Lost in Translation¶
849 words on Films
I finally saw Lost in Translation today [official, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB]. It's only been in German cinemas for a few days so the use of 'finally' isn't really warranted. However, I saw the film's soundtrack at the record store several months ago – without buying it because I only liked a few songs, not the record as a whole – and had been looking forward to seeing the film since. Why? Well, not necessarily but probably in that order:
I think Sofia Coppola is doing her job as a director well and really enjoyed The Virgin Suicides a few years ago. Back then she had the book by Jeffrey Eugenides to go by and a soundtrack by Air to make things flow, which worked very well. This time Air also appear in the soundtrack but it is more diverse. (The bits I heard of their new Talkie Walkie album seemed disappointing to me – any opinions?)
And then there is Japan. You may have guessed that – despite never having been there – I am quite fond of Japanese things, just by the little exposure I got so far. And that's definitely not for the 'spiritual' things but rather for the amazing mix of reduced and outrageous styles as well as tradition and extremely modern life. I also admire the alphabet and enjoyed whatever I could sample of Japanese food so far. (Well, make that whatever minus that potato dish Chiho made for us. Not that it was bad – but it clashed with my dislike of potatoes. Heck, I didn't even know they do potatoes in Japan.)
So, yes, I'd really like to go. And I will when the occasion, time and money for it is there. I actually already have an invitation ever since I told Chiho's mum the (true) sentence we practiced beforehand: 知帆のお姉さんのじょうです。
. And when I'm there I'll probably be a bit overwhelmed because suddenly I'll not only be a foreigner but also an analphabet. The kana-letters and the very few Kanji I have learned along with my sloooow reading speed won't be much help here. And that's not talking about my complete lack of vocabulary and grammar. Sadly, it seems to be hard to take classes in Japanese here that are less time-consuming than those for people studying the language at university.
And this being lost brings us straight into the film. Two strangers, Bob (Bill Murray, from Ghostbusters Groundhog Day fame and Charlies Angels 'fame' – sometimes reminding me of Jack Nicholson in As good as it gets.), an old actor shooting a whiskey Japanese commercial, and Charlotte (Scarlett Johannson, who's only 20), the young wife of a band photographer, meet in their hotel's bar in Tokyo suffering from jet lag and disorientation. They're not too happy, both with their respective marriages and their current situation in Tokyo. And while the next step seems obvious – it is, refreshingly, not taken in the film.
Instead, the two just get closer and try to be less miserable in Tokyo. This involves going out with some freakish Japanese people, cool clubs, a booth in a karaoke bar which despite the quality of the singing did look quite cool thanks to the good filming, amazing Japanese game parlours (I mean really amazing; I'm not a game player but those looked so varied: with drums or with a guitar to play along with a song – and your girlfriend admiring you doing so –, rythmical stuff) and zillions of neon-lights all over the town.
While these things looked cool (those video games…), I did wonder whether this isn't a bit too close to your average stereotype. Thankfully there was no opportunity to draw on the good old 'used knickers from vending machines' story. Add to that the constant bowing of the Japanese hosts and business partners and the ridiculing thereof by the strangers as well as the language problems – and again the ridiculing of those – and I wonder whether the film can seem a bit insulting towards Japanese people.
While I know from both my own experience and what Chiho told me of her former job as an English teacher in Japan that many Japanese people find it very hard to speak English, even with a lot of effort going into it (theories being that if you don't hear sounds in your childhood, you won't be able to learn distinguishing, let alone using, them properly when you're grown up; and Japanese having fewer sounds than other languages – no 'r', say, to pick a famous example). So without wanting to be politically correct, I believe it's rather rude to go to another country whose language you don't speak but whose people try to speak yours and then not make an effort to understand what they're saying but rather sneer at them.
I guess, that's the aspect of the film I didn't like. I'll try to hear some Japanese opinions on that. And perhaps I'll learn that way everything the director says during the shoot at the beginning of the film.
