Jim Jarmusch

Mystery Train

Mystery Train

Aloof teenage Japanese tourists, a frazzled Italian widow, and a disgruntled British immigrant all converge in the city of dreams—which, in Mystery Train, from Jim Jarmusch, is Memphis. Made with its director’s customary precision and wit, this triptych of stories pays playful tribute to the home of Stax Records, Sun Studio, Graceland, Carl Perkins, and, of course, the King, who presides over the film like a spirit. Mystery Train is one of Jarmusch’s very best movies, a boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to an iconic American ghost town and a paean to the music it gave the world.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1989
  • 110 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.77:1
  • English
  • Spine #521

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Q&A with Jarmusch in which he responds to questions sent in by fans
  • Excerpts from the 2001 documentary Screamin' Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell on Me
  • Original documentary on the film's locations and the rich social and musical history of Memphis
  • On-set photos by Masayoshi Sukita and behind-the-scenes photos
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: New essays by writers Dennis Lim and Peter Guralnick

    New cover by YeeHaw Industries

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Q&A with Jarmusch in which he responds to questions sent in by fans
  • Excerpts from the 2001 documentary Screamin' Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell on Me
  • Original documentary on the film's locations and the rich social and musical history of Memphis
  • On-set photos by Masayoshi Sukita and behind-the-scenes photos
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: New essays by writers Dennis Lim and Peter Guralnick

    New cover by YeeHaw Industries
Mystery Train
Cast
Masatoshi Nagase
Jun
Youki Kudoh
Mitzuko
Nicoletta Braschi
Luisa
Elizabeth Bracco
Dee Dee
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Night clerk
Joe Strummer
Johnny
Rick Aviles
Will Robinson
Steve Buscemi
Charlie
Cinqué Lee
Bellboy
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Ed
Rufus Thomas
Man in station
Jodie Markell
Sun Studio guide
Sy Richardson
Newsvendor
Tom Noonan
Man in diner
Sara Driver
Airport clerk
Stephen Jones
The ghost
Credits
Director
Jim Jarmusch
Producer
Jim Stark
Screenplay
Jim Jarmusch
Cinematography
Robby Müller
Editing
Melody London
Music
John Lurie
Associate producer
Demtra MacBride
Line producer
Rudd Simmons
Executive producer
Kunijiro Hirata
Executive producer
Hideaki Suda
Production design
Dan Bishop

Current

Ask Jim Jarmusch
Ask Jim Jarmusch

Our popular Q&A series with director Jim Jarmusch is back!

Mystery Train: Memphis Blues Again
Mystery Train: Memphis Blues Again
What seems so extraordinary to me about Mystery Train, watching it again twenty years after its deadpan arrival, is not just how fresh and vivid—how utterly timeless—it remains but the extent to which it truly embraces both the myth and the rea…

By Peter Guralnick

Mystery Train: Strangers in the Night
Mystery Train: Strangers in the Night
All writing is travel writing, the axiom goes. And for Jim Jarmusch, perhaps more than any other filmmaker working today, all movies are travel movies. It’s not a slight to call him the epitome of the filmmaker as tourist. In a Jarmusch movie, t…

By Dennis Lim

Christophe Honoré’s Top 10
Christophe Honoré’s Top 10

The wildly prolific French director, novelist, and playwright celebrates the films that bring him pleasure and confound his understanding.

A Robby Müller Retrospective
A Robby Müller Retrospective
Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller has given us some of the most transcendent images ever captured on-screen. Since beginning his career in the late sixties, he has lensed a wealth of indelible moments—from Harry Dean Stanton wandering alone throu…
Unveiling the Mystery
Unveiling the Mystery
Fans of Jim Jarmusch in the Columbus, Ohio, area may want to steam down to the Wexner Center for the Arts tonight for a release party for Criterion’s new DVD and Blu-ray special editions of Mystery Train. Our technical director Lee Kline and senior…
Ask Jim Jarmusch
Ask Jim Jarmusch
When we released Jim Jarmusch’s films Down by Law and Night on Earth, the supplement Ask Jim, in which he answered questions viewers wrote in about his films, was so popular that we’ve decided to do it again. We are currently working on the speci…