fshrgrl Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 The following is a TG hangover fueled film review of Lost in Translation...(courtesy of Buelahland, jesus, TG you've carpeted this town!!) Okay, so jokes about the Japanese being short and talking funny that are as old as the culture itself, deserve an academy award for best screenplay and a nomination for best picture?!!! Can someone say my daddy is a famous director?!! This movie was sophomoric (for all you sprayaholics, that means jejune ) at best, totally weak, "I could've have written better sh*t" at worst. Sorry, but rich hollywood types whose relationships suck don't get my sympathy, hey Sofia, guess what? there's a whole other world outside 90210, you should check it out sometime... The reliance on Bill Murray schticks that have already been done - Bill does karaoke a la his SNL lounge act and the not so subtle Caddyshack reference when he was playing golf was merely rehash! One bright spot is that golf shot with Fuji san looming in the backround. How high is that volcano anyhow? I don't like being so negative, no wait, yes I do, but this flick leaves me no option. Outside the Fuji san shot the only bright spot is that the viewing only cost me $2.50. As Chuck D said, 'Don't believe the hype.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 As someone who both lived in Tokyo and worked as an actor in the gaijin film sector in Japan I went to this film expecting a lot. I thought it was great! I loved how it captured the feeling of cultural purgatory of expats being trapped between not really being a part of the culture of the country your in (in this instance Japan) and being out of touch with the culture you're from (America). Japan has a way of incorporating other cultures while simultanously making those adaptations completely their own. I admire people who can form friendships and maintain them through time despite geographical and personal changes, but I for one can count the number of friends I have that I've known for over ten years on one or maybe two hands, no more. I had many more friends with whom I shared brief periods of intimacy through very significant parts of my development as a person and then never saw them again. Not to compare life to television but these episodic relationships have become part of the 21st century man by way of the new "global citizen" or "world traveler" who explores the earth with a backpack and a lonely planet guide and we constantly reinvent ourselves like we're changing the channel. We no longer live where we grew up, but feel free to transport ourselves to anywhere we fancy. How many people move to Seattle from Chicago or Tempe or Baltimore just because it was "where they wanted to go" and had no ties to the place (myself included). You say "there's a whole other world outside of the 90210 zip code," well I agree. I think Sophia captures it with the sophistication of someone with a fucundity of experience (can I say that?) only found in people who have ventured far and beyond their zip code. I know too many people who aren't even interested in getting a passport because "it isn't safe out there" and "why would I travel overseas when there's so much to see right here at home." She captures the Japanese experience and the expat experience--- have you heard the tapes of her as a kid living in asia while her dad was making Apocaplypse Now? But isn't this movie really about the isolation we all feel and the unusual places we find companionship and solace from the solitude we call reality? What do you do when you find that connnection--- that soul mate-- when it isn't sought after, when you are married or working towards a goal that does not allow room in your life for this person? The character Bill Murry played had the experience to know from the beginning that's what th realtionship was, but the girl, she was too young. She didn't understand the transience of the situation. In our lives we feel brief moments of bliss and clarity amid the entropic bussle of day to day blah-- It's been several months since I saw the movie, maybe I have it all wrong... Ah Japan, sometimes I miss it enough to forget how much I really hated it and how desparate I was to leave... yes the cherry blossoms are beautiful here too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-rock Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 The following is a TG hangover fueled film review of Lost in Translation...(courtesy of Buelahland, jesus, TG you've carpeted this town!!) Okay, so jokes about the Japanese being short and talking funny that are as old as the culture itself, deserve an academy award for best screenplay and a nomination for best picture?!!! Can someone say my daddy is a famous director?!! This movie was sophomoric (for all you sprayaholics, that means jejune ) at best, totally weak, "I could've have written better sh*t" at worst. Sorry, but rich hollywood types whose relationships suck don't get my sympathy, hey Sofia, guess what? there's a whole other world outside 90210, you should check it out sometime... The reliance on Bill Murray schticks that have already been done - Bill does karaoke a la his SNL lounge act and the not so subtle Caddyshack reference when he was playing golf was merely rehash! One bright spot is that golf shot with Fuji san looming in the backround. How high is that volcano anyhow? I don't like being so negative, no wait, yes I do, but this flick leaves me no option. Outside the Fuji san shot the only bright spot is that the viewing only cost me $2.50. As Chuck D said, 'Don't believe the hype.' Sophia Coppola is hardly riding on the coattails of her famous father. I would even argue that she's surpassed him as an artist (anybody see Dracula ?). She looked awkward, uncomfortable and out-of-place at the oscars, hardly the stature of an opportunistic glory-hound. She was the only person who spoke of "art" in all of the boring, self-congratulatory acceptance speeches of oscar night. Her screenplay was as brilliant, subtle, and realistic as anyone could ever come to expect from a film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badvoodoo Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 I have to go with Matt on this one. I thought there were plenty of aspects of this film that really played well. A lot of people actually went into see this movie expecting Bill Murray hamming it up, and some were even disappointed when it turned out so deadpan. I haven't travelled overseas much myself, but I've done plenty of business travelling in the US, and there's a certain surreal dissociation that this film captures so well of living out of your hotel room in a completely unfamiliar city. The cultural differences of Tokyo just compound on that. I also found it refreshing how subtley they approached the relationship between Murray and Johanson. There is no feeling of inevitablity here, rather an undercurrent of connection that everyone knows is fleeting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelawgoddess Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 wtf? i thought it was a great movie even if disturbing. i saw it mostly for the loneliness but also for the special rare connections that we make with people. that's as deep as i going to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badvoodoo Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Disturbing? How was it disturbing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 I thought the movie was an interesting reflection on short term relationships that can carry us threw a dificult periods in life. The reference to purgtory was right on. I think even the other relationships in the movie represent the purgetory we find in those suposed intamte relationships. This movie was very much about how often times we find the solice we need outside our primary relationships that sadly often leave us more lonely than fulfilled. this is not always the case, but as my friend E told me 10 years ago "marrige is the lonliest relationship I have ever been in". this was not an action filled move, it was thought pravoking and sweet. I found hope in it, and at times a refletion of myself and people I have known over the years. here I have to say that the thing that I found most sweet and most touching is that the relationship in the movie though had sexual undertones, was not sexual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arlen Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 I just liked how the movie looked. And how it had a more consistent and relaxed pace than anything else i saw last year. And how it really carried across the feeling of being in a city that seems totally familiar but totally incomprehensible. Hey, I guess I liked it too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fshrgrl Posted March 7, 2004 Author Share Posted March 7, 2004 Believe me, I went into this film wanting to believe what all of you are saying about it, but none of those things about relationships, feeling out of place in a strange culture, or finding solace in the company of a kind stranger successfully came off for me. I know that is what she was trying to do, she just never got there for me. I never for a minute was convinced of the relationship between Charlotte and Bob. But then again, The Secretary is one of my favorite films, so I'm just a full blown freak.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelawgoddess Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 i don't see how liking the secretary has anything to do with not liking lost in translation. if you didn't like it, you just didn't like it. imho, it's better to go into a film not expecting anything. unless you expect the worst, it seems like it's always worse than you expect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 I have to agree with TLG here, only I will push that out further even. LIFE is best lived when you can roll with what is in front of you, instead of having perconcieved notions of what it is 'SUPOSED' to be. sometimes the best part of the experience is the that you went threw it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.