows on OTT platforms, and a slice of history.
Matilda, a Sephardic Jewish woman, has been granted general pardon after spending 17 years in jail. She wants to go to Israel but ends up working at one Istanbul's most popular clubs in a bid to stay close to her daughter, Rashel. On the surface, the story is about a mother's struggle to make amends to the daughter she had to abandon as an infant.
At a deeper level, The Club tells the universal story of 'us and them', a brave attempt in Turkish pop culture. The post-War Turkey was not all about modernity and Ataturk's ideals of secularism were giving way to growing intolerance.
The discriminatory Wealth Tax of 1942, the systematic and systemic othering of the non-Muslims (Greeks, Jews, Armenians, most prominently), and the state-sponsored riots of September 1955 are all depicted in the show.
According to some estimates, within only two days the rioters, fuming at the half-truth of Ataturk's house being bombed by the Greeks, destroyed 73 churches, 26 schools, more than 5000 businesses, one synagogue, and one monastery.
This show will ring close to Indian viewers.
Where to Watch: Netflix
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