What's your take on "Lost in Translation"?

[drumwolf]

I saw it recently and I liked it enough that I went out and spent the money to add it to my DVD collection afterwards. (Okay, I'm a Tower Records employee and got a nice discount, but still....)

However, as you'll see if you read the IMDB and Amazon reviews, a lot of people tend to think this film is (a) pointless and boring, and/or (b) racist and condescending towards the Japanese. And even though I personally don't consider this film to be either, I can totally understand why others would.

Is it boring? Well, this film totally suited my own personal temperament and preference for films to a T. But there really isn't much of a plot, story twists or a climax. It's mostly just Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson stumbling through Tokyo, not knowing the language and being bewildered by the cultural differences.

Is it racist? I'm Asian, and I think that Sofia Coppola certainly didn't intend for it to be racist and for the most part it isn't. I say "for the most part" because there are a couple of points where she does fall into the trap of exploiting the caricature of Asians for laughts -- in particular, the scene with the prostitute saying "lip my stockings" is quite cringe-inducing.

But for the most part, she merely shows the perspective of Americans who are suddenly plunged deep into a foreign culture that they've only had marginal exposure to. That's why she never includes subtitles for the Japanese dialogue (as well as the scene in which Bill Murray is in a sauna with two other guys who speak German to each other).

Your thoughts?

[Atman]

1. I wanted to like it

Really, I did. But, in the end, I must admit that I found it generally pointless, if not exactly "boring." A good rainy Sunday time waster, not much more.

[LudwigVan]

2. I thought it was okay, and don't remember any racism

but I didn't understand it. I should've seen it several times and I probably would've gotten it.

I still prefer BM in Caddyshack anyday.

[drumwolf]

9. Murray today seems to be different from Murray in the '70s/'80s

I grew up watching Bill Murray in Caddyshack, Meatballs and Ghostbusters, and I definitely remember him being much more of a goofball comic in the vein of his fellow SNL alumni like Aykroyd or, later on, Dana Carvey or Will Ferrell. BTW, Caddyshack was one of my most favorite movies ever as a kid, although I haven't seen it as an adult.

Now he seems to have evolved into playing cynical, cranky and melancholy characters. I've also seen The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and his performance in that movie is along the same lines as it was in LiT.

[Love Bug]

3. I think it depends on whether you saw the commercials first

The commercials that were out for this movie made it look like a rip-roaring comedy, which is it not. I can understand why people who expected that would be disappointed with what they saw.

I was lucky enough to see this at a prescreening so I knew nothing about it -- therefore I had no preconceived notions, no expectations, and I loved it.

[msgadget]

4. A lot of caricatures but that's not uncommon in a roaming around

movie of this sort. I'm just sorry I can't get those precious movie watching minutes of my life back.

[madaboutharry]

5. I own this movie too and

I would have to say what draws me in the most is the lighting and scenery. i think it does show a huge dichotomy in Japanese culture if you take the scenes with the Buddhist Monks and the wedding scene and compare it to the high tech environment in Tokyo. The scene with the prostitute annoys me, but she was send over to the hotel room by one of the hosts. I think this happens frequently among wealthy and powerful people. I take this movie as being about a man lost in middle age trying to make peace with where his career and life has taken him.

[mattclearing]

6. I wouldn't go so far as to say pointless and boring, but it was slow.

There was great cinematography, and I thought it was overall worth watching, but generally I'd be more interested in a movie with more plot points.

It took its time getting to where it wanted to go, and it seemed like there was a deliberate attempt to build that mood, so I can respect that.

I love foreign/arthouse cinema, so it's not that it wasn't mainstream enough for me.

I actually preferred Virgin Suicides, come to think of it.

So yeah...I respect the movie, but didn't really enjoy it, and have no desire to see it again.

:D

[AverageJoe]

7. I think it's great

My wife and I rented it first, then bought the DVD. I think it's a sweet love story, very touching. I'm not so much younger than the Bill Murray character, either, so I guess I identified with some of his issues.

Yep, I like it.

[SmokingJacket]

8. It was about two characters who think they're superior to

everyone around them -- there wasn't much of a story at all, aside from that. Bill Murray was fun, because he's Bill Murray, but Scarlet Johansen was just dull, and the portrayal of her marriage (?) was really not interesting.

I don't know if it was racist, but the Japanese characters weren't very well-developed. Of course... neither was anyone else.

The only think I liked about it was that it gave a good sense of being a tourist in Japan, something I've never been. I liked the visuals. Though it might have been more interesting to learn what it's like to be a real Japanese person living in Japan.

[Zorro]

10. I thought it was delightful

Having spent weeks at a time in Tokyo hotels, I guess I could relate.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. I thought that it was a lovely small film, and I never looked at it as

being racist. In fact I found it enlightening as to what Japan is like. We don't see that often enough in film.

I think the reason I liked it so much was because I identified with it. Several times when I was out of my familiar environment, feeling isolated, someone would come into my life for a brief period, and the swiftness of the bond formed was astonishing. Yet, in a blink of an eye, they would leave, but their imprint remained, changing my life.

I also thought that the acting was fabulous. Bill Murray was perfect, and Scarlett Johannsen is an amazing talent. I just saw her in A Love Song For Bobby Long and she was Wonderful!

[Feathered Fish]

12. That film is like the air

It's just there. I didn't feel anything after seeing it, it didn't move me or affect me in any way. Way overrated.

[NVMojo]

13. I thought it was great! Of course, if someone hasn't really been in a

position to surf across the top of another foreign culture temporarily, they won't get it.

The key for me is how deep some people can get in such an isolated and brief moment with someone totally unconnected to them except for a nationality in another country. Loneliness has its guard down in this movie.

[Wickerman]

14. I like it quite a lot

It was a story of several days in the lives of 2 people, told from those two's eyes. We saw basically only what they saw, with their limited lens. Cool concept, well done. Beautiful to look at. Some scenes were hilarious. Not for everyone, it seems.

[ThorsHammer]

15. IMO, pointless and boring, but not racist/condescending (nt)

[Orangepeel]

16. not being Japanese, I don't know if I'm qualified to say if it was racist

but I didn't think so. The out-of-placeness of the Americans came across to me as their problem, not Japan's. It didn't seem disrepectful of the culture to me (I can imagine an alternate movie with clueless Japanese tourists lost in New York that came across as racist toward the Japanese).

[Ivan Sputnik]

17. I just happened to see this last night on DVD

I liked it, didn't love it. It's a mood piece and a character study, which is fine if that's what you're up for. The cinematography is beautiful and it gives you a real feel for Tokyo, or certain aspects of it anyway. And it says something about relationships that is different from the usual cliched Hollywood perspective.

It's an interesting question, whether it's racist or not. We're only seeing things from the two main characters' points of view, and since they can't communicate with the Japanese, they see them as two-dimensional -- as stereotypes. But that's a failing of the characters, I think, not the writer/director.

This film got Academy Award nominations for best picture, best director and best actor. It won the Oscar for best original screenplay.

But it seems to me that, in the current Hollywood environment, it would never have been made if the writer/director's name wasn't Sophia COPPOLA.

[cestpaspossible]

19. Ever since Godfather III

I've had a crush on Sofia Coppola...

[JanMichael]

18. It managed to make Tokyo dull, bravo. I also thought the flirting with...

...the pre-teen (Ok, she's 20-something but SHEESH!) was a tad ugly, and believe it or not, dull too.

We're supposed to relate to, and sympathize with, some guy that get's paid 2 million dollars to hold a whiskey glass up and smirk? Whatever.

Boring and pretentious, that about sums up my take on LIT.

[moggie]

27. It's a midlife thing

Here's a guy who has a career in which he's done things he's proud of, but that's all some distance in the past, and now he's reduced to taking lucrative but meaningless gigs he despises. He has a marriage which used to fill him with joy, but now it's settled down into mere comfort and discussing carpet samples. He wonders where his youth has gone, and whether all he has to look forward to is a slow, numbing decline (can you say "midlife crisis"?). This is something a lot of middle aged people can relate to. The Scarlett Johansson character also feels that she has lost her way: they're both thinking "is this all there is?", fairly convincingly (IMO). Their brief encounter allows them to reassess what they've got: and it's all achieved without any sex, or even kissing, just two people empathising and talking.

This was grown-up cinema which, for me, stood out from the juvenile pap Hollywood usually brings us. I enjoyed it a lot.

Anyway, Bill Murray can do no wrong, so you're wrong, neener neener!

[Bluebear]

20. Lip my stockings!!! Mr. Kazo sent premium fantasy! n/t

[DrWeird]

21. Not racist. I can't remember the word.

When you're totally submerged in a foreign country and everything is, well, foreign.

[Taxloss]

24. Culture shock. n/t

[GCP]

22. One of the most godawful movies I've ever had the misfortune to see

I was stupid enough to buy the DVD after my friend went into raptures over this POS.
I can't imagine why anybody likes it. ((Ducks))

[moggie]

23. Stereotypes

I was a little bothered by the Japanese stereotypes, but my Japanese teacher loved it (she's Japanese, of course). I'd have preferred it if the Japanese had been treated with more depth and subtlety, but after all they were just background: the focus was on two lonely, bored westerners.

[UdoKier]

25. It wasn't racist at all.

Having lived in Japan for many years, I found it to be pretty realistic, although Fukuoka, where I lived, isn't as overwhelming as Tokyo.

"Lip my stocking" type moments happen ALL THE TIME. There is no distinction between L and R in the Japanese language, so it's very difficult to pronounce for tongues that weren't trained to do so before age 3 or so. (the woman's silly writhing bothered me more than her accent)

I thought the film captured the disorientation of being a newcomer to Japan perfectly.

That being said, I love Japan and intend to move back there in about 5 or 6 years.

[El Fuego]

26. To me, the real star was the city of Tokyo

It was just amazing, like they had fallen down the rabbit hole.

[jonnyblitz]

28. I watched it on a plane enroute to Amsterdam so I was liking

whatever I was watching. I didn't mind it at all. :)

[FrankBooth]

29. First time I saw it I thought it was boring

but late one night I was home flipping through the movie channels and I re-watched it, and loved it the second time. I've now watched it about 4 times and I think it was one of the best movies of 2004 - it is very beautiful and funny.

[Dangerous Felon]

30. Scarlet Johansen's butt as a backdrop for the opening credits

Had my wife thinking it was a different sort of movie when I rented it.

[moggie]

31. Gratuitous butt

It was a nice butt, but totally out of keeping with the rest of the film, so I found it a little annoying. The film didn't need it.

[wheresthemind]

32. loved it

Also see Garden State if you have not!

[RebelOne]

33. It didn't turn me on at all.

In fact, I fell asleep in the middle of it.