Bill Murray. What a freakin' dude. Knows how to bring just the right level of worldly worn irony to every petty crisis he finds himself faced with in each clever screen universe - Groundhog Day was perhaps the apex, but let's raise a glass to Rushmore, too. Here the same delicious raised eyebrows, last-minute doubletakes, scrunched-up faces, glorious, glorious shabby humanity invites us to step into his skin and share the delights of cruising through Tokyo, a city as rich, clean and civilized as any in Europe, and to an American as exotic when you get down to it as any anywhere.
Sofia Coppolla threatens to break out as a comic-timing genius, in the skein of Charlie Chaplin and Jacques Tati - finding subtle pratfalls in the most mundane places. When Scarlett/Charlotte bumps her toe on the mahogany desk in her cramped ultraluxe hotel room, we know the feeling - maybe not the ultraluxe part, but the toe-bumping part. That's the kind of movie it is, that recognitions of that small scale are cause for joyful laughter. There are so many, almost all either self-deprecating jokes about loneliness or affectionate digs at tokyo - at the fastidiousness of japanese manners and hospitality or the wild diversity of japanese pop culture.
I spent the same kind of week in Tokyo Bill Murray did a few years ago - totally by myself and very lonely. I saw all the things he saw, but didn't have an angel on my shoulder (or in my hotel) to make all the amazing things I saw, well, sink in in any kind of satisfying way the way the do in Lost In Translation. So a lot of the kind of the long, wondering, admiring takes of Tokyo street life just felt like a really high-post travel video, and if you've seen the stuff before - the supertrains, the video games where you're playing an instrument, the weird PA ladies with red suitcoats, white bowlers and microphones with surgical masks over them, etc., it just seems like, I don't know, cheating. Too easy.
And that's what one of the most disappointing things was about it. It promised at first to be movie about some of the finer existential issues that go along with the emotional disassociation and anomie of jet lag, business travel, and big hotels. I SO wanted to see a movie like that, to ride through that space with big juicy movie starts like Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanssen to lead the way and hold my hand during the scary parts. Instead Sofia got scared herself and took refuge over and over in these little sight gags and moments of abstruse physical comedy, which she just plain ran out of around midway through, leaving us with little more than a shallow love story between two characters we know very little of, and a lot of pretty scenery.
I kept thinking of it in the hands of someone like George Cukor or Billy Wilder, with Cary Grant in the lead and Audrey Hepburn or Judy Garland as the unhappy newlywed looking for a father figure. A much faster-paced trip through all the comedy, a bit more scandal to go along with the glamor, and a quick ending before we get tired of staring at the lovely faces of our stars.
There were probably many ways Sofia C. could have livened up the second half. None of them would have made the film more existential like I wanted it to be, but they would have made it at least worth sticking around for. Giovanni Ribisi is one of several supporting or cameo players who add spice to the first half who just kind of disappear later on. He was great! Why did you give up on him, Sofia? He could have come back and gotten jealous or something. You KNOW you were gearing up for something to happen between him and that ditzy blond actress, then just cut it out. You gave us the set up for a couple juicy triangles but not the payoff. Instead, you chose to float up into the stratosphere, but the ideas in the script weren't really bouyant enough.
A lot could simply have been solved by letting Charlotte and Bob tell us a bit more about themselves, their traumas, etc. As Justine said after the movie, "She's like, 'I think I'm mean' and was I like, 'You haven't been mean once in the entire movie!'"
The snippets where we hear Bob dutifully talking on the phone to his impossibly boring wife are really engaging. The best is when he phones are after a night of youthfulness and innocent carnality, wanting to share some of the fun with her, maybe like old times, and she's just not able to tune in. But we never get anything similar from Scarlett at ALL. The deepest speeches she makes sound like notes passed in 5th grade ("People say I'm snobby.")
Posted by marstall at September 16, 2003 01:32 AMI am prepared to duel you for the leadership of the school of inexplicable love for Bill Murray. Groundhog Day, indeed. Wow. Saw it on a plane again recently. If only I was North Korean dictator. I would make it required viewing every day on the single TV channel for all eternity.
Too bad about Lost in Translation. Loved the title. Loved the picture of Bill Murray alone in his hotel room. Didn't see the movie because I was myself Lost in Translation between Paris and the Research Triangle Park.
Manabu, the Japanese tester, didn't much care for the movie. If Japanese people shrugged he would have shrugged. That kind of deflated my enthusiasm for the whole thing.
Kinda had a sinking bad feeling about Sofia Coppola anyway. Virgin Suicides was nice, but slight. The best thing was the soundtrack. I'm not sure she has a whole lot to say.
(Starts questioning everything) Did her Dad make any good movies? I mean, the Godfather, jeez. Another overrated thing. And Apocalypse Now...
Jeez, must be a bad cup of coffee this morning. Sorry, I'll stop.
Posted by: Kai Carver at October 26, 2003 06:54 AMOh. Well I finally saw the movie. And liked it. Partly because I expected not to. Would have to see it again to be sure, but I think it was quite good.
I didn't think the second half was bad. I didn't care to know more about the characters. The subject was that empty space we all know so well. The actors were just funny/talented/cute/whatever stand-ins. The love story was corny, but just the thing to blossom in such a void. The clichés *had* to be clichés. Who cares what Japan is really like? Yeah you can tell the girl's probably a bit mean. Do I want to know why, or see just how mean she can be? No thanks. Or maybe if they make it a real-cool TV series where nothing much ever happens.
Hey, Sofia Coppola won the Oscar for best screenplay. Good for her.
Posted by: Kai Carver at March 1, 2004 09:26 AMAh. This is a bad week for me. First I learn Jesus Christ Superstar is anti-semitic. Now this:
The film has no meaningful Japanese roles, nor is there any significant dialogue between the main characters and the Japanese
The audience laughs AT the Japanese people and not with them
The main characters are portrayed as normal people while the Japanese are bizarre
This seems very silly to me. But it also makes me understand how, in this big world community of ours, people will go a very long way from touching anything that might be the slightest bit offensive to anyone.
There was too much affection for Japan, too much of good-natured ribbing, and too much wonder of Tokyo in it to think of it as racist, IMHO. Exhibit A: Karaoke night, in which Charlotte's Japanese friends were portrayed as just the coolest cats since meow - not to mention worldly, able to laugh at themselves, creative, inventive, educated, etc. We laughed at Japanese manners, but were pretty darn impressed by them too. Laughing moreso at how odd an advanced mass-media culture can get. Almost, dare I say, wishing ours was as odd?
Posted by: marstall at March 1, 2004 09:58 PMAt last, I watched this film on the plane when flying back to Taipei from a recent business trip to Raleigh.
Huh...I feel a bit lost after seeing it, maybe I had too much expection on this film or maybe I was a bit dizzy due to my cold...
Yes, I like all scenes Bill Murry's being alone in his hotel room, feeling uneasied in the bar when first arriving, answering Charlotte on the door after the one night stand, discussing the color of carpets with his wife on the phone, and his mysterious whispering to Charlotte.
However, I feel the shooting of Japanese people, culture, and their lives is a bit shallow and on surface for me...agreed with some comments, maybe "Japanese" can be replaced by "Asian" or whatever places in the world... maybe find time to watch this film again though...
For a similar theme, I would recommend this Hong Kong film, Tian Mi Mi.
Jun arrives in Hong Kong from mainland China, hoping to be able to earn enough money to marry his girlfriend back home. He meets the streetwise Qiao and they become friends. As friendship turns into love, problems develop, and although they seem meant for each other they somehow keep missing out.
Posted by: Yuwen Yang at March 3, 2004 01:32 PMContinuing (what I would argue is) both on- and off-topic:
"It's a sad fact to be unable to become friends with the people here," [Su Dake, a 26-year-old Chinese student] said after delivering newspapers on a recent morning. "Living in Japan is like staying in a hotel forever, never in a home. I'm always waiting to go home."
...
"The Japanese envy Western developed nations and the United States because they view them as superior and therefore respect them," [He Zhi, a 26-year-old Chinese student] said, speaking fluent Japanese. "But the Japanese share an attitude that it is not necessary to respect Asians."
...
Japan's rental system — requiring a guarantor, among other assurances — made it onerous for foreign students to find apartments. [Same in Paris!]
From Mood Sours for Japan's Other Asian Students.
I suspect Japan is just like any other place, only more so.
Posted by: Kai Carver at March 28, 2004 09:31 AM