Review of Lost in Translation (2003) by David L — 25 May 2014

I dont know if I love this movie or hate it. Maybe the ambivalance comes from the fact taht I do empathize with the two main characters --discovering something about one's self while we are abroad, despising the vacuous things that we do (picking out carpet samples !!) and those moments of introspection do happen when we are traveling in a foreign land (how many times have you done things you'd have never done when you travel?) At the same time, I hate it because it was such a facile representation of Japan basing it all on the two extremes -- the straight-laced, square-ish cutlure, highly structured & dictated by rules & regulations and outlandish (the outrageous variety show host; the bad boys in the arcade with bleached-blond hair with cigs dangling from their mouth and the uber-stylish strip club).

At the end of the day, you can find those extremes EVERYWHERE, not just Japan. (Borat went to the same two extremes in America when he visited the Christian South and gay Miami). But ok, we pardon her for the use of poetic/artistic license because we've come to attach so much mystique withJapan (and perhaps the same could be said for rest of Asia and its people).

I watched this movie because of my forthcoming maiden voyage to Tokyo, but after watching it I really only want to go to Kyoto. Damn you Sofia Coppola for ruining all there is fun about this trip --now I think Tokyo is going to be just like NYC, or London, or Berlin instead of a ultra-modern metropolis with magic unicorns running around in the streets.

..Touching ending tho.