Zombie ja Kummitusjuna

"Zombie and the Ghost train" starts off as a comedy, but as usual for the older Kaursmaki's sensibilities, it takes on a darker aspect pretty quickly. Annti purposefully gets himself thrown out of the army, then starts wandering around aimlessly, searching for something. Wonderful stuff, though there's not too much happening; there's the inevitable terseness of conversation and heavy drinking. Funny and sad in equal measures, it's a study in fatalistic decline and powerlessness and the ending is rather heartbreaking.

Mika Kaurismäki's "Zombie ja Kummitusjuna" ("Zombie and the Ghost Train" in English) is the first movie that I've seen by either of the Kaurismäki brothers. I understand that the brothers make a lot of movies about people whose lives suck. If so, then this movie is familiar territory. The main character is a guy who's really into music, but has no ambition otherwise. He spends a lot of time drifting and living on the streets of Istanbul. Maybe the whole point of the movie is to present the antithesis of what Scandinavia (presumably including Finland) is supposed to be: the region is viewed as pristine and having the world's highest quality of life, but the Kaurismäki brothers portray it as a s---hole.

Don't get me wrong. I thought that it was a good movie. Just understand that it's a REAL downer. Still worth seeing, though.

PS: The Kaurismäki brothers are friends of Jim Jarmusch, and so some of the cast members from their movies starred in the Helsinki segment of Jarmusch's "Night on Earth".