Lost in Translation

russman3.5

For the sake of science, I am going to take the most liked review of this movie, Google Translate it into Japanese, then Google Translate it back into English. Let's see what happens.Original review by Lisa Bettany: "Who doesn't love a movie that starts on Scarlett Johansson's bum?"Lisa Bettany's review Lost in Translation: "Who starts in the ass of Scarlett Johansson, you do not love movies?"

Penny1.5

Sofia Coppola you fucking weirdo.I was really looking forward to this.Lost In Translation takes a look at a blossoming love affair between 2 Americans isolated in Japan. My problem with this is that I found the depiction of Japan and of Japanese people by the film to be, how do I say, dogshit. Like half of the film's runtime is Bill Murray making fun of the fact that the Japanese people don't have perfect English pronunciation while completely ignoring the fact that they speak two languages while he speaks one. The jokes get way more racist and uncomfortable than that, but I don't want to spoil the gut-busting humor that Sofia Coppola packed into this Oscar for Best Original Screenplay winning script. When they aren't being used for a cheap, unfunny, racist joke, the Japanese are treated as a plot device. They are simply motivation for the characters to interact with each other. They aren't treated as actual people or characters with actual lives, but rather as a force pushing these 2 characters down a well and making them fall in love or they get the hose again. This is accentuated by nearly every Japanese person in the film acting like no regular, well-adjusted person ever would. Apparently, this film was supposed to showcase Coppola's love for Japan, but maybe that too was lost in translation.Some may say that the Japanese people in the movie are portrayed the way they are because that’s the way the 2 American characters see them. If this is the case, then why should I care about these characters? Why should I care about these upper-class lily-white mayonnaise dickheads and their love affair? Because they are lonely? Maybe they fucking deserve to be.And obviously, I’m not Japanese so I can’t really say what is and isn’t offensive to them. I’m sure plenty of Japanese people adore this movie. I’m an ignorant American who’s only notions of Japanese culture come from Miyazaki, Watanabe, Toriyama, and Nujabes, but I do know that if my people and culture were depicted the way Japanese people and culture are depicted in this, I wouldn’t have finished the movie. At the center of the film is the romance between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson which I found to be lackluster. I mean it’s obvious why Bill wants Scarlett, but why does she want him? Because she’s lonely? Because her husband neglects her? Because he’s the only other American in the vicinity? Those reasons are weaker than Kevin Ware’s shins. They only have one meaningful conversation in the entire film and nothing said was particularly interesting. Why should I want to see these characters together? No reasons were given.I didn’t find any of the jokes funny: the ones at the expense of the Japanese or otherwise. I actually found Bill Murray’s character actively cringe-inducing. He wasn’t funny. At all. No matter how hard he tried. Humor is subjective however, so I don’t really have many points to make on that front.I also have a problem with the fact that Scarlett Johansson was 17 when the movie was shot and that the opening shot is of her ass in see-through pink panties. Also, the fact that apparently, nobody told Scarlett that the kiss scene was happening and it took her by surprise rubs me the wrong w-“BUT BUT BUT LORD DON'T YOU LIKE MID90S?”Yeah, well the kiss in Mid90s was emphasized as gross while this was portrayed as romantic. Scarlett was sexualized while the kid in Mid90s wasn’t in my eyes. I realize they still both actually happened so I might be a hypocrite and that Scarlett isn’t 17 in the world of the film, but Sofia Coppola making these choices still makes me feel wrong. It reminds me of those weirdos celebrating when Billie Eilish turned 18.All of these gripes would not be so bad if I felt the movie had any meat on its bones. I don't feel like I gained any insight or perspective from watching this. I felt like the film had nothing to say which ended up being the biggest disappointment of all. Coppola left me hungry and craving some wagyu.

john5.0

the earliest hints of Scarlett Johansson's asian heritage can be traced back to the filming of this movie