[Vwing]

Wow. So disappointing. I appreciate everything Sofia strived for, but, wow. Just a boring 2 hours. There was nothing there that made this a great film. Hell, nothing made it a good film. Except for Scarlet Johannsen, and Bill Murray was good, though he's not given the best of roles, and I can't imagine how anyone could have thought he would win the oscar over sean penn. I understand the feeling of emptiness, loneliness, and sadness in these people that Coppola was trying to convey. I just think, well, she didn't, and if it was anyone but her, this movie would not have won anything.

[Laura]

I have to disagree with you about that last statement. I liked the movie, and I have no reason to expect anything from Sofia Coppola. I thought The Godfather was boring, actually. But I grant that many people enjoyed it.

So I doubt that everyone who claims to have enjoyed it is part of massive hoax designed to promote the Coppola name. I think that some people may just have different tastes than you.

[Vwing]

No, I'm talking more about critics than regular people. And also, don't forget, the masses are easily swayed. If someone tells them to like something, they'll like it. Obviously in many cases there are smart people who liked the movie because they liked it, I'm not saying no. I also didn't say it's a massive hoax to promote the Coppola name. I'm saying that because she is of the Coppola name, some critics may have given her the benefit of the doubt. I'm willing to accept that many people liked it. I can't see how, but I'll accept it.

[Reader]

It wasn't a bad picture... sure, it got a lot of accoldades... just ignore what everyone is saying and watch the show on your owns terms (this doesn't apply to you Vwing, just the general public who usually hate something because it's 'over-hyped' in one way or another).
I agree that this was not Bill Murray's best dramatic performance... he should have definately won the oscar for Rushmore.... but he wasn't even nominated!! Just goes to show...

But i must admit, seeing this picture helped me to better understand the characters in Leaving Las Vegas. It's almost arguable that Sofia C. might have been copping a few things from it...
but i still like Lost in Translation, for it's under-stated lead actors, sombre city cinematography, and the location. But never being in a situation like that (and possessing virtually no empathy), it didn't resonate with me as much as it did with the critics and, i assume, audiences.
But a similar picture in the same idiom that i greatly enjoyed and suggest any curious parties look into is Midnight Cowboy. It doesn't have Scarlet Johannsen in her panties (another great thing about that movie!), but it's real, man!

[Just your average movie goer]

I lived in Tokyo for a year before moving to Seoul, Korea where I've been for the past two months.

And it was at times, a pretty crazy experience - and not in a cool party kind of way.

I haven't seen Lost in Translation but I really would like to. If they can capture what it is like being a gaijin (foreigner) living in Tokyo then it will be a good film in my book.

I will reserve my judgement until I've seen it (whenever that may be). That said, I am a huge Bill Murray fan so it's hard for me to talk about any of his films objectively.

[Just your average movie goer]

I'm watching Lost in Translation now... in approximately fifty minutes, I should have a verdict for you, Vwing...

[Just your average movie goer]

Okay - I just finished the movie.

Well, I can certainly understand your feelings, Vwing.... but I don't think it's because of the movie. The movie succeeded in what it was trying to do.

It had a story but no plot - it was just trying to show life... and life has no plot.

It was pretty slow to get going but I thought that was part of what it was trying to do. Living in Tokyo is a mind-numbing, soul sucking experience... it leaves you dry and depressed because it is such a strange city.

It is a concrete jungle with millions of people who are not living lives as much as they are living existences.... go to work, don't show any true emotion, wear a mask in public (philosophically speaking), etc...

Tokyo is a terrible place to live, frankly. There is nothing to do and because it takes forever to get out of (as the concrete jungle expands to all horizons) and is too expensive to get out of (as it's cheaper to fly to another country than travel within Japan), you feel like you're trapped when you live there.

The movie also showed the isolation you can feel when you're alone there - not understanding any of the language, having guides who don't translate anything for you, etc.

The story in the end was about the need to find someone else to help you through it. In my case, I found a guy at my work who had the same sorts of feelings I did about everything over there and that's what helped me through it.

Actually, I feel kind of bad about leaving him there by himself... long story... I signed this two year contract in Australia for this job in Japan but right afterwards, I met my girlfriend who was from Korea and then I was living in Japan and she was in Korea and after a year, neither of us could take it anymore. I broke out of the contract after paying a huge amount of settlement money - and moved over here (Korea) so finally my girlfriend and I can actually see each other more than twice a year. My friend in Tokyo understands... but I still feel bad about leaving him there on his own. I chat with him regularly though so....

But I digress...

I would also like to say that the film did a damn fine job of showing how fucking embarrassing other people from western countries can be when you're living overseas. I met the main character's husband and I met that other ditzy girl.... not the actual movie characters themselves but I met people who were practically identical to these people in their stupidity and their ability to grate my nerves.

I also got a bit of a hoot out of seeing a few of the locations I'd seen during my stay there - the biggest being a train station actually.... it's the more down to earth locations that did that for me.

And that bit where they show the Japanese electioneering is right on - except in real life, it is much louder.

In fact, they went pretty easy on Tokyo... it is much, much, much, much, much, more loud and crowded and polluted than it appeared in the film. And that little parlour they went into with all the slot machines (they're called Pachinko parlours) are in fact so loud in real life, that they would destroy a mortal's ear drums within minutes.

Although it was good to see that when Bob (Bill Murray's character) was playing golf in front of Mt Fuji, that you could barely see it... because for most of the time, Mt Fuji is COMPLETELY invisible due to the haze of air pollution. I went to Mt Fuji several times - three or four times. I only saw it once. It was beautiful when I did see it.. but the other times, I just thought that the Japanese must have made it up because for the life of me, I couldn't see anything where it was supposed to be.

Did I like the film? Hard to say. I appreciated the film but it was pretty long and slow paced... and I found it a little painful as it kind of brought me back into the experience of living in Tokyo... which I guess is a credit to the film.

It did show how bad it is being a gaijin in Tokyo.

Interesting movie. I might need some time to think on that one. I wouldn't like to watch it again any time soon... but I think I'd like to see it later some time down the track.

[Vwing]

Did I like the film? Hard to say. I appreciated the film but it was pretty long and slow paced... and I found it a little painful as it kind of brought me back into the experience of living in Tokyo... which I guess is a credit to the film.

Exactly. Goddam, I can't believe I forgot who said this, but a writer said that the purpose of writing (and this applies to the making of a movie, TV show, anything) is INTELLIGENT ENTERTAINMENT. Now I too appreciated what she was going for, and perhaps if I had been in your situation I would have appreciated it more, or felt more. I'm also hearing that people who watched it in theaters loved it while people who watched it on tape hated it, and so watching it on tape may have had something to do with it as well. But for 2 hours, I was not entertained. For 2 hours, I gave this a chance (I kept hoping, really hoping, it would get better, either in a funny or serious way), and I did not come away with any sense of enjoyment (yes even sad feelings cause a certain enjoyment in the movie theater), and felt I wasted 2 hours. I appreciated what she was going for, how she tried to depict their loneliness in Tokyo which for them was more or less just a vast void, but on an entertainment level, I did not like it at all.

[Just your average movie goer]

Yeah, I get what you mean, Vwing. It succeeded in making me feel the pain the characters were going through (or re-live in some instances) but I wasn't really entertained by what was going on.

I watched this on my computer - perhaps that had something to do with it. If I saw it in the cinema, I probably would have enjoyed it more (I would have been more comfortable for one thing).

And I actually wish they showed how awful Tokyo is a little bit more. I wish they had shown the fact that EVERY train station, no matter how unimportant, no matter what time of day, is JAM-PACKED with thousands of pushy Japanese salary men in identical black suits.

Also none of the characters ever suffered the experience of going on Tokyo's subways and experience being jammed in a human sardine can, where you can not even move your limbs to scratch an itch, and can hardly breathe.

Come to think of it, the movie would have been so much better if it was about normal people.

Sofia Coppola should have made a movie about me and my mate instead. We each suffered all that isolation and mind-numbing soul sucking lifeless-ness of Tokyo. And we got through it by helping each other out - two sane people in a city gone way, way wrong.

THAT would have made a good movie.