book one redone - Coldbacon

movies/lostintranslation.html
Lost In Translation (2003)
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola’s new film Lost In Translation has a lot going for it. It has
Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, 1 and more quirky Japanese people than
you can shake a Tokyo ball at. LIT offers American audiences a fresh and
unparalleled look into modern Japanese culture. Where else can you hang
with young Asian chicks in Cossack hats besides…um…Budweiser ads?
Then there’s the not-young Asian chicks not in Cossack hats. I for one
was fascinated to learn that Japanese prostitutes dress exactly the same as
Japanese women execs, who are mainly used for reception lines and
holding clipboards. Amazing! Of course Peter Greenaway’s Eight And A
Half Women already broke this story, including the deal with loneliness,
pre and post mid-life crisis, and especially the deal with pachinko. But
that’s okay because Greenaway’s a complete nut job, and besides, he left
out the Simon and Garfunkel-tinged hotel bars, positive karaoke, Japanese
T.V. ad directors (oh, they have ’em), the So Johnny Carson of Japan (see
Telemundo), busy intersections, oversections and tiny green cabs. At least
Sofia Coppola still has her sanity. And that is something.
Wait—we could start over. Lost In Translation: It’s a decent film, and it
doesn’t reek like Personal Velocity. Astute audiences will note the film
takes place in modern day Tokyo (formerly Edo, established 16c).
Cultural nuances well shown if at times with no clear purpose. Twenty
seconds hopping on steps at the Daitoku-ji: four thousand dollars. Thirty
seconds of flower arranging footage: six thousand dollars. Fifteen seconds
at the Saiho-ji: two thousand dollars. Not having to use your brain while
watching a nice little movie about nothing: priceless. I would like to
simply accuse LIT of creeping Orientalism and be done with it. But the
thing is Coppola truly has nothing against Japan. Her superficiality
extends pleasantly to all she touches. The relationship between our little
blonde girl and her photographer (was he even an actor?) husband was as
1 Formerly known as the other chick from Ghost World, now known as the actress
who has excited more pedophilic corpuscles than I even knew I had.
95