Probably because I could relate to ever aspect in the movie:
-sitting on the windowsill in the hotel in the middle of the night, staring down on the life below, surrounded by millions of people, but feeling the most alone
-smelling the laquered bar, with the too-loud jazz singer, bored and trying hard to entertain myself
-finding an affinity with a person, whom I would never be friends with normally, because I’m in such a foreign place
-surprising myself by having an incredibly wonderful time in a karaoke booth
I could go on and on.
But I can see if a person doesn’t get it, then the person won’t like it.
Saw it at the weekend and I thought it was a wonderful film. We reluctantly left Tokyo about a year ago and it made us so homesick! Ms Somnambulist had a lot of time on her hands while we were in Japan and she related intimately with Johanssen’s character.
We have a lot of cherished memories of Tokyo and Japan ranging from those as bemused outsiders to proud residents. The one thing that sticks more than anything else is the fact that we met and befriended the most unlikely of people. Folk that for whatever reason (mostly trivial) we would probably not have socialised with back home have become the dearest of friends. There is something curious about being strangers in a strange land that forges bonds quickly and often deeply. On that level I think the movie struck a resonant chord.
Assuming you mean the scenes where Murray is shooting the commercial and is being directed via translator, you’re incorrect. I don’t speak a word of Japanese, and I thought the scene was hilarious.
The movie isn’t trying to tell you what the characters are feeling, it’s trying to make you feel what the characters are feeling. The movie isn’t about telling a story, it’s about creating a mood. So, if the scenes were less boring, they wouldn’t be conveying the proper mood. Doesn’t help much if you don’t like it, but it was necessary to what the movie was trying to accomplish.
I think a night on the town drinking ought to be filmed in at least a slightly incoherent manner. I didn’t find it poorly edited, but that’s purely subjective. I can tell you two things: First, the fake machingun is an AirSoft gun: a hyper-realistic, gas-powered toy gun that fires plastic pellets. They’re enourmously popular in Japan, and it’s not uncommon to see people (often adults) firing them at each other in public. It’s just another part of Japanese culture, same as the Buddhist temples or the shabu shabu. Second, great cinema is not defined by its subject matter, but by how it approaches its subject matter. Besides, Bill Murray’s song, in addition to being a clever reference to his SNL lounge singer character, was also fucking heartbreaking.
It was necessary to create the crisis which precedes the climax of the film. Johansson had been close to Murray because he was safe. He seemingly had a good marriage, and had been offering her tips on how to make sure her marriage lasted just as long. All of a sudden, she’s confronted by the fact that he’s clearly not happy in his marriage. Further, she becomes jealous, because he decided to cheat on his wife, and he didn’t do it with her. This throws their entire relationship into relief: that there’s something more going on between the two of them than simple friendship, but also forces the realization that they can’t act on it.
I had shabu-shabu once, albiet in L.A. and not Japan. My reaction: I just paid restaurant prices to cook my own food? Being open-minded means trying new things. It doesn’t mean you have to like them.
You could cut almost any scene from the picture and it would still be the same story, but it would not be the same picture. Every scene has a point, every scene shows us something different about the characters, even if what it tells us is very subtle. Every scene influences every other scene, even if there’s no narrative connection between them. I can’t think of a single scene whose removal would have made the movie better.
Just saw this last night. I’m not going to run around shouting from the rooftops about how fantastic it was, but it was very sweet, very funny, and very thoughtful. And as long as Rashak Mani is going to crush on Scarlett Johansson (sp?), I’ll come forward and say that I find Bill Murray to be extremely sexy. I don’t know why, but he’s sexy anyway.
We now interrupt your regularly scheduled moderate opinions.
This was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Top ten, maybe five. I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago, went back the next night. I loved the LOTR movies (though I think Return of the King was the weakest of the three), but I’m hoping Lost in Translation wins Best Picture- I think it deserves the awards it was nominated for and more. [Scarlett was robbed.]
Rashak is right on - the fact that this was an indie picture let them make brave choices like avoiding cliched dialogue and an unnecessary sex scene. I think the point about travel is well-taken… I’ve never been to Japan, but if you understand culture shock, this movie captures it. Likewise, I think it depicts loneliness and those unusual moments people share with a nuance you don’t very often see.
Somebody said the night out was like being sober when everyone else is drunk… I think that’s exactly what it was supposed to feel like. Bob and Charlotte just couldn’t relate to the people around them, they were fundamentally aliens and they only connection they could make was to each other. I’m not sure there’s any film I’d compare it to… The Graduate is about one guy who’s lost and alone, but two people is rather different. I’ve never seen another movie say so much with so little, and in such unusual ways. Beautiful looking, too.
I said a lot in the other thread, so hopefully I didn’t repeat myself. I’m not a fan of watching movies repeatedly, but this is one I can see myself watching many times over the years.
I saw it last night and it was nicely done, but it personally didn’t do anything for me. I got what it was about, but for some reason, I couldn’t really get into it. Maybe if it see it again, I’ll enjoy it more, but from the one time I saw it, I don’t think I’d give it a best picture.
I felt the same way about The Hours when I saw it. Nice movie, but not really something I’d give best picture to. I give it kudos for trying to be different, and for trying to be real, but It just didn’t do much for me. YMMV.
Meh. This movie didn’t do anything for me either. I was expecting something different. I was NOT expecting Bill Murray slapstick or anything, just something different than what i saw. Kinda boring. I, too, did not understand all the hype.
My boyfriend called it “a shitloaded crapfest”, but I wouldn’t go that far.
It was sweet. And I laughed at some of it. But I dunno… it’s not that good.
It unfortunately had way too many shakey-cam shots that distracted me a lot, and at one point made me woozy for a second or two. A couple of the characters I found to be a bit too cliche. And it sure wasn’t much of a good advertisement for visiting Japan.
It seemed like an amateurish low budget film, which I suppose it was really, through no fault of its own, but if it just was a little more professionally edited, filmed, and post-produced, I may have liked it more.
I interpreted this a little differently – I thought she was disappointed with him for cheating on his wife, but not jealous. I don’t think she (at least, consciously) wanted to sleep with him herself, but I think she was hurt that he was disloyal to the bond developing between them. The two of them were in this confusing place together – “we’re all each other has, right?” – and then he turns to someone else. I would have felt the same way. She brings up his age – something like “the two of you must have a lot in common, like growing up in the '50s” – because she’s conscious of how much like a little kid she must look to him, and it embarrasses her. She scowls when he says something like, “Don’t you have anyone else to shower you with attention?” because that’s not what it’s about at all – she doesn’t want attention, she just wants to be the person he turns to, just as he’s that person for her.
He did right when, at the end, he ignored the blonde babe to say goodbye to her.
I loved this movie, probably because I very strongly identify with Charlotte. I don’t know what to do with my life, either, and I often feel lost, and I haven’t seen any other films that captured this feeling so well as Lost in Translation.
It conveys the extreme ‘otherness’ of Japanese culture without being patronising or insulting. (Well, I thought so. I suppose the Japanese are the best to judge that.) Just don’t watch it for plot, it’s more like sharing an experience.
And Johanson is extremely easy on the eyes. But what exactly she’s supposed to see in Murray is another question.
Believe me, I wish I could! Because I live in a fairly rural area, they don’t come anywhere near me, and I can’t make a four-hour drive every time I want to see an independent film, so I have to wait for the DVD to come out. It sucks.
At least Lost in Translation came out pretty quickly. The wait for The Station Agent is killing me.
Sorry to disagree, but I don’t have experience in jet lag and cultural shock (long travels, as well), but I appreciatted this film very much, in fact, it is one of my favorites now.
I was about to start an opinion of this matter, but this is about the movie, so I’ll do it in IMHO, I think.
I completely agree. That’s more or less what I meant when I said she was jealous. I do think there was a sexual component to her jealousy, although I think it came as a surprise to her. She didn’t consciously want to sleep with him, and part of her anger with him stemmed from anger at herself for being jealous of him in that way.
Beautiful movie, though not for everyone. The only thing I would have done differently is, in the end, I would have had Bill Harris just hug (rather than kiss) Charlotte.
Most of us thought that bits could be construed as vaguely racist…and those were supposed to be the “funny” parts.
But as someone who is still feeling the effects of culture shock and not bonding well with the people I’m supposed to be friends with, I found it ringing much too true. I’ve found the other lonely person and gone on some mad adventures. I’ve spent nights drinking too much and singing.
I’ve gotten jealous in spite of myself.
There are things about LIT I don’t want to like, but have to- because I’m living them. I was the only one out of five of us who enjoyed it. I didn’t care that much for “Girl with a Pearl Earring” because it was too much like trying to inhabit a picture- the opposite situation.
