Thursday, October 26, 2006

Japan Revisited

I'm not ready to let go of Japan yet. When I got back from my trip, I put Lost in Translation at the top of my Netflix queue. As my recent comments have revealed, I didn't like this movie when I saw it in the theaters. Still, I thought I'd rewatch it, give it another chance, mostly because I wanted to see how Tokyo was shot.

Well, the movie was better the second time around. It wasn't as annoying or offensive as I'd remembered. The story and dialogue were thin, but Coppola surrounded herself with good people (actors, cinematographer, art director), which made her otherwise mediocre movie visually appealing. Having been to Japan, I think she did a good job of capturing the foreigner's experience-- the isolation, the polite society-- and the Park Hyatt looked great. Midway through the movie, I started calculating when I might be able to go back...

3 comments:

Creative-Type Dad said...

I actually liked the movie - you can put Bill Murray in front of a camera and be entertained. And also, I went to college with sophia - she was pretty talented back then(even with the dad help)

MK said...

You know, your second reaction was my first reaction. I thought she captured brilliantly the mood of being suddenly in a completely foreign environment. You felt jet-lagged just watching the movie. It seemed to be constantly shot at the wrong time of day. The corny cultural misunderstandings are part of that sense of confusion and not meant as cultural stereotypes.

BAA said...

I agree. I also disliked it the first time around and enjoyed it the second time. Maybe because the second time I watched it overseas in a foreign language!