...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Chinatown
- 615 statements
- 120 feature instances
- 66 referencing feature instances
| Chinatown | type |
TVTItem | |
| Chinatown | label |
Chinatown | |
| Chinatown | page |
Chinatown | |
| Chinatown | comment |
A seminal neo-noir film, and regarded by many to be among the best examples of Film Noir in general, Chinatown (1974) was written by Robert Towne and directed by Roman Polański. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston. It is a dark film, even for the '70s.The setting is 1937 Los Angeles. J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Nicholson), a former cop turned Private Detective, is hired by a woman claiming to be Evelyn Mulwray, the wife of the city's water commissioner, to find out if her husband is having an affair. It seems like a simple enough job. But it isn't.It turns out that the woman who hired him isn't really Mrs. Mulwray. Then the water commissioner ends up drowned and the real Mrs. Mulwray (Dunaway) hires Gittes to find out what really happened. Gittes may think he knows what he's dealing with. But—as Noah Cross (Huston), Mrs. Mulwray's father and the former business partner of her late husband, warns him—he really doesn't.Fun fact: the film was co-financed by Bob Guccione, publisher of the famous pornographic magazine Penthouse. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (winning for Best Original Screenplay), seven Golden Globes (winning for Best Picture, Actor, Director, and Screenplay), and six BAFTAs (winning for Best Actor, Director, and Screenplay, with Nicholson and Towne earning their awards for both this film and The Last Detail).A lesser-known—and much less well-regarded—sequel, The Two Jakes, was directed by Jack Nicholson and released in 1990.For the kind of place, see Friendly Local Chinatown. And don't confuse this with Big Trouble in Little China, however tempting it may be. | |
| Chinatown | fetched |
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| Chinatown | parsed |
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| Chinatown | processingComment |
Dropped link to BitchSlap: Not a Feature - ITEM | |
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Dropped link to Blackmail: Not a Feature - ITEM | |
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Dropped link to CantSpitItOut: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to KnifeInTheWater: Not a Feature - ITEM | |
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Dropped link to TheCon: Not a Feature - ITEM | |
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Dropped link to TheMalteseFalcon1941: Not a Feature - ITEM | |
| Chinatown | processingUnknown |
CantSpitItOut | |
| Chinatown | isPartOf |
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| Chinatown / int_127fc252 | type |
Creator Cameo | |
| Chinatown / int_127fc252 | comment |
Creator Cameo: Roman Polański himself appears in the film as the short hoodlum with the knife who slices Jake's nose. C.O. Erickson, the film's executive producer, plays the banker in the barbershop who starts an argument with Jake. | |
| Chinatown / int_127fc252 | featureApplicability |
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| Chinatown / int_127fc252 | featureConfidence |
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| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_127fc252 | |
| Chinatown / int_12dd1d4c | type |
Rape as Drama | |
| Chinatown / int_12dd1d4c | comment |
Rape as Drama: How Katherine was conceived. Cross doesn't see it as rape or believe he did anything wrong of course. | |
| Chinatown / int_12dd1d4c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_12dd1d4c | featureConfidence |
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| Chinatown | hasFeature |
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| Chinatown / int_1439161f | type |
Heroic BSoD | |
| Chinatown / int_1439161f | comment |
Heroic BSoD: Jake has one of the more famous ones in cinematic history after Evelyn is killed. | |
| Chinatown / int_1439161f | featureApplicability |
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| Chinatown / int_1439161f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_1439161f | |
| Chinatown / int_1649e053 | type |
Your Mom | |
| Chinatown / int_1649e053 | comment |
Your Mom: Gittes uses the wife variation to insult a cop: | |
| Chinatown / int_1649e053 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_1649e053 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
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| Chinatown / int_16fdd774 | type |
Losing a Shoe in the Struggle | |
| Chinatown / int_16fdd774 | comment |
Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Jake loses one of his nice Florsheim shoes when almost getting flushed away by irrigation water. | |
| Chinatown / int_16fdd774 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_16fdd774 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
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| Chinatown / int_170128e9 | type |
Right Behind Me | |
| Chinatown / int_170128e9 | comment |
Right Behind Me: Jake tells an off-color joke while Mrs. Mulwray stands right behind him in his office doorway. He ignores the efforts of his associates to either shut him up or draw his attention to the visitor. | |
| Chinatown / int_170128e9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_170128e9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
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| Chinatown / int_18d15922 | type |
Title Drop | |
| Chinatown / int_18d15922 | comment |
Title Drop: Probably one of the most famous examples: "Forget it, Jake—it's Chinatown...." | |
| Chinatown / int_18d15922 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_18d15922 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
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| Chinatown / int_1c445e86 | type |
Poor Communication Kills | |
| Chinatown / int_1c445e86 | comment |
Poor Communication Kills: Much of the film's plot and machinations and the tragedy happen because characters, for a variety of believable reasons, don't trust each other or they make wrong assumptions. It's notable that Evelyn finally gets killed by Escobar and Lopez, Gittes' Friend on the Force and not Cross. The way the finale plays out, with Evelyn firing on Cross and hitting his shoulder, and then absconding with Katharine, makes her look bad which leads the police to shoot at her instead. | |
| Chinatown / int_1c445e86 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_1c445e86 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_1c445e86 | |
| Chinatown / int_1e7c47ab | type |
Stealth Pun | |
| Chinatown / int_1e7c47ab | comment |
Stealth Pun: After following Hollis Mulwray to a series of reservoirs, one of Jake's employees comments that he has "water on the brain", meaning literally he's thinking about water but which is also an antiquated name for hydrocephalus, a condition in children that can cause retardation. Jake smiles in response but the pun is never acknowledged in dialog. | |
| Chinatown / int_1e7c47ab | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_1e7c47ab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_1e7c47ab | |
| Chinatown / int_1f6983f7 | type |
Ambiguous Situation | |
| Chinatown / int_1f6983f7 | comment |
Ambiguous Situation Detective Loach fires the fatal shot. But is it a stumble in the dark, warning shot ricochet gone awry, or orders from Noah Cross? | |
| Chinatown / int_1f6983f7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_1f6983f7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
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| Chinatown / int_1f799027 | type |
Obstructive Bureaucrat | |
| Chinatown / int_1f799027 | comment |
Obstructive Bureaucrat: The irritating clerk at the Hall of Records seems to be doing everything he can to be as unhelpful as humanly possible. It's generally implied that he's doing so because he knows the truth or at least has some hint about the water rights corruption and wants to discourage Jake. | |
| Chinatown / int_1f799027 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_1f799027 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_1f799027 | |
| Chinatown / int_222969af | type |
All There in the Script | |
| Chinatown / int_222969af | comment |
All There in the Script: The first draft revealed what went down in Chinatown. Gittes was working for the district attorney's office and against advice got involved in the wars between rival Chinese gangs. He attempted to save Cherry, a sex worker who along with Gittes' boss got caught in the crossfire. | |
| Chinatown / int_222969af | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_222969af | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_222969af | |
| Chinatown / int_22cf536c | type |
Chekhov's Gun | |
| Chinatown / int_22cf536c | comment |
Chekhov's Gun: The script is loaded with these. Nothing is superfluous in this movie. For example, 'Bad for glass'. The salt water is bad for the grass. | |
| Chinatown / int_22cf536c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_22cf536c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_22cf536c | |
| Chinatown / int_23e32a30 | type |
Genre Deconstruction | |
| Chinatown / int_23e32a30 | comment |
Genre Deconstruction: It started out as a Genre Throwback to Film Noir but it ended up becoming this instead, taking full advantage of the end of The Hays Code to put on-screen the stuff the classic noir stories merely hinted at: Nicholson's Gittes is very much imagined as the tough-guy detective archetype perfected by Humphrey Bogart but unlike the gunsels and low-rent tough guys Bogart fought against, Gittes fights state and corporate villainy and only barely understands the scheme of which he is so low and unimportant that it literally does not matter to the bad guys that he knows the truth or not, they know that he can do nothing and that he won't do anything to stop them. In the end he gets a powerful reality check and reveals that under that facade of a tough Hardboiled Detective is a vulnerable, lonely and embittered man. Likewise, the misogynistic assumptions about Femme Fatale and bad girls in the classic noir are turned on its head, when its those same assumptions that leads Gittes to unwittingly cause Evelyn's death. Also Jake acts like a snarky wisecracker who always gets the last word in, but the film shows that his mouth keeps getting him into trouble, as he repeatedly irritates and insults his colleagues and associates, and gets punched out once. As per Robert Towne, the film is a more accurate portrayal of the Private Detective archetype than seen in the works of Raymond Chandler. Where the likes of Philip Marlowe are noble "tarnished knights" or Knight in Sour Armor, J. J. Gittes does actual Private Detective work. That is, taking seedy and sleazy pictures of adulterous spouses for suspicious clients, illegal surveillance and voyeurism, and generally living a very well-heeled existence. Gittes defends his line of work by pointing out that the police are equally sleazy and corrupt while he is honest. But the film casts doubt on this. For instance, the client at the start of the film, on finding out that his wife cheated on him is shown to later beat his wife, giving us some sense of why his wife cheated on him to start with, and making us understand that it's unlikely any of Gittes' work is truly innocent or qualifies as "honest living" as he insists at the start. Moreover, noir stories often had the hero get entangled in stories and have the detective try and solve the mystery to unearth a conspiracy. In this film, the detective is himself an Unwitting Pawn to the real conspiracy and had he done "As little as possible", the heroine could perhaps have lived and made it across the border anyway. Evelyn Mulwray is likewise an attack on the concept of the Femme Fatale. A beautiful elegant woman who is cold and aloof in public is obviously some villainous slutty vamp rather than a deeply vulnerable victim of abuse trying to hide her suffering from an uncaring world and society. Evelyn literally has no one to turn to in the patriarchal America of her time, and the great effort that she goes through to help herself and her daughter/sister comes undone precisely because of the misogynistic assumptions that even the hero Jake Gittes' shares and upholds. The film likewise underscores the racism, sexism and classism that a period Film Noir usually leaves out. As bad as the Big Bad is, the world around him is hardly better, with the upper-crust being anti-semites, Gittes' lower-class clients being wife-beaters and basically giving a sense of how genuinely a City Noir setting really is a Crapsack World and subverting the Retraux nostalgic appeal noir fashions usually attract. | |
| Chinatown / int_23e32a30 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_23e32a30 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_23e32a30 | |
| Chinatown / int_249a0b38 | type |
Over the Shoulder | |
| Chinatown / int_249a0b38 | comment |
Over the Shoulder: To emphasize the point that the audience is seeing everything from Gittes' perspective, director Roman Polański often put the camera behind Jack Nicholson, so the audience sees his back and shoulders. | |
| Chinatown / int_249a0b38 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_249a0b38 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_249a0b38 | |
| Chinatown / int_272abb98 | type |
Shoot the Shaggy Dog | |
| Chinatown / int_272abb98 | comment |
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Jake tries to help Evelyn escape California with Katherine but unfortunately he already called the police. Despite his numerous attempts to avoid them, Noah and the police eventually catch up with them anyway, moments before they were due to leave. Recognizing it as hopeless, Evelyn tries to take the last stand of threatening them with a gun so that she can take Katherine. This plays right into Noah's already-executed plan of making Evelyn look like a Hysterical Woman who killed her husband out of insane jealousy, the police shoot and kill Evelyn, and the hysterical Katherine is dragged away from her mother's body towards the triumphant Noah, who, inevitably, is going to rape her and perpetuate the cycle using the huge amount of money he's already earned. | |
| Chinatown / int_272abb98 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_272abb98 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_272abb98 | |
| Chinatown / int_281de59f | type |
Extremely Short Timespan | |
| Chinatown / int_281de59f | comment |
Extremely Short Timespan: The bulk of the action takes place over three really long days, starting from Evelyn's visit to Gittes' office where she officially hires him, and proceeding from there. | |
| Chinatown / int_281de59f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_281de59f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_281de59f | |
| Chinatown / int_295087bf | type |
Non-Indicative Name | |
| Chinatown / int_295087bf | comment |
Non-Indicative Name: Only the very last scene of the movie takes place in that neighborhood of Los Angeles. However, it is used by Gittes as a metaphor for the crime-ridden nature of Los Angeles in the film. | |
| Chinatown / int_295087bf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_295087bf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_295087bf | |
| Chinatown / int_29e294a6 | type |
Stopped Clock | |
| Chinatown / int_29e294a6 | comment |
Stopped Clock: Jake places a pocket watch under the tire of Mulwray's car, so that he can know at what time he left from the time the watch was run over. | |
| Chinatown / int_29e294a6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_29e294a6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_29e294a6 | |
| Chinatown / int_2a35374f | type |
Villainous Gentrification | |
| Chinatown / int_2a35374f | comment |
Villainous Gentrification: Chinatown's elaborate layered plot concerns an artificial drought as a result of water being dammed out, to chase farmers from their land, so that the terrain can be bought on the cheap, developed, and suburbanized. It succeeds. The kicker: the film is based on the real-life California water wars, which ended the same way. | |
| Chinatown / int_2a35374f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_2a35374f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_2a35374f | |
| Chinatown / int_2e8441c9 | type |
The Bad Guy Wins | |
| Chinatown / int_2e8441c9 | comment |
The Bad Guy Wins: For some value of bad guy, Jake Berman kills his business partner for blackmailing as well as sleeping with his wife. He also faces no justice for his crimes because he was Secretly Dying and commits suicide to eliminate all evidence of his crime. Jake even helps him get off the legal hook so his wife can inherit everything. | |
| Chinatown / int_2e8441c9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_2e8441c9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_2e8441c9 | |
| Chinatown / int_2ebc9c4e | type |
Sunshine Noir | |
| Chinatown / int_2ebc9c4e | comment |
Sunshine Noir: The beautiful, golden cinematography of the city and its environs contrasts greatly with what actually goes on inside it. Nonetheless many scenes in the middle, and key moments take place at night. Namely when Jake gets his nose cut, when he and Evelyn are on the trail of the mystery and the ending where Evelyn dies. | |
| Chinatown / int_2ebc9c4e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_2ebc9c4e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_2ebc9c4e | |
| Chinatown / int_2f30a078 | type |
Binocular Shot | |
| Chinatown / int_2f30a078 | comment |
Binocular Shot: Jake surveys Hollis Mulwray and his "mistress" with this in the early part of the film. | |
| Chinatown / int_2f30a078 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_2f30a078 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_2f30a078 | |
| Chinatown / int_34f8042a | type |
Gratuitous French | |
| Chinatown / int_34f8042a | comment |
Gratuitous French: Jake tells Evelyn, "I'm in matrimonial work. It's my métier." When Jake is in bed with Evelyn and speaks about his bad memories of Chinatown. | |
| Chinatown / int_34f8042a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_34f8042a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_34f8042a | |
| Chinatown / int_373e2b9f | type |
Murder the Hypotenuse | |
| Chinatown / int_373e2b9f | comment |
Murder the Hypotenuse: Julius "Jake" Berman murders his wife's lover in a bathroom after discovering them in bed together. Except, he already knew they were having an affair and had hired Jake Gittes to record it. | |
| Chinatown / int_373e2b9f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_373e2b9f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_373e2b9f | |
| Chinatown / int_381855db | type |
Five-Second Foreshadowing | |
| Chinatown / int_381855db | comment |
Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Jake asks Mrs. Mulwray who Katherine is and she tearfully answers "She's my sister, she's my daughter. My sister. My daughter." Then she's thrown to the floor and she screams out the Wham Line to Jake. | |
| Chinatown / int_381855db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_381855db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_381855db | |
| Chinatown / int_392372f9 | type |
Actor Allusion | |
| Chinatown / int_392372f9 | comment |
Actor Allusion: Once again, John Huston plays a man named Noah whose life has to do with water. (He'd previously played the biblical Noah in his own 1966 film The Bible.) Faye Dunaway's best known role is as Bonnie Parker, who is graphically shot down in a car by the police at the end of that film. Evelyn dies in a similar manner. | |
| Chinatown / int_392372f9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_392372f9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_392372f9 | |
| Chinatown / int_3c0a4666 | type |
Noodle Incident | |
| Chinatown / int_3c0a4666 | comment |
Noodle Incident: We never do find out exactly what happened in Chinatown when Jake was working there. All we know is that there was a girl, he tried to get involved and ended up making things worse. | |
| Chinatown / int_3c0a4666 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_3c0a4666 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_3c0a4666 | |
| Chinatown / int_3ffce9c2 | type |
Family Relationship Switcheroo | |
| Chinatown / int_3ffce9c2 | comment |
Family Relationship Switcheroo: Katherine is thought to be Evelyn Mulwray's sister. Then she is thought to be her daughter. Turns out Katherine is both Mrs. Mulwray's sister and daughter. | |
| Chinatown / int_3ffce9c2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_3ffce9c2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_3ffce9c2 | |
| Chinatown / int_407d3e6d | type |
Morton's Fork | |
| Chinatown / int_407d3e6d | comment |
Morton's Fork: Evelyn's final choice. She can either surrender to the police and try to explain the truth, which won't work because her father, who also raped her, has already made her look insane to everyone and likely she probably killed her husband in a jealous rage (and he has the money to pay off the right people), which will result in him probably taking custody of Katherine, or she can make herself look exactly like the violent murderer Noah has made her seem to be by pulling a gun and driving off, in the vague hope she and Katherine might make it out of Chinatown alive. She picks the latter, and as she's surrounded by armed police, her last try fails, she's killed, and Noah takes Katherine. | |
| Chinatown / int_407d3e6d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_407d3e6d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_407d3e6d | |
| Chinatown / int_40bb59d0 | type |
Blatant Lies | |
| Chinatown / int_40bb59d0 | comment |
Blatant Lies: Earl Rawley tells Jake to his face that he has no interest in the oil underneath the San Fernando Valley. He's already drilling as all the natural gas pockets prove. | |
| Chinatown / int_40bb59d0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_40bb59d0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_40bb59d0 | |
| Chinatown / int_40cbee83 | type |
Wretched Hive | |
| Chinatown / int_40cbee83 | comment |
Wretched Hive: From the way Jake reminisces about his days there and the events by the film's end, you can tell Chinatown was one of these. | |
| Chinatown / int_40cbee83 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_40cbee83 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_40cbee83 | |
| Chinatown / int_41077d9d | type |
MacGuffin | |
| Chinatown / int_41077d9d | comment |
Macguffin: The voice recording of Jake Berman and the murder of his partner. | |
| Chinatown / int_41077d9d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_41077d9d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_41077d9d | |
| Chinatown / int_454b2f2b | type |
Secretly Dying | |
| Chinatown / int_454b2f2b | comment |
Secretly Dying: Jake Berman is dying of cancer and his plan is based around securing his wife's finances despite the fact she's the heir of Noah Cross. | |
| Chinatown / int_454b2f2b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_454b2f2b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_454b2f2b | |
| Chinatown / int_4910eb39 | type |
Distant Sequel | |
| Chinatown / int_4910eb39 | comment |
Distant Sequel: The Two Jakes takes place eleven years after the original Chinatown. | |
| Chinatown / int_4910eb39 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_4910eb39 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_4910eb39 | |
| Chinatown / int_4b7364d | type |
Dead Man Honking | |
| Chinatown / int_4b7364d | comment |
Dead Man Honking: The film ends with Evelyn jumping in her car and trying to escape from the Big Bad, her insanely evil father Noah Cross. Shots are fired, there's the sound of a crash, and the sound of a droning car horn. A dead Evelyn has collapsed on the car horn. Cue Downer Ending. | |
| Chinatown / int_4b7364d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_4b7364d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_4b7364d | |
| Chinatown / int_4e3d253b | type |
Downer Ending | |
| Chinatown / int_4e3d253b | comment |
Downer Ending: An incredibly nasty example. Noah gets away with it all. Everything, from raping his daughter, to kidnapping his daughter's daughter. And Jake can do nothing about it. Keeping in mind Noah had raped his daughter, it looks bleak for his granddaughter/daughter Katherine. She gets away from him, as noted in The Two Jakes but it's implied that Noah Cross never faced justice and that Katherine is still haunted and traumatized by her past and Jake himself never got over that failure. | |
| Chinatown / int_4e3d253b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_4e3d253b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_4e3d253b | |
| Chinatown / int_4e7c4536 | type |
Wham Line | |
| Chinatown / int_4e7c4536 | comment |
Wham Line: Jake hears the name "Katherine Mulwray" while listening to his recording of his client. | |
| Chinatown / int_4e7c4536 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_4e7c4536 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_4e7c4536 | |
| Chinatown / int_52d1f46e | type |
Not What It Looks Like | |
| Chinatown / int_52d1f46e | comment |
Not What It Looks Like: Gittes repeatedly faces this problem. He judges events that on the basis of what he sees, looks reasonable, but actually turns out to be something entirely different. In his investigations tailing Hollis Mulwray and his "girlfriend", he assumes that it's an older man with his mistress when in fact it's a young girl with her surrogate father. He later sees Evelyn at home putting Katharine to bed with some medicine and assumes that Evelyn is holding her hostage, when in fact she's a mother concerned over her troubled daughter. | |
| Chinatown / int_52d1f46e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_52d1f46e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_52d1f46e | |
| Chinatown / int_537dd8fe | type |
Affably Evil | |
| Chinatown / int_537dd8fe | comment |
Affably Evil: Earl Rawley is a polite, congenial, and helpful to Jake but at the heart of the conspiracy to defraud Berman and his wife. | |
| Chinatown / int_537dd8fe | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_537dd8fe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_537dd8fe | |
| Chinatown / int_57980ca0 | type |
Smoking Hot Sex | |
| Chinatown / int_57980ca0 | comment |
Smoking Hot Sex: Gittes is seen smoking in bed after he and Evelyn made out. | |
| Chinatown / int_57980ca0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_57980ca0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_57980ca0 | |
| Chinatown / int_590eb583 | type |
Domestic Abuse | |
| Chinatown / int_590eb583 | comment |
Domestic Abuse: Curly the client who meets Gittes in the opening scene is revealed to have beaten his adulterous spouse. When Gittes redirects Lopez and Escobar to his house, the door is opened by his wife who sports a prominent black eye. When Curly introduces Gittes, his wife sneers in anger that she knows exactly who he is.note In the longer opening scene in the original screenplay, Curly even expresses a plan to kill her, under the delusion that nobody would convict a man for murdering his cheating wife ("it's the unwritten law"), and Jake has to angrily talk him out of it. | |
| Chinatown / int_590eb583 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_590eb583 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_590eb583 | |
| Chinatown / int_59907e4f | type |
Police Are Useless | |
| Chinatown / int_59907e4f | comment |
Police Are Useless: They are powerless to stop Noah Cross's plot, in part because according to Evelyn he owns the police. | |
| Chinatown / int_59907e4f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_59907e4f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_59907e4f | |
| Chinatown / int_5f3bb274 | type |
Late-Arrival Spoiler | |
| Chinatown / int_5f3bb274 | comment |
Late-Arrival Spoiler: Even if you've never seen the movie, you likely know that Faye Dunaway is the female lead; a woman who hires JJ "Jake" Gittes, so when a woman who is decidedly not Dunaway turns up in the second scene seeking to hire Jake, it's pretty obvious this is a setup. | |
| Chinatown / int_5f3bb274 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_5f3bb274 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_5f3bb274 | |
| Chinatown / int_5f4f15ba | type |
Two-Timing with the Bestie | |
| Chinatown / int_5f4f15ba | comment |
Two-Timing with the Bestie: Jake Berman kills his business partner and best friend due to the latter sleeping with his wife as well as to provide his wife with their shared wealth. | |
| Chinatown / int_5f4f15ba | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_5f4f15ba | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_5f4f15ba | |
| Chinatown / int_5f611b7e | type |
Good All Along | |
| Chinatown / int_5f611b7e | comment |
Good All Along: Jake Berman turns out to have been a Sympathetic Murderer who killed his wife's blackmailer as well as someone who intended to steal the oil rights to the Valley. | |
| Chinatown / int_5f611b7e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_5f611b7e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_5f611b7e | |
| Chinatown / int_606244c2 | type |
Parental Incest | |
| Chinatown / int_606244c2 | comment |
Parental Incest: It's revealed that Noah Cross raped Evelyn Mulwray, his daughter, and Katherine is the result of this. Towne said it was a metaphor for Los Angeles' corruption at the time. "Incest and water". | |
| Chinatown / int_606244c2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_606244c2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_606244c2 | |
| Chinatown / int_65acf9db | type |
He Knows Too Much | |
| Chinatown / int_65acf9db | comment |
He Knows Too Much: Noah has Hollis Mullray murdered when comes too close to working out Noah Crosses' scheme. | |
| Chinatown / int_65acf9db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_65acf9db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_65acf9db | |
| Chinatown / int_6b2b3b59 | type |
The Reveal | |
| Chinatown / int_6b2b3b59 | comment |
The Reveal/Wham Line: Katherine turns out to be Mrs. Mulwray's sister AND her daughter, her Child by Rape from her evil father. | |
| Chinatown / int_6b2b3b59 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_6b2b3b59 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_6b2b3b59 | |
| Chinatown / int_6bda9a30 | type |
Meaningful Name | |
| Chinatown / int_6bda9a30 | comment |
Meaningful Name: The coroner's name is Morty (Mort is French for "dead"). | |
| Chinatown / int_6bda9a30 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_6bda9a30 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_6bda9a30 | |
| Chinatown / int_6ccba96b | type |
Talking in Bed | |
| Chinatown / int_6ccba96b | comment |
Talking in Bed: Between Gittes and Evelyn where he alludes to his past as a cop in Chinatown. | |
| Chinatown / int_6ccba96b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_6ccba96b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_6ccba96b | |
| Chinatown / int_6d332aea | type |
Driven to Suicide | |
| Chinatown / int_6d332aea | comment |
Driven to Suicide: Jake Berman commits suicide by exploding a gas-filled house with a cigarette. | |
| Chinatown / int_6d332aea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_6d332aea | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_6d332aea | |
| Chinatown / int_71105dfc | type |
Everybody Smokes | |
| Chinatown / int_71105dfc | comment |
Everybody Smokes: Appropriate for the period. Lampshaded when Jake asks the coroner, Morty, how he's doing, to which Morty complains of a cough - puffing away all the while, blissfully unaware of things like emphysema or lung cancer. | |
| Chinatown / int_71105dfc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_71105dfc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_71105dfc | |
| Chinatown / int_733e007a | type |
Unwitting Pawn | |
| Chinatown / int_733e007a | comment |
Moreover, noir stories often had the hero get entangled in stories and have the detective try and solve the mystery to unearth a conspiracy. In this film, the detective is himself an Unwitting Pawn to the real conspiracy and had he done "As little as possible", the heroine could perhaps have lived and made it across the border anyway. | |
| Chinatown / int_733e007a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_733e007a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_733e007a | |
| Chinatown / int_7464705c | type |
Arc Words | |
| Chinatown / int_7464705c | comment |
Arc Words: "As little as possible." | |
| Chinatown / int_7464705c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_7464705c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_7464705c | |
| Chinatown / int_79b16b48 | type |
Japanese Ranguage | |
| Chinatown / int_79b16b48 | comment |
Japanese Ranguage: "Bad for glass" or "bad for grass"? Considering salt water is bad for both... | |
| Chinatown / int_79b16b48 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_79b16b48 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_79b16b48 | |
| Chinatown / int_7b6e47a5 | type |
Armor-Piercing Question | |
| Chinatown / int_7b6e47a5 | comment |
Armor-Piercing Question: Jake interrogating Mrs. Mulwray on her relations with the mystery woman Katherine. | |
| Chinatown / int_7b6e47a5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_7b6e47a5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_7b6e47a5 | |
| Chinatown / int_7cf49932 | type |
Doomed Appointment | |
| Chinatown / int_7cf49932 | comment |
Doomed Appointment: Late in the movie, Ida Sessions wants to talk to Gittes, probably to confess about her involvement in the plot. But when Gittes arrives at her place he finds her murdered in the kitchen. | |
| Chinatown / int_7cf49932 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_7cf49932 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_7cf49932 | |
| Chinatown / int_7eb2bc15 | type |
Ambiguous Time Period | |
| Chinatown / int_7eb2bc15 | comment |
Ambiguous Time Period: While the film ostensibly takes place in 1937 (i.e., on the early side of Chandler American Time), its portrayal of Los Angeles plucks bits and pieces from multiple eras (as noted in this article). The water rights problem was an issue of the 1910s and '20s, while Gittes makes reference to "Okies" (an insulting word for Dust Bowl-era migrant farmers from Oklahoma) and we see a large portrait of FDR. From the aforementioned article: | |
| Chinatown / int_7eb2bc15 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_7eb2bc15 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_7eb2bc15 | |
| Chinatown / int_7fbb2a3 | type |
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! | |
| Chinatown / int_7fbb2a3 | comment |
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Gittes gives Cross the only piece of evidence capable of proving him guilty of murdering Hollis Mulwray. Whoops. Although to be entirely fair to him on this one, he does have a gun pointed at his head at the time. Calling the cops on Evelyn under the erroneous belief that she's the culprit. | |
| Chinatown / int_7fbb2a3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_7fbb2a3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_7fbb2a3 | |
| Chinatown / int_7fe29ba6 | type |
Symbolism | |
| Chinatown / int_7fe29ba6 | comment |
Symbolism: During a scene where Jake and Evelyn are making out, Jake points out a black mark in the green part of Evelyn's eye, apparently a flaw in the iris. The flaw in Evelyn's eye symbolizes the flaw in the system itself — Evelyn's a good character, but has experienced firsthand the corruption bred by greed and by the hunger for power. Her father is stealing the city's water, and he's had a child with her through incest. From a distance, everything probably looks okay — but when you look closely, something's off. That's been Jake's experience throughout the whole movie. He sees that Hollis' death isn't a suicide and that he's been set up…after he learns that the woman who hired him wasn't really Evelyn. These inconsistencies eventually reveal an even more corrupt and evil state of affairs than Jake could've ever realized. The flaw in Evelyn's iris initially suggests that there's something wrong with her—like maybe she's in on her father's scheme. But in reality, the flaw lies in the family she comes from, specifically in her monstrous father. | |
| Chinatown / int_7fe29ba6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_7fe29ba6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_7fe29ba6 | |
| Chinatown / int_863fa679 | type |
What Happened to the Mouse? | |
| Chinatown / int_863fa679 | comment |
What Happened to the Mouse?: We never learned who killed Ida Sessions, although it was probably Mulvahill and/or The Man With the Knife. | |
| Chinatown / int_863fa679 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_863fa679 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_863fa679 | |
| Chinatown / int_8ace85ef | type |
Audience Surrogate | |
| Chinatown / int_8ace85ef | comment |
Audience Surrogate: Jake. He appears in every scene and we learn all the various plot twists at the same time he does. Incidentally, Polański doubled down on this. Towne originally wanted to add a POV in the Noir style, but Polański felt it would be more interesting if we stuck entirely to his viewpoint without the audience being detached from his perspective. | |
| Chinatown / int_8ace85ef | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_8ace85ef | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_8ace85ef | |
| Chinatown / int_8b442f50 | type |
Did Not Get the Girl | |
| Chinatown / int_8b442f50 | comment |
Did Not Get the Girl: Jake's fiance ends their engagement after seeing him and Kitty Berman having dinner together. Ironically, this is after him already sleeping with Lillian Bodine. Jake doesn't seem too upset about it. | |
| Chinatown / int_8b442f50 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_8b442f50 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_8b442f50 | |
| Chinatown / int_8cd96e6c | type |
Nasal Trauma | |
| Chinatown / int_8cd96e6c | comment |
Nasal Trauma: Jake Gittes is warned not to continue his investigation by a knife-wielding thug (played by the director in a cameo) who ends up slicing one of his nostrils open. As such, Gittes spends the rest of the film with his nose bandaged. | |
| Chinatown / int_8cd96e6c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_8cd96e6c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_8cd96e6c | |
| Chinatown / int_8d8cfcf1 | type |
Dame with a Case | |
| Chinatown / int_8d8cfcf1 | comment |
Dame with a Case: Evelyn Mulwray turns up at Jake's private eye agency believing that her husband, Hollis, is cheating on her. Jack follows Hollis and finds out that he appears to be cheating on Evelyn. Then it gets deconstructed when the real Evelyn arrives and tells him that she had no idea. Then Hollis is murdered, so Evelyn hires Jake for real to find out what is going on. | |
| Chinatown / int_8d8cfcf1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_8d8cfcf1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_8d8cfcf1 | |
| Chinatown / int_8e20b0f7 | type |
Private Detective | |
| Chinatown / int_8e20b0f7 | comment |
As per Robert Towne, the film is a more accurate portrayal of the Private Detective archetype than seen in the works of Raymond Chandler. Where the likes of Philip Marlowe are noble "tarnished knights" or Knight in Sour Armor, J. J. Gittes does actual Private Detective work. That is, taking seedy and sleazy pictures of adulterous spouses for suspicious clients, illegal surveillance and voyeurism, and generally living a very well-heeled existence. Gittes defends his line of work by pointing out that the police are equally sleazy and corrupt while he is honest. But the film casts doubt on this. For instance, the client at the start of the film, on finding out that his wife cheated on him is shown to later beat his wife, giving us some sense of why his wife cheated on him to start with, and making us understand that it's unlikely any of Gittes' work is truly innocent or qualifies as "honest living" as he insists at the start. | |
| Chinatown / int_8e20b0f7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_8e20b0f7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_8e20b0f7 | |
| Chinatown / int_8eb0370f | type |
Corporate Conspiracy | |
| Chinatown / int_8eb0370f | comment |
Corporate Conspiracy: Earl Rawley is drilling underneath the Valley in Katherine Mulwray's land despite her maintaining the mineral rights. | |
| Chinatown / int_8eb0370f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_8eb0370f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_8eb0370f | |
| Chinatown / int_8ed5c6e4 | type |
Asshole Victim | |
| Chinatown / int_8ed5c6e4 | comment |
Asshole Victim: Mark Bodine turns out to have been one, sleeping with a woman he planned to expose as a product of incest and steal the oil rights of. Her husband killing him becomes much more justified after that. | |
| Chinatown / int_8ed5c6e4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_8ed5c6e4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_8ed5c6e4 | |
| Chinatown / int_9053903 | type |
Ignored Epiphany | |
| Chinatown / int_9053903 | comment |
Ignored Epiphany: Jake Gittes voices the saying in Chinatown to Evelyn "Do as little as possible" and earlier likewise tells his client to not seek the truth and "let sleeping dogs lie". Yet throughout the film he doesn't follow his own advice, pursuing the Hollis Mulwray murder mystery even when there's no legal or professional or personal reason for him to do so that causes problems. He's obsessed with finding out the truth like all private detective archetypes and in the end after he finds out he can't do anything about it. | |
| Chinatown / int_9053903 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_9053903 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_9053903 | |
| Chinatown / int_90b66e22 | type |
Femme Fatale | |
| Chinatown / int_90b66e22 | comment |
Evelyn Mulwray is likewise an attack on the concept of the Femme Fatale. A beautiful elegant woman who is cold and aloof in public is obviously some villainous slutty vamp rather than a deeply vulnerable victim of abuse trying to hide her suffering from an uncaring world and society. Evelyn literally has no one to turn to in the patriarchal America of her time, and the great effort that she goes through to help herself and her daughter/sister comes undone precisely because of the misogynistic assumptions that even the hero Jake Gittes' shares and upholds. | |
| Chinatown / int_90b66e22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_90b66e22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_90b66e22 | |
| Chinatown / int_926c5119 | type |
Detective Patsy | |
| Chinatown / int_926c5119 | comment |
Detective Patsy: Jake, when he works for the first "Mrs. Mulwray". And pretty much every moment after. | |
| Chinatown / int_926c5119 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_926c5119 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_926c5119 | |
| Chinatown / int_92dfffae | type |
Retraux | |
| Chinatown / int_92dfffae | comment |
Retraux: The sepia-toned opening titles, complete with 4:3 aspect ratio, vintage Paramount logo, and old-fashioned scrolling credits. The first thing shown after the titles is an extreme closeup on a series of black-and-white photographs (albeit far more sexually explicit than anything shown in the Old Hollywood), and then the camera pulls back to reveal cinematographer John Alonzo's lush amber period glow, which looks a bit like old Technicolor but is much richer. | |
| Chinatown / int_92dfffae | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_92dfffae | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_92dfffae | |
| Chinatown / int_9400b3b5 | type |
Questionable Consent | |
| Chinatown / int_9400b3b5 | comment |
Questionable Consent: In-universe. While Evelyn claims that she had an abusive, but consensual, sexual relationship with Noah, the audience and other characters understand that it was rape because she was too young to consent at 14. The age of consent in 1930s California was 16. She doesn't see it that way because of Noah's manipulative behavior. | |
| Chinatown / int_9400b3b5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_9400b3b5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_9400b3b5 | |
| Chinatown / int_973d220f | type |
Never My Fault | |
| Chinatown / int_973d220f | comment |
Never My Fault: Noah Cross on being confronted by Gittes about whether he takes responsibility for raping Evelyn, mutters that he prefers not to blame himself, feeling that what he did was right to any man of his power and stature. This is patently not true as Evelyn says that Hollis Mulwray, who was the same class and stature as Cross, was a decent man. But for a man like Cross, morality is an option and not an obligation. | |
| Chinatown / int_973d220f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_973d220f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_973d220f | |
| Chinatown / int_97b4c1fd | type |
Cut Himself Shaving | |
| Chinatown / int_97b4c1fd | comment |
Cut Himself Shaving: Jake's response when Yelburton asks what happened to his nose. | |
| Chinatown / int_97b4c1fd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_97b4c1fd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_97b4c1fd | |
| Chinatown / int_9bc66bb1 | type |
Belated Happy Ending | |
| Chinatown / int_9bc66bb1 | comment |
Belated Happy Ending: Katherine Mulwray/Berman managed to outlive her abusive father/grandfather as well as inherit a fortune from her now-deceased husband as their home development is ruined but she has mineral rights to the Valley. | |
| Chinatown / int_9bc66bb1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_9bc66bb1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_9bc66bb1 | |
| Chinatown / int_9bca83eb | type |
Death by Irony | |
| Chinatown / int_9bca83eb | comment |
Death by Irony: When Evelyn is treating Jake's nose wound, he asks about her flawed eye. In the end of the film, Evelyn is shot through that same eye. In-Universe the Coroner finds it amusing that the City Water Commissioner drowns during a drought. | |
| Chinatown / int_9bca83eb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_9bca83eb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown | hasFeature |
Chinatown / int_9bca83eb | |
| Chinatown / int_9d12bbc1 | type |
Foreshadowing | |
| Chinatown / int_9d12bbc1 | comment |
Foreshadowing: Right after Gittes gets his nose sliced (by a character played by Roman Polański), he talks about suing the people responsible for the shenanigans. His assistants snark that the people he's after would have the judge in their pocket... When Gittes asks Evelyn what the "C" monogram on a certain document stands for, she briefly chokes on the name before she says "Cross" and throughout their interactions struggles to talk about her father, indicating the abuse she experienced and still experiences as a result of her rape. Much is made of the flaw in Evelyn's eye. Guess where she gets shot in the end? Gittes: I forgot my glasses. I'd like to be able to read across. Most famously...Even the seemingly insignificant touch of Evelyn accidentally setting off the car horn by resting her head on the steering wheel comes back with a vengeance at the end, when Jake (and the audience) know her fate even before seeing the carnage by the continuous sound of the car horn. | |
| Chinatown / int_9d12bbc1 | featureApplicability |
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| Chinatown / int_a2b38d3b | type |
Eye Scream | |
| Chinatown / int_a2b38d3b | comment |
Eye Scream: Evelyn ends up getting fatally shot through the eye at the end. It was her "flawed" eye. | |
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Chinatown / int_a2b38d3b | |
| Chinatown / int_a70223 | type |
Karma Houdini | |
| Chinatown / int_a70223 | comment |
Karma Houdini: Noah Cross died of old age, rich and powerful despite all the horrific evils he committed. Jake flat-out says that any attempt to make Earl Rawley pay is doomed to failure due to how much money he has. | |
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Chinatown / int_a70223 | |
| Chinatown / int_a8357dc2 | type |
No Woman's Land | |
| Chinatown / int_a8357dc2 | comment |
No Woman's Land: Basically none of the women on-screen have it good for them. The Fake Mrs. Mulwray, the actress Ida Sessions, gets whacked to tie up loose ends. Evelyn Mulwray dies ignominiously like a criminal, her daughter/sister Katharine enters Noah Cross' clutchesnote Fortunately, she's escaped his grasp in The Two Jakes, very likely being raped in turn. Even Curly's wife, the woman who was caught cheating by Jakes at the start of the film, is revealed to sport a very new and fresh-looking black eye, hinting that Jake's investigation condemned her to a life of Domestic Abuse, and she has nothing but contempt for the "hero". | |
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Chinatown / int_a8357dc2 | |
| Chinatown / int_aabe2fb | type |
Deliberate Values Dissonance | |
| Chinatown / int_aabe2fb | comment |
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Jaker Berman killing his wife's lover is considered "temporary insanity" to enough people that no one considers it strange that he might be walking around and carrying out his business after doing it. A gay nightclub's occupants are all arrested and taken downtown. | |
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Chinatown / int_aabe2fb | |
| Chinatown / int_ab5eea65 | type |
Dramatic Irony | |
| Chinatown / int_ab5eea65 | comment |
Dramatic Irony: Noah Cross went to an elaborate conspiracy to acquire all of the land in the San Fernando Valley but due to the oil drilling underneath his property, the land is worthless for development. | |
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Chinatown / int_ab5eea65 | |
| Chinatown / int_ac1156ea | type |
Ominously Open Door | |
| Chinatown / int_ac1156ea | comment |
Ominously Open Door: When Jake arrives at Ida's apartment, the door is unlocked, a clear indicator that something is afoot. | |
| Chinatown / int_ac1156ea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Chinatown / int_ac1156ea | featureConfidence |
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Chinatown / int_ac1156ea | |
| Chinatown / int_aca32000 | type |
Armor-Piercing Response | |
| Chinatown / int_aca32000 | comment |
Armor-Piercing Response: Mrs. Mulwray delivers some to Jake when being slapped by him and being pushed to answer his questions about her relationship with Katherine. And then she delivers a big one to him, also a Wham Line. | |
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| Chinatown / int_aef5c283 | type |
Off-into-the-Distance Ending | |
| Chinatown / int_aef5c283 | comment |
Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Part of the shattering Downer Ending, as Jake's partners lead him away down a Chinatown street, after everything is lost. | |
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| Chinatown / int_af616e40 | type |
Accidental Misnaming | |
| Chinatown / int_af616e40 | comment |
Accidental Misnaming: Cross persists in pronouncing Jake's last name as "Gitts" even after he's corrected (which could be Malicious Misnaming). Also, Curly addresses him as "Mr. Geetis" a couple times. | |
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| Chinatown / int_b034d333 | type |
Film Noir | |
| Chinatown / int_b034d333 | comment |
The film likewise underscores the racism, sexism and classism that a period Film Noir usually leaves out. As bad as the Big Bad is, the world around him is hardly better, with the upper-crust being anti-semites, Gittes' lower-class clients being wife-beaters and basically giving a sense of how genuinely a City Noir setting really is a Crapsack World and subverting the Retraux nostalgic appeal noir fashions usually attract. | |
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| Chinatown / int_b47d95be | type |
No OSHA Compliance | |
| Chinatown / int_b47d95be | comment |
No OSHA Compliance: Not played for action but drama in the fact the Valley housing development is a minefield of explosive gas pockets due to the drilling going on underneath. | |
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Chinatown / int_b47d95be | |
| Chinatown / int_b7b1aa73 | type |
And Then What? | |
| Chinatown / int_b7b1aa73 | comment |
And Then What?: Subverted - Jake attempts this with the villain. It doesn't work. | |
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-0.3 | |
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| Chinatown / int_b7c312ff | type |
Cacophony Cover-Up | |
| Chinatown / int_b7c312ff | comment |
Cacophony Cover Up: Jake fakes a cough when ripping a piece of paper from a land register at the Hall of Records. | |
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| Chinatown / int_bbec7823 | type |
Bedroom Adultery Scene | |
| Chinatown / int_bbec7823 | comment |
Bedroom Adultery Scene: Jake Berman catches his wife in bed with his business partner before murdering the latter. | |
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Chinatown / int_bbec7823 | |
| Chinatown / int_bc74ef27 | type |
Berserk Button | |
| Chinatown / int_bc74ef27 | comment |
Berserk Button: The orange grove workers knock Jake unconscious after he calls one of them a "dumb Okie". | |
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Chinatown / int_bc74ef27 | |
| Chinatown / int_bf4a990 | type |
Despotism Justifies the Means | |
| Chinatown / int_bf4a990 | comment |
Despotism Justifies the Means: Noah Cross is already the richest and most powerful man in Los Angeles; he gladly admits he has no idea of how much wealth he really has except that it's over $10 million* Equivalent to $180 million in 2020 dollars, yet goes ahead with his plan to seize control of the water simply because it will make him even more rich and powerful. In his own words: | |
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Chinatown / int_bf4a990 | |
| Chinatown / int_c75df49a | type |
Shout-Out | |
| Chinatown / int_c75df49a | comment |
Shout-Out: The scene in which Gittes repeatedly slaps Evelyn to try and get her to fess up recalls a similar scene in The Maltese Falcon. Polański's cameo as the "Man with a Knife" is often seen as a reference to his first film, Knife in the Water. | |
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Chinatown / int_c75df49a | |
| Chinatown / int_c83a589c | type |
Luke, I Am Your Father | |
| Chinatown / int_c83a589c | comment |
Luke, I Am Your Father: Father and grandfather in this case. Noah attempts to introduce himself as this to the young Katherine and get closer to her but Mrs. Mulwray refuses to let him. | |
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| Chinatown / int_c87660d5 | type |
Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! | |
| Chinatown / int_c87660d5 | comment |
Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Jake gives Evelyn one of the ultimate examples of this trope, slapping her repeatedly to get her to tell him the truth about Katherine. | |
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Chinatown / int_c87660d5 | |
| Chinatown / int_c9848555 | type |
Taken During the Ending | |
| Chinatown / int_c9848555 | comment |
Taken During the Ending: After Evelyn is shot by the police, her father drives away with Katherine, who is both her daughter and her sister. It is implied that he is going to rape Katherine as well. | |
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Chinatown / int_c9848555 | |
| Chinatown / int_cbe687ab | type |
Corrupt Corporate Executive | |
| Chinatown / int_cbe687ab | comment |
Corrupt Corporate Executive / Corporate Conspiracy: Noah Cross, already the richest man in Los Angeles, renders vast farmlands arid by illegally dumping their irrigation water into the ocean, thus causing their prices to plummet to next to nothing. After forcing the farmers to sell their land to his cabal of corrupt business partners, Cross intends to develop his newly acquired land by irrigating it with the water supply diverted from the city itself, through a new aqueduct and reservoir built from $8 million of taxpayer money. His only gain from this elaborate swindle is "The future!". | |
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Chinatown / int_cbe687ab | |
| Chinatown / int_cfbd1467 | type |
Never Suicide | |
| Chinatown / int_cfbd1467 | comment |
Never Suicide: The villain attempts this more or less unsuccessfully. The method of Hollis' death is something that seems logical on its surface, but then the saltwater in his lungs is the smoking gun for the cops to realize that someone set Hollis up for adultery to make his death look like a suicide. So Gittes doesn't have to prove it was suicide, he only had to prove it was Cross which he ultimately fails to accomplish. | |
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Chinatown / int_cfbd1467 | |
| Chinatown / int_d129e13e | type |
"Eureka!" Moment | |
| Chinatown / int_d129e13e | comment |
"Eureka!" Moment: The salt water pond is what is 'bad for glass.' | |
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Chinatown / int_d129e13e | |
| Chinatown / int_d2d09ff6 | type |
After-Action Patch-Up | |
| Chinatown / int_d2d09ff6 | comment |
After-Action Patch-Up: Evelyn patching up Jake's nose ends up with them in bed. | |
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Chinatown / int_d2d09ff6 | |
| Chinatown / int_db71d717 | type |
Thanatos Gambit | |
| Chinatown / int_db71d717 | comment |
Thanatos Gambit: Jake Berman kills himself to deny himself a horrible lingering death, cover up any evidence of premeditation, and proves there's oil underneath the Valley. | |
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Chinatown / int_db71d717 | |
| Chinatown / int_dcbe8a6e | type |
Chekhov's Gunman | |
| Chinatown / int_dcbe8a6e | comment |
Chekhov's Gunman: Jake's client Curly in the opening scene, and the fact that he cannot afford to pay Jake for his services. | |
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Chinatown / int_dcbe8a6e | |
| Chinatown / int_de9047ac | type |
Gambit Pileup | |
| Chinatown / int_de9047ac | comment |
Gambit Pileup: Jake Berman murders his business partner to make sure his wife inherits their shared business as he's Secretly Dying. This is while his wife is concealing the fact she's Noah Cross' daughter and owner of most of San Fernando Valley. Earl Rawley is trying to commit fraud to deprive Katherine Mulwray/Berman of her mineral rights to the land. All of this while the police and Jake are conducting their own investigations. | |
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Chinatown / int_de9047ac | |
| Chinatown / int_df332911 | type |
Hellish L.A. | |
| Chinatown / int_df332911 | comment |
Hellish L.A.: Depicts early 20th century Los Angeles as a Crapsack World full of bigotry and Domestic Abuse in which there is a massive conspiracy going on to "control the future" through the city's water supply. And, at the end, they win. | |
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Chinatown / int_df332911 | |
| Chinatown / int_df79b05b | type |
Media Scrum | |
| Chinatown / int_df79b05b | comment |
Media Scrum: Jake saves Evelyn from the press crowd in front of the police department which gains him her sympathy. | |
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Chinatown / int_df79b05b | |
| Chinatown / int_e3847ee8 | type |
Cigarette of Anxiety | |
| Chinatown / int_e3847ee8 | comment |
Cigarette of Anxiety: Mrs. Mulwray gets so nervous that she lights a cigarette while her previous one is still burning. | |
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Chinatown / int_e3847ee8 | |
| Chinatown / int_e4b69188 | type |
Very Loosely Based on a True Story | |
| Chinatown / int_e4b69188 | comment |
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The city of Los Angeles really did steal water from valley farmers. Interestingly, this was neither the first nor the last time the events in question were fictionalized, merely the most well-known. And the catastrophic dam collapse referenced by Hollis Mulwray at the city council meeting was inspired by the real-life failure of the St. Francis Dam in 1928, which killed over 400 people. | |
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Chinatown / int_e4b69188 | |
| Chinatown / int_e81f5639 | type |
Moe Greene Special | |
| Chinatown / int_e81f5639 | comment |
Moe Greene Special: Evelyn's death. Although the shot enters her skull from the back. | |
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Chinatown / int_e81f5639 | |
| Chinatown / int_e88e8a8f | type |
Writer on Board | |
| Chinatown / int_e88e8a8f | comment |
Writer on Board: The reason for Gittes' totally-out-of-left-field question ("Do you accept those of the Jewish persuasion?") and the ensuing Deliberate Values Dissonance at the upper-class retirement home. Although it would also give him an excuse to look at the records of the place, and it does get across how slimy the American upper crust at the time was. | |
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Chinatown / int_e88e8a8f | |
| Chinatown / int_e9e35e8f | type |
Exact Words | |
| Chinatown / int_e9e35e8f | comment |
Exact Words: When Jake pushes Mrs. Mulwray for the answers to whom Katherine is, she keeps telling him "she's my sister... she's my daughter...my sister...my daughter..." | |
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Chinatown / int_e9e35e8f | |
| Chinatown / int_efbb5f9c | type |
Down L.A. Drain | |
| Chinatown / int_efbb5f9c | comment |
Down L.A. Drain: The plot revolves around the LA water system. The concrete structures are featured. | |
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Chinatown / int_efbb5f9c | |
| Chinatown / int_f005bd1c | type |
Friend on the Force | |
| Chinatown / int_f005bd1c | comment |
Friend on the Force: Escobar and Loach, to a point. | |
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Chinatown / int_f005bd1c | |
| Chinatown / int_f1c17256 | type |
A Deadly Affair | |
| Chinatown / int_f1c17256 | comment |
A Deadly Affair: Jake Berman kills his wife's lover moments after finding them in bed together. | |
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Chinatown / int_f1c17256 | |
| Chinatown / int_fac4ff79 | type |
Meta Casting | |
| Chinatown / int_fac4ff79 | comment |
Meta Casting: The casting of John Huston, the director of many of the great, early Film Noir classics including The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo in the role of the villain. | |
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Chinatown / int_fac4ff79 | |
| Chinatown / int_fe0330fb | type |
Brick Joke | |
| Chinatown / int_fe0330fb | comment |
Brick Joke: The very first scene has Jake showing Curly the evidence of his wife's infidelity. Toward the end of the film, when Jake goes to Curly's house to shake off the cops, the door is answered by his wife... who sports a noticeable shiner. | |
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Chinatown / int_fe0330fb | |
| Chinatown / int_ffa0483f | type |
Cut Short | |
| Chinatown / int_ffa0483f | comment |
Cut Short: A third film, Cloverleaf, was planned. Chinatown focused on water, The Two Jakes focused on oil, and Cloverleaf would have focused on transportation. Ironically, Who Framed Roger Rabbit picked up the slack and even named the trolley car company in the film after the never-produced film! | |
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ItemName | |
| Chinatown / int_name | comment |
||
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| Chinatown / int_name | itemName |
Chinatown |
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