Lost in Translation (emphasis on the “lost”)
Comments: 20
After many months of people telling me I should see “Lost in Translation” I finally watched it last night. I wanted to like it, if for no other reason than it’s set in my adoptive hometown of Tokyo, but while it had some moments (all courtesy of Bill Murray and cinematographer Lance Acord), it felt very empty and not terribly well put together.
Plus you have to sit through numerous scenes, intended to be funny, I guess, of Japanese people mixing up l and r pronunciation. This stuff was tired a long time ago, and it somehow feels especially cheap here. Where’s Jerry Lewis and those fake teeth when you need him?
Coincidentally, I saw on The Guardian’s website today a story called “No More Heroes” in which Guardian writers admit to just not getting — or outright hating — “some of the greats” in film. Let’s leave aside the curious fact that “Lost in Translation” appears in a list of great films, be it for demolition or not, and let David Stubbs do the summing up:
These characters aren’t culturally adrift, they’re spoiled, bored, rich, utterly unsympathetic Americans. Murray’s Bob scoffs jadedly that he’s earning $2m for doing an advert “when I could be doing a play somewhere”. Charlotte, pastily vapid, is in Japan because she had “nothing else to do”. What sort of predicament is this? The aching poignancy of a freebie? Mopey, self-pitying drivel.
But the Park Hyatt does look like a lovely place to stay.
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Posted to Film • 2004.12.05 (Sun) • 02:30
Comments
Posted by Alex Halavais 2004.12.05, 04:00
I didn’t sympathies with the characters, but I did recognize them. Don’t you? The ex-pats who kind of land, in a long-term haze, jet-lagged (to be sure), but also really set adrift by cultural differences that run deeper than is immediately apparent in a global city. I don’t know that it is a “great film,” but I found the characters very believable. I would say it was pretty common to run into young people who arrived in Japan kind of “because it was there,” and something similar among some Japanese in the US. At least for someone like me, who has experienced Japan in a similar, perhaps superficial way, it rung true.
Posted by Maktaaq 2004.12.05, 05:08
“Han Solo is a hat-stand in jodhpurs.”
Ha!
Though I did genuinely like Withnail and I. The first hour of which I saw.
Posted by Paul 2004.12.05, 06:05
The picture has its moments and I think is well paced and nicely photographed. More than you can say of the bulk of the dreque produced by Hollywood. I think it suggests reason for hope about future works by this director.
Posted by Hellblazer 2004.12.05, 07:42
How that movie had the audacity to win an Academy Award has me stumped. Absolute tripe of a film. Hated it.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens (Texas) 2004.12.05, 08:19
That’s very close to the criticism that Salon gave of Closer—the characters are shallow and not likable. I think that’s the point. If they were curious and deep, they wouldn’t be lost. And these two are sleep-walking through life.
Not all characters are worthy of emulation. Some provide cautionary tales.
Posted by Richard Earney 2004.12.05, 09:46
I thought it had a touching quality - it was one of the great films where not a lot happens but small details ring true or add to the sum of the film.
Withnail and I is another one.
Posted by Pete Barr-Watson 2004.12.05, 10:11
there was a lively discussion over on Chanpon.org about the film. The resulting comment thread is well worth reading (most of it anyway).Regardless what you think of the film, it’s worth checking out the soundtrack… There’s some great tracks on it…
Posted by Matthew Dixon Cowles 2004.12.05, 13:16
(I’d do this by TackBack, but my blogging tool doesn’t do that.) It’s true that the Japanese people in the movie appear silly in cliched ways. But I think that’s because the movie is being told from Bob Harris’s point of view. It’s not that the movie wants us to think that Japanese people really are like that. It’s that Bob Harris sees them that way. I have a couple of more sentences on the subject here.
Posted by Richard 2004.12.06, 02:07
I live in rural Connecticut. Flying to Osaka and taking a bus to Kyoto and looking out the window, I felt a kind of visual and cultural whiplash that I’ve not felt in any other country I’ve been to.
When you modulate between temples and neon fast enough something happens and I think Copola used this. Remember, most Americans have never been out of the country and the closest they’re gonna get to this is a once in a lifetime trip to New York.
Knowing a bit about Japanese culture from a background in ceramics gave my whiplash multiple threads and my homunculus enjoyed watching me go through this.
That same homunculus enjoyed watching the characters in this movie go through a bit of it. And the movie has many more threads or layers which make my whiplash look tame.
If the movie stereotyped and/or slighted anyone it was the dumb blond American actress and yes, deservedly so and we all people folks like this.
Then there’s the thread that any frequent overseas business traveler knows which is waking up in a hotel room somewhere and being lost: where am I, what am I doing here, can I get it together to do this gig, can I get some rest, can I aclimate to wherever it is I am.
Call home, you have a high fidelity channel with another reality and you can’t express what’s going on on your end. Carpet samples fedexed; both an extravagence of the rich and shameless and a way to illustrate the disconnect that happens when you’re disoriented (sorry, I do like “oriented” no matter what).
Your reality and that other one 1/2 way around the world are happening together in real time yet there’s something about where you are that is very different.
I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy the meta view of myself going through some of these things when I travel and for me, the movie works. Go ahead, call me provincial… I admit it.
Fold the internet on top or underneath this and things get even more interesting.
Posted by Massimo Fiorentino 2004.12.06, 08:18
What worked for me was that it portrayed Japan in a no nonsense kind of way. Hollywood movies tend to “explain” everything to death, but the lack hereof in Coppola’s movie proved to be a fresh alternative, since it really can seem that overwhelming to visit the country.
Posted by brian lynn 2004.12.06, 14:49
Richard said, “If the movie stereotyped and/or slighted anyone it was the dumb blond American actress and yes, deservedly so and we all people folks like this.”
I’m afraid I have to disagree with this. The Japanese and Japan were stereotyped throughout this film. The pronunciation of L’s and R’s as mentioned above, the extreme politeness, their height and so on. Yes, there may be some truth in these stereotypes but they remain stereotypes nonetheless.
My wife and I hated this movie. First and foremost, we felt insulted watching it as 95% of the jokes and gags in the movie were made at the Japanese’s expense. To put it bluntly, this movie was extremely racist.
Besides the stereotypes, cliches of Japan, and racism the movie was still mediocre at best. The acting and the cinematography were the only good things about this movie. The storyline was pathetic as were the characters who were rather 2 dimensional throughout the film. There was no character growth at all in this movie, and that was something it sorely needed. I for one, hope that Sophia Coppela never has the audacity to make another film, especially one where she vents racist diatribe about my wife’s ethnicity and the country I live. in.
Posted by Andrew 2004.12.06, 19:43
I agree with M Sinclair Stevens that the characters are supposed to be shallow, but it still reminded me of reality TV - I felt like I was watching two not-very-interesting people on a business trip. I shan’t be taking “Lost in Translation” to my desert island.
Posted by Alex 2004.12.07, 19:17
The most appealing aspect of “Lost in Translation”, to me, were the colors. That said, I liked the movie despite finding is somewhat underwhelming after all the hype.
Posted by colleen kane 2004.12.09, 00:33
Dyske Suematsu wrote paper on the film (here) that I felt summed up my feelings on it perfectly. It’s possible to like it as “just a movie” but the moment you scratch beneath the surface, it all falls apart.
Also, I think Scarlett Johansson looks like a praying mantis and she terrifies me.
Posted by niji 2004.12.10, 22:17
i love this movie. the characters are lost souls. the backdrop is tokyo to make them more isolated. it could have been africa. or tulsa. anywhere where they are not part of. i absolutely cant not understand any asian rights group protesing the characterization of the japanese in this film. look it, the western two main characters were real. very real. everyone else, from her husband to his fon voice wife to the vamp lady sent in to keep him amused, were all backdrop characters, forcing the two main characters in a kind of ukibori relief.
the film is not about tokyo, or about japan. every 20 minutes there is comedic sketch. very formulaic. bill murry is brilliant. scarlet’s character is extremely disappointing overall, as there is no depth, except for our pity of her situation and her inability to WAKE UP from her own Waking Life. if you even half way liked the film, buy the dvd. the bonus tracks on this are very interesting and give you immense detail as to how this movie was put together and on what kind of budget. life is not of much worth to us, if we live it in translation. finding or making yr own original un-translated version and needing others to provide their yardsticks is what this film speaks. like jokes, this type of film does not travel well. for a real odd pleasure, turn on the japanese soundtrack to this film instead of the englsh. the japanese translators did not do a good job of understanding the ennui. by the way, i have not met a japanese person who has understood ths film yet. to a person, they think dont get it. yet, the film that could very easily be made and be just as good is one where the main characters are japanese, set in a foreign place. they happen upon each other, and due to the circumstances, they develop a relationship that doesnt last for more than a few days.totally believable. it could be done very well, i think.
Posted by mister z 2004.12.16, 01:46
Having spent a couple of days in and around Tokyo earlier this year, watching this film I couldn’t stop being angry at the helpless lassitude of the two characters seemingly unable to venture from the hotel until the “breakthrough” moment later in the film… You’re in Tokyo people, not Baghdad or Mogadishu! All the subway signs are in English too! Gravity still works, sidewalks still exist, and no one’s going to bite you… maybe I’m missing the allegorical point here but I found it hard to watch the film when my eyes kept rolling back in my head.
Now include a scene about (oops) arriving with no cash of any kind, wandering around jet lagged in Narita and not being able to find an ATM, having to pray one of your bags still has that emergency 20 quid somewhere in it to exchange so you can buy a train ticket, that I can understand…
Posted by Darrin 2004.12.19, 19:03
I’m a bit late here, but I was extremely pleased when I found this movie on sale for < $10 at the local Best Buy. After watching it, I wanted my money back. The story was aimless, I didn’t care for either of the characters, and I just wanted the movie to be over.
Extremely sad when I can honestly say I consider Groundhog Day a superior Bill Murray movie.
Posted by brian in wales 2005.01.01, 05:31
I enjoyed the film… but never mind that…Happy New Year to you all..Cheers
Posted by stroby1 2005.01.07, 17:21
don
t most foreign visitors to Japan (Nova teachers and the like) come away with the interpretation offered by the film? i depended on much the same mindset as the B.Murray character to get me through my time in Tokyo. its kinda racist yes, but whats wrong with portraying it?
Posted by Zid 2005.08.21, 16:53
I loved “Lost In Translation.” I think it’s far removed from the contrived waste that comes out of Hollywood every single week, and even some of the other Independent films out there. Making this movie a welcomed relieve. I found that I could relate to the feelings these characters were going through, maybe it is become I’m jaded or whatever. But the characters are experiencing a disconnect with the rest of the world (this is amplified by the fact that their in Tokyo, Japan). But the characters are also searching for some meaning in their lives and some way to relate to the rest of the world, which is what Scarlet Johansson’s character I think is trying to do. A lot of the other background characters in the movie simply served to justify the main character’s feelings of isolation. Bob Harris’s wife is only a scathing voice heard through a phone thousands of miles away, and so is Charlotte’s friend who also fails to connect with her.
There is a lot said in this movie by what goes unsaid. All the small intimate moments are what make the movie great. In the end I think this movie is more true to life than a lot of other movies out there. Okay, so the characters aren’t emoting their every feeling, and there are no big twist and turns, no big resolutions, but is that what life is really like? The characters are plain and unpretentious (and that’s refreshing). I think these characters represent more people out there then some are willing to admit.
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