lost in translation

[poly800rock]

does anyone else hate this movie? I remember when it came out everyone was in awe of it, like it was the next citizen kane, and how amazingly it portrayed tokyo. I only saw it because kevin shields scored the damn thing. and lastly, i find it hard to fuck up a movie about getting lost in tokyo...the whole city is a movie in itself..

that being said, people should get the takashi wada cd, its a concept of 24 hours in tokyo. i think its amazing and makes me sad i'm not there now.

tons of stuff for sale now on ebay: corpus, Rag & Bone, Helmut Lang, levi's premium, Gap, vintage etc.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtriggerkid

[minya]

I think it's an excellent movie.

In my opinion, Tokyo was more or less incidental. It was a good choice of setting, because Tokyo is such a gigantic city and completely different from a Western city, but I think the main point of the movie was the loneliness of the two main characters.

Edited by minya on Jan 18, 2006 at 11:04 PM

[Tisswat]

I like the movie. And I've never been to Tokyo, so I have no idea about whether the city is portrayewd correctly. You have to admit that Bill Murray does a pretty good job though.

Talking about misportrayed cities in cinema.. you might want to metion Deuce Bigalow 2 as well. Ocean's 12 did a pretty good job though.

Reporter: "What do you think about western civilization?"

Gandhi: "I think it would be a good idea."

[samsikle]

oooooooooooooh i loved ocean's 12. bill murray goes on my top 10 list. he's good with dry humor.

[poly800rock]

i boycott bill murry until he stops doing the same rushmore roles he's been hanging onto since rushmore and plans to do a Whipmaster movie materialize.

tons of stuff for sale now on ebay: corpus, Rag & Bone, Helmut Lang, levi's premium, Gap, vintage etc.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtriggerkid

[andreas]

I'm pro LIT. Hell, I've been to almost every location...sort of by accident ;-)

[99tlg99]

i hated it

[chase]

coincidence

i jus rented lost in transition or translation from the local dvd shop

yeh its nice stuff

tot there is a tinge of overacting or overportrayal of the japan culture n life

several slightly magnified moments, ie. the prostitute in Bill's room shouting, the wheeling politician truck...

wish i was actually living in tokyo n go thru all these things again perhaps

then i think hiroshi fujiwara has a cameo inside in the scene where bill n scarlet were checking out the jpn bars with the locals. scarlet sat beside hiroshi.

then in the following scenes, Bill wears the nike HTM wovens...

post. http://www.post.fm

DESIGN. ART. MUSIC. SINGAPORE. BROADCASTS.

[xcoldricex]

haha i was watching this and spotted hiroshi, wondered if anyone on SF mentioned it. guess so!

[digital_denim]

I liked the movie, although you can see a lot of stolen ideas from Wong Kar Wai's movies.

[wild_whiskey]

it does have some resembles to wong kar wai, I agree, but it feels more sophia coppola to me so that doesn't get to me at all.

I really liked the movie, and tbh the thing that bothered me the most was the sound track. it was really dramatic and sassy, and now i avoid putting some of my favorite songs from the bands (Phoenix - Too Young, Air - Lost in Kyoto, MBV - Sometimes) on mixtapes because like many other pseudo-indie flicks, it carries kind of a pre-packaged and negative stigma.

[Guest jmatsu]

i didn't care for it that much. fucked up stereotypes, mythical strip bar, and who gives a fuck about hf, nobu, rico etc etc?? thanks to sofia copola for many tokyo cliches.

i was more impressed by the cameos in zoolander.

maybe i'm just bitter because i didn't get a cameo...

[Konfucius]

I thought it was pimp. I always loved Bill Murray though. Scarlett Johansson on the other hand, I didn't like her until I saw this movie.

I was wildin' when I saw HF, funny shit.

[stillthehorror]

i love it.

i don't remember anyone singing its praises because of how it portrayed tokyo, but i didn't go around reading reviews, either. i think it works because it actually uses its locations to push the story of the two characters further along.

i've noticed that the people who saw this movie in theaters absolutely loved it, while the people who caught it on dvd were more like "what's the big deal?". how did you watch it?

[Akura]

Scarlett Johansson is so BEAUTIFUL it makes the film fantastic!

[lil brown brother]

liked it all bec of one thing ... scarlett....

[soultek]

Kevin Shields didn't score the movie, but was featured in the soundtrack. I think the soundtrack/score is one of the best in modern times. To bring Kevin Shields back from hiatus, to cull old Japanese works (Happy End), to bring otherwise disparate tracks together, and to compose apt "glue" tracks for the soundtrack. Awesome work by Brian Reitzell.

I liked the movie, but haven't seen it twice. I think it's mainly whether or not you think the movie could be sustained on MOOD.

[mike lowrey]

Scarlett Johansson is so BEAUTIFUL it makes the film fantastic!

agreed

old topic but liked it too.

[dismalfuture]

I never realized that the lounge scene was shot in the APC store until recently when I read it online, and I'd even been there before I saw the movie.

Never thought too highly of the movie as I just don't really like the characters. Also kind of agree with poly's original sentiments in that the depiction of Tokyo is very shallow and that's a shame, very American mallrat'ish outlook on a lot of it, but I guess this can't be helped as it's the movie's entire premise really. The whole 'hey lets point and laugh at how short Asian people are and how their English doesn't pass my American standards, those weird Japanese people" shit is not really all that funny to me.

[tonaf]

i also think the movie is not that great. the very superficial portrayal of tokyo makes the movie extremely shallow. the westerner-ridiculing-asians doesnt help. for movie with long meaningless scenes, it is crucial that the characterization and dialogue are believable, truthful, and credible. otherwise, it will be very plastic, like this film, despite great cinematography and memorable soundtrack.

the scene with mbv's 'sometimes' is superb, while on the other hand the scenes where scarlet johansson is so 'touched' by the 'authenticity' of the buddhist temple in the otherwise 'sterile' tokyo is just PAINFULLY AWFUL--and is ironically extremely pretentious.

the movie is more of a pieced together sketch/mv's than a coherent whole.

[suntorytime]

I thought the movie was great. It was just such a mellow movie throughout. And being asian, I don't know why everyone makes a big fuss about it 'ridiculing' us (yeah I make fun of my jap friends who speak like that, so?). Cos yknow, we have a sense of humor and shit.. And you guys, well you guys have Mr George Bush. bam bam

[Mbrand]

I thought the movie was great. It was just such a mellow movie throughout. And being asian, I don't know why everyone makes a big fuss about it 'ridiculing' us (yeah I make fun of my jap friends who speak like that, so?). Cos yknow, we have a sense of humor and shit.. And you guys, well you guys have Mr George Bush. bam bam

I agree. The differences are shown in a subtle and humourous way. It's no basic mockery.

[jpgm]

one of my favourite movies for sure.

the score/soundtrack is awesome - as is anything kevin shields does.

very very atmospheric film, and i loved the way it depicted these two lost souls in a city that is/was potentially very alienating.

scarlett is amazing in this, so gorgeous.