lost in translation

I didn't even think her husband was that awful. But yeah, if you are going to sit around your hotel all day, you'll probably feel bored and lonely. I'm still not sure if I liked the movie or not and I saw it like 5 days ago. The sexual tension that developed was probably the most interesting part of the film plotwise.

Whatever was this?

i also found the fact that a 50-something actor married 25 years having 2 toddler children is very improbable, but that's just me. plus his wife sounded pretty young on the phone (checking imdb...) no luck, i bet it was sofia or corinne tucker or somebody "acting out" the role of bored rich housewife, haha.

There's a lot to criticize about it, but thankfully it didn't devolve into a hamfisted made-for-Lifetime TV movie.

There are echoes of Jacques Tati's classic "Playtime" in the contrast between the hotel's ultramodern architecture, which isolates human beings, and the exaggerated, almost anthropomorphic quality of devices like loud faxes piercing the silence.

Here's a Coppola interview about making the film.

This is not to say Japanese audiences won't like it. I was watching 'Down With Love' on a plane, sitting behind a Hassidic jewish couple who whooped with laughter at the film's stereotypical portrayal of a jewish dry cleaner.

I guess my problem is that it felt a little too Roman Coppola at times. (I still think the movie is ace though, mostly for the bizarre realization that came to me during it, which is that Bill Murray suddenly reminds me a LOT of Takeshi Kitano..)

The KEEE-RAZY stuff that's in there is real (eg Mathew Minawa, the talk show host - he's not a made-up charicature of Japanese TV hosts, he's a real talk show host doing his usual schtick) & it's the american characters who are being dumb most of the time (the old lady in the hospital is earnestly trying to ask him how long he's been in japan {i think} murray is making nonsense noises - actually that was one of the sweetest and most recognizably true scenes in the flick i thought

i liked "more than this" & "just like honey" a lot too.

making losers loveable doesn't signify depth it signifies EVERY MOVIE EVER - & i think it's kinda unfair of some of the critics of the film to ask it to provide lovability and redemption and then slam it as sentimental and Mentos-esque when it shoots for these things

Deeply shallow? Huh?

you would think (i know, my bad) an ivy league philosophy major doing some soul-searching in japan might find something more culturally enriching than sitting all day in her hotel room, or drugs and karaoke (okay, she arranges a single flower and with glazed eyes witnesses a traditional wedding). i kept thinking during the movie: "in what ways is she more interesting than the ditzy actress that she holds in such contempt?"

wrt: the treatment of the japanese characters/charicatures, i encountered the phrase "unconscious racism" this weekend in a text and thought it applied here. even the "real" japanese characters introduced are either wacky commercial directors, bumbling hospitality agents, drug dealers, nouveau-riche less than zero types, or "surfers"/acid casualties.

any tension between the two characters was completely buzz-killed when he sleeps with the lounge singer... not only is he adulterous, but also willing to stoop to lows that the both of them found earlier so easy to ridicule.

the only complexity of bob or charlotte's characters are the layers of self-deception and insecurities possessing them, which frankly I don't find very fascinating. the only other things they have in common is loneliness and insomnia (or jet-lag issues, take your pick).

As for xenophobia I didn't see it. Amusement at cultural differences doesn't equal fear or hate. Charlotte seemed to have a preponderance of Japanese friends, for one thing. And it never stoops to exoticism (thank god Charlotte was not Japanese, that would have turned the film into something that made me uncomfortable, i think).

Plotlessless: do people level this same criticism at Woman Under the Influence, Mean Streets or Taxi Driver or any of a handful of other non-strictly A -> B -> C(limax) films made in the 70's? There is a story, if not a strict plot which makes these characters more sympathetic once they're released from machinistic devices that move them from event to event. I wish Scorcese had the guts to make a film this loosely structured again.

This film was so much better (visually and content-wise) than Roman Coppola's flick last year; I can't even remember what the name of that movie was!

a japanese person on business in the US refuses to speak anything but japanese, and then mocks and patronizes those who don't understand in a patronizing manner, as if it was their fault... and alienated by the entire experience so much that he cheats on his wife with a cheezy lounge singer and "connects" with a girl half his age.

neato.

Why does she say she just graduated Yale and then later say she got married two years ago and has been living in LA ever since? Is this ever explained and I just missed it?

i always had an irrational distaste for her. which i can't really defend. i guess she either strikes you as a vapid, bored/boring stylemonger with good connections... or she doesn't. like a depressed-art-hipster paris hilton.

* This throws into question a few assumptions people made about the Ribisi character way earlier on the thread, ie wtf kind of "starving artist" who needs support from his "rich" gf goes to Yale, fucks around, drops out, then decides to move to LA and become a photographer? From the moment he mentions Yale, I assumed they were of similar backgrounds.

http://www.sierraclub.org/lewisandclark/images/badger.jpg

In the deleted scenes you'll find the Ribisi character is heir to a major catalogue fortune, and isn't bumming off of anyone.
Haha, was Coppola afraid Spike Jonze was going to sue?

I never read this thread the first time because I planned to see the film in theatre and didn't want it spoiled! Then I never got around to seeing the film in a timely fashion. Whoops.

imagine a bizarro lost in translation:

a japanese person on business in the US refuses to speak anything but japanese, and then mocks and patronizes those who don't understand in a patronizing manner, as if it was their fault... and alienated by the entire experience so much that he cheats on his wife with a cheezy lounge singer and "connects" with a girl half his age.

I'm not sure what kind of movie this would make, but if you modify a few of the details ie. "cheezy lounge singer" becomes "local prostitute", you've basically described what really goes on during a lot of Japanese company trips.

It IS pretty great, yes.

Someone found a way to listen in on what it is that he whispers to her at the end of this movie. It's been bugging me for years, and although you could probably guess, and have a pretty good idea, it's nice to hear it finally revealed. A great movie just got a little bit better. I might have mentioned it upthread, but Tokyo is such a difficult city to capture on film, but Sophia Coppola's version looks exactly the same as how I see it. I never understood the hate for this film. Among people that I know who have been to, or lived in Japan, the praise has been near universal. Myself included.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MV7Sym8bIQ

Why Does Bill Murray Say "We Want Hen Fap" in 'Lost in Translation'?

edit this movie down, and you have a good 10-minute video for "just like honey" (extended 12" mix).

hahaha youtube

For me it's the scene in the taxi with "Sometimes" playing that still resonates deep in me, 15 years later.

J-rock, I agree completely. It captures the feeling of being in Tokyo so well. (First time my mom visited, second for me, she freaked out. Haha)

I watched this for the first time since seeing it in theater (and remembered little about it). Johansson was so young, OMG! Murray's pretty great in the role – and I'm not particularly in the "cult of Murray." It's a sweet, affecting story, and I found myself more swept up in it than I remember being the first time around. Maybe it helps that I'm older now (closer to his age than hers)? The movie is also impressively engrossing, considering how slight the narrative is – good filmmaking for sure.

Some of the plot elements seemed a little "forced" to lead the characters along their path – e.g., Giovanni Ribisi was a few degrees too slimy/inattentive, some of the pair's meetups seemed improbable, and more days/night seemed to pass than the story accounted for (although admittedly I wasn't counting). I was a little disappointed that Murray ended up sleeping with the lounge singer... besides making his character less sympathetic, it also undermined the idea that neither of these characters were willing to be unfaithful to their partners, but had this deep connection nonetheless. I guess it introduces the alternate idea that Murray was capable of infidelity, but chose not to "go there" with Johansson.

I've never seen any of Coppola's other films, but maybe I should. It was the trailer for her forthcoming Priscilla Presley project that inspired me to watch this (plus a big ol' click-to-watch banner on my TV).

She's only gotten better as a filmmaker.

the Japanese person I saw this movie was not pleased with comical depiction of Japanese hospitality

Btw – the "long night out" sequence at the heart of the film is pretty remarkable, and no doubt belongs in the annals of "movies w/party scenes." It really captures that vibe of a night hanging aimlessly, drifting from spot to spot with cool ppl, in a haze of tiredness and alcohol...

Great film. (Acknowledging the objection of Brimstead's friend--I get that, even if I think the intent was benign.) Don't think she's come even close to matching her first three, although I like The Bling Ring and am hopeful for Priscilla.

The trailer for her forthcoming film is the best trailer I’ve seen for anything in a good long while.

“Lost In Translation” is the only movie of hers I’ve seen! Should change that.

Yeah the teaser really intrigued me

I remember The Virgin Suicides coming out, but I read the book in h.s. and didn't like it much, so I avoided the movie. Lost track of her after that...

will always treasure the experience of seeing Lost in Translation on a sunday afternoon in a mall theater, otherwise empty but for two elderly ladies who were clearly just there to hang out. during the opening shot, after a period of silence one of them says, in the most perfectly sourpuss-schoolmarm tone: "SO. Here we are. Looking at her behind." i still hear it in my head and laugh sometimes.

havent seen it since then but morrisp's post makes me want to revisit

Haha that's awesome. Did they stay for the whole movie(?)

ha i dont remember, but i dearly hope they stayed, maybe took a stroll afterward down to the food court for a nice auntie anne's pretzel and didnt let that behind spoil a nice day at the mall

I can never decide if I like this film or not. Saw it the year it came out at some film festival showing in Dublin where people gave it a standing ovation at the end, which I’d never seen happen before, and I was like, huh. Think I maybe come down on the side of like because the soundtrack is one of the most perfect matchups of film and music out there. And the party scene is perfect. I really loved the enthusiasm of coming home from a great night out and rambling on about the music and the people and all that - felt extremely real. But the complaints of brimstead’s friend stand too and put me off from day one from being able to love it.

The Virgin Suicides remains my favourite of hers I’ve seen.

just rewatched this too (hadn't seen it since it came out); I did not realize Johannson was only 17 when she made this (though she was playing someone in her 20's). She def doesn't look like the age she's supposed to be playing, to me; though at the time I'm not sure I noticed this.

the movie seemed a lot more slight an unimportant to me on this viewing, not sure why. Looks great, has some good performances, doesn't amount to much though.

I think she was turning 19 when it filmed, though her (recent graduate) character seemed almost too young to have been married for two years, as is mentioned in the script(?) I know some ppl do get married in college...

I watched this with my parents back then, I think they were curious because my brother was living in Japan at the time. My mother called it a "guess-what-I'm-thinking" movie.

My mind just drifted back to the brief scene (stationary shot?) of Murray driving a golf ball into a pristine landscape, and I realized it’s a super-obvious homage to a movie I’ve seen a hundred times (yet I didn’t make the connection)…

What movie? Don't recognize the allusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCYs8v0Xji4

Being Sofia Coppola, I'm thinking "art film, art film"...

Finally got round to watching "On The Rocks". Not really sure what I made of it.