Job Discussion Forums

[once again]

I saw the movie and was amazed just how many stereotypes it pandered to, bordering on racist. Anybody else have any oppinions, particularly those that have lived/are living in Japan?

[khmerhit]

I know what you mean. I think it would have been more interesting if she had fallen in love with a Japanese guy and entered the culture, instead of hanging out in a hotel. Who knows, they might have even drawn a fully-rounded Japanese character! But Hollywood investors would not have accepted that idea, and for a good reason. It wouldn't sell.

Stereotypes? Ennnhh. I guess so, but there are also some documentary- like scenes of Japanese at work and at play. Very naturalistic, and not unsympathetic. But not fully formed as characters, either, you're right.

Coppola also makes fun of a lot of the American characters, too, dont forget. But they are just boring and dreadful, whereas the Japanese ones have the advantage of appearing exotic and amusing. Is it so unusual that she would pander to that kind of ignorance? Most Americans dont travel, havent travelled, dont own passports, so the stereotypes as you call them will be authentic and--dare i say it--entertaining to them. They were to me, anyway, and ive met a few Japanese, though I admit I havent been to Japan.

I cant really identify with a poor little rich girl from Manhattan, but I know what it's like to be in one's early twenties, and that's what the film is about isn't it? Not Japan, really.

just my tuppenceworth--all grooviest. Anime lives.

khmer

[YakTamer]

A hugely overrated film. Cardboard-cutout characterisations. Some scenes were like extended MTV samples. I kept thinking to myself for the first hour or so: "What the f*** is she doing just staring out of that hotel window when there's a city/country to explore?". It's as if she was under house arrest. Bill Murray did a good enough stint as Bill Murray but can't believe he won a BAFTA - I'm sure he could have done that performance in his sleep. Johannsen was ok but nothing stellar and she got a BAFTA too.
Very lightweight and forgettable, IMNSHO.

[khmerhit]

He did do some of it in his sleep.

Yeah, it was lightweight. Whaddya want, Kurosawa?

I kinda liked it for it what it was.

khmer

[YakTamer]

Well I'd read rave reviews of it so went to see it and witnessed a fairly pedestrian film with a few potshots at soft targets so I was disappointed.
But still, I'd also heard rave reviews of Cypher and that was execrable horses*** - a screenplay that must have been written by a 12 year old boy.

Guess I must be one of those fussy film snob types...I'm off now to see the epic 5 hour masterpiece by acclaimed Uzbeki director Mohammed Makmalshyghki: "A Man and His Turnips".

[khmerhit]

You want to see an amazing movie with acting--- I mean real acting?
Try "In America" by Jim Sheridan. Just thinking of it gives me goosepimples.

Compared to the hyped tripe of Lost In Translation (even the title is banal and pretentious, isnt it?), "In America" is remarkable. You know, American movies are so commercial that when someone like Sophie Coppola makes a pedestrian and average film, she gets lauded for bein an artiste. You're quite right, it's overrated garbage, if amusing and somewhat moving in places. (I suspect it's the soundtrack that does most of the work.)

Thanks for the perspective, Yak.

khmer

[Ailian]

[khmerhit]

rubbish----you can't have seen it. I dont recall the writing, only the excellent performances. The plot twist, where the crux of the drama is revealed, is very powerful. The subplot not as great. The acting blew me away. But then Ive got a thing for Sam Morton.

Anyway, how many American movies do you see that are set among heroin addicts in Manhattan, with an HIV-positive character and which arent meretricious tripe (Spike Lee) or "gritty" documentary? Mainstream hollywood would never touch it, its got too much heart, its not sufficiently "cool".

Triplets of Belleville--yes i want to see that.

all best

kh

PS--That's quite a sweet avatar , Ailian.

[YakTamer]

My favourite film of last year's season was Etre et Avoir - that was inspirational.

[Wolf]

Lost in Translation. Wonderful cinema? Maybe not. Utterly unrealistic? Sorry but it isn't.

Warning, the below review has a few spoilers.

The mega-inane comments the action heroine type charcter makes at her press conference I have heard almost verbatim - more than once - during my first year at NOVA. Also the need of some Japanese people to ask such questions does exist.

Japanese TV is really as wierd as what Bill Murray saw. And his priceless reaction to the miniskirt workout show was priceless. And believable. And identical to mine.

The bit where the photographer mispronounces a Japanese name is believable. I've met many foreigners new to Japan who made similar pronunciation errors (and have done so myself.)

There's a widely held stereotype that Japanese commercial directors are beatnik types? He's characterized pretty thinly, but I found him believable. His nebulous instructions to "be more intense" and the long diatrabe over wether to look left-to-right or right-to-left were very reminicient of the useless, nebulous instructions I have on occasion recieved from Japanese companies, so I found that scene to be rather believable.

The chase through the streets of Tokyo with that tazer/pulse cannon was wierd. Armed conflict during a night of drinking is something that I don't think is common in Japan. The karaoke scene afterwards, though, is a slight variation on several experiences I've had.

The scene in the hospital where the older person is asking Bill Murray how long he's been in Japan is also straight out of my life. I'm suing.

I'm not exactly 5-star hotel material myself, so I don't know how accurate the depiction of Japan's top stratum of gaijin was.

We never see any of the Japanese characters long enough for them to be properly characterized, so it's no wonder they have a cardboard feel to them. But I'd say the worst "stereotype" would have been the photographer with his out of date/incomplete info on US pop culture. I've met Japanese people who have a similarly incomplete knowledge, but it's probably the most "stereotypical" character trait in the film.

All in all I found it a fun - if light - movie.

[shmooj]

I saw this in Korea and, being able to speak Japanese, didn't miss having no subtitles for what the Japanese say.

Do you get subtitles when you watch this in English speaking countries? Just wondered.

The scene where he has to do the whisky commercial shoot and when the guy and the woman and the doctor talk to them in the hospital are absolutely brilliant if you can speak Japanese.

The huge difference between what the young producer of the commercial says and what the translator tells Murray is hilarious. After the scene with the old woman in the hospital, ushers in the cinema had to pick my wife and I off the floor from dying with laughter.

But it has no plot... but then again... when you've been in Japan a few years you realise that you are still waiting for the plot too... very deep movie I think and I am AMAZED how accurate it is in places.

There are things in it you would never know about unless you had lived there for ages. For example - the crows! Every now and then, there's a scene where you can hear crows in the background... this sound is so typical of Japan for me I noticed it straightaway.

No, it isn't an all time great but if you have lived in Japan, as Wolf has, it is worth seeing.

[Lynn]

[James_T_Kirk]

I was rather disappointed when I initially saw this movie. For me, it didn't live up to the hype. That being said, at least it was different. It explored a rarely talked about kind of relationship - both platonic and between an older man and a younger woman. For individuals that have been involved in this type of relationship, I'm sure this was a fantastic movie. For everyone else, it was just okay.

[once again]

Thanks for the responses..I cant quite make my mind up about it..in particular..would the prostitute scene ever happen and when the girl is in hospital would the doctor continue to speak at great length to her in Japanese? Also I fear I may be missing something because any subtitles that there are, are all in Chinese, which I cannot read anyway.

[Joachim]

I think the main point of this film is that the two lead characters are "lost". She is feeling like she no longer knows the man she married, he is feeling distanced from his wife, the fact that they are in Japan is incidental.

The large segments of Japanese aren't subtitled, and this is for a reason - while the film is funny, it's not really a comedy, the audience is supposed to empathise with the characters' isolation and frustration, not be laughing and the many cultural faux-pas.

I have not spent much time in Japan, and therefore can't claim to understand the culture, but I can imagine that Tokyo is a daunting city when you first arrive (HK is bad enough, and Tokyo is much bigger, and fewer people speak English there!), but I think Scarlett Johannson's character has tagged along to Tokyo, she's not there because she particularly wants to be - which is why she isn't really exploring and instead begins to feel more and more isolated.

I agree, her BAFTA was totally undeserved, but Bill Murray was excellent, he should have gotten the Oscar...