Lost in Translation

[The Perineum Falcon]

it's not about the showers, it's about the outsiders' snide reaction, and the film's attempts to go out of its way to exoticize the showers.  a cultural setting does not depend the foreigners' point of view to give it life anyways.

Get that Japanese stick out of your ass, ASAP. You're being rediculous about this. What did you honestly want him to do?

dude chill with the personal stuff before you hurt yourself.

Nice retort. I'm very proud of you.
Even though you claim to have enjoyed the movie (if I remember correctly), you seem to have a personal vendetta against it, IMO. Why is it so hard for you to accept that people in foreign places will find new and different things very strange unless they are well studied in them? It's culture clash. This is all the movie portrays. I don't recall any sort of "bigotry" against any people in the film.

[pete]

"nice retort I'm very proud of you."  Cool I'm very proud of you too.
Nah I didn't enjoy the movie.  I didn't think the movie was worthless, it had good potential, good acting, and good moments, I felt it was cheapened by the exploitation of the so-called "cultural clash."  I've cited specific moments I disliked, and gave reasons why I disliked them.  But if you wanna brand me as whatever, go ahead.  Aside from Godardian and maybe SoNowThen, everyone else seems to be in this argument to lash out against some of that knee-jerk-PC-liberalism we all so love to hate.  But, wrong guy, Ringo.  I'm not interested in labeling or self-victimization, or whatever.  I jumped in to this, as I'd mentioned earlier today, because Foray was getting trashed for talking.  I was just trying to back up at least part of his statement.  But every new person jumping into this conversation seems only to be repeating the same argument over and over (with the exception of Raikus, but man, you bet I didn't appreciate the "most close-minded of all" statement) and lemme tell ya, it's tiring.
If you're actually interested in changing my mind (I'm assuming that's why people would want to engage in debates with other people--to change each other's mind) I'm listening.  But you gotta first chill with that personal attack stuff and then you gotta listen to what I have to say too.

[Pubrick]

simple question pete, would u hav preferred they showed gratuitous scenes of middle-aged businessmen sniffing schoolgirl underwear?

[pete]

simple answer P: no, would you?

[Pubrick]

simple answer P: no, would you?

no, but it would have been a more realistic portrayal of japanese culture, which i thought was what u wanted.

[Alethia]

[xerxes]

i know the shower scene isn't the only thing that has been brought up, but i just wanted to address it because it has been mentioned a couple of times.

things in japan tend to be smaller than things in america (the roads, the cars, and yes, even the showers). yes the movie takes notice of that, but its not saying "man, those japanese people are really short."

it's possible to have cultural differences addressed in a funny way without those differences being made fun of.  anyway i'm very sick and my thoughts probably aren't coming across very well.  but let me just say that i have been to japan (not that that makes my opinions more important than anyone else's) and went to japanese school for three years and when i watched the movie for the first time, it never crossed my mine that anything on the screen was offensive, i just thought it was beautiful.

anyway, i'm going to sleep.

[foray]

I know I elaborated on the LIT/Kill Bill comparison, only because of something P mentioned - "i hope u judged kill bill equally for its "portrayal" of asian ppl" - but I'm starting to bore even myself just thinking about it.

I don't recall ever saying Sofia Coppola is racist or that the film is racist. I did however originally remark

3. I'm surprised that no one here mentioned how the Japanese are portrayed as very one-dimensional. I'm sure it offends some people, but it works for the film somewhat. We see Japan from a Westerner's eyes, albeit a bigoted Westerner.

Note how I accept that this one-dimensional portrayal helps the script. Whether that is an unfortunate function or not, depends on the different ppl who watch it, of course.

And someone was trying to tell me ignorance is not racist? Boy oh boy, it sure does have the same effect as racism. But I digress.

I am well aware that Coppola actually adores Japanese culture (this from reading interviews) but it's too bad that what she has put out there can be interpreted as being a narrow portrayal of Japanese culture. She can't claim full authorship now that her art is out there among viewers.

foray

[Raikus]

(with the exception of Raikus, but man, you bet I didn't appreciate the "most close-minded of all" statement)

Yeah, that was a cheap shot. My apologies. But it does seem you're putting every scene under the microscope to come up with a preconceived notion. I just don't understand your viewpoint on it. Anyway--rehash. Let's leave it at bigons.

[tpfkabi]

i was thinking that Sophia made the movie that Kaufman talks about in her ex-husband's film, Adaptation.......i'm speaking of when Kaufman is talking about a film where there are no character arcs, profound life changes, etc........LIT shows that it can be done well I guess

it's hilarious when Bill is dancing around in a robe in the Making Of..

[Pas]

now can sumone please for the love of god give me a well-lit butt shot?????????

This request has NOT been met yet, feel free to feel ashamed of your selves.

[Pubrick]

now can sumone please for the love of god give me a well-lit butt shot?????????

This request has NOT been met yet, feel free to feel ashamed of your selves.

actually our good friend Redlum posted it a few pages back but it was ignored and buried cos of other crap..

here now, is the reason this whole thread exists, and why LiT will win best picture..



and again



one more time



wonderful.

[godardian]

simple answer P: no, would you?

no, but it would have been a more realistic portrayal of japanese culture, which i thought was what u wanted.

No one movie can ever wholly do justice to any kind of reality, let alone an entire specific culture or race, but I'd say Copolla's film was more respectful than this one... which is also an incredibly good movie that has mucho relevance to Western audiences/culture while focusing on what might seem to be Japan-specific attitudes/problems.

[Pas]

Do you remember that part in Lost in Translation when pink-haired Charlotte puts her head on Bob's shoulder ... that was rather touching.

[cron]

has anyone read Francis Ford Coppola's magazine?  I saw a number today and   opened at the editorial section and   it had a line written by Francis himself that read something like "I  believe heritage is the most important thing".  It's called Zoetrope.