Lost in Translation (film)

Lost in Translation is a 2003 comedy-drama film starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. It was the second feature film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, after The Virgin Suicides. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Bill Murray, and Best Director for Sofia Coppola. Coppola won Best Original Screenplay.

The film explores themes of loneliness, alienation, and culture shock against the background of the modern Japanese cityscape.

Plot

Aging movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) has arrived in Tokyo to film a Suntory whisky advertisement (a reference to real-life Hollywood actors who do foreign celebrity advertising, including Sofia Coppola's father, Francis Ford Coppola, who did Suntory commercials with Akira Kurosawa during the filming of Kagemusha^[1]).

Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is the young wife of a celebrity photographer on assignment in Tokyo. Left behind by her husband when he goes to his photo shoots, she is unsure of her present and her future and about the man she has married. Bob's relationship with his wife of 25 years is clearly tired and lacking in romance, as revealed in his telephone calls back to the US. Bob and Charlotte, both lonely and aimless, meet in the bar of the hotel where they are both staying and strike up a friendship. The two explore Tokyo together, experiencing the differences between Japanese and American culture. The two grow close through their adventures and the time they spend together when neither can sleep.

On the penultimate night of his stay, Bob attracts the attention of the resident vocalist of the hotel bar. The next morning, Bob awakens to find this woman in his room and Charlotte waiting for him. The pair have a brief conflict when they later meet at a restaurant, seemingly over Bob's sleeping with this other woman. Later that night, during a fire alarm, they reconcile and express how they will miss each other.

On the morning of his departure, as Bob is in his taxi to the airport, he sees Charlotte on a crowded street. He asks his driver to stop, gets out, and pursues Charlotte. When he reaches her, the two face each other for a long moment and then embrace. Bob whispers something in the tearful Charlotte's ear, kisses her, and then departs.

Lost in translation

The concept of "lost in translation" occurs throughout the film with a number of meanings.^[2] Bob (Bill Murray), a Japanese director (Yutaka Tadokoro), and an interpreter (Takeshita) are on a set, filming the whisky commercial. In several exchanges, the director speaks several long sentences with passion, followed by a brief, inadequate translation from the interpreter. The scene (like all the film's Japanese dialogue) is played without subtitles.

Director [in Japanese, to the interpreter]: The translation is very important, O.K.? The translation.

Interpreter [in Japanese, to the director]: Yes, of course. I understand.

Director [in Japanese, to Bob]: Mr. Bob. You are sitting quietly in your study. And then there is a bottle of Suntory whiskey on top of the table. You understand, right? With wholehearted feeling, slowly, look at the camera, tenderly, and as if you are meeting old friends, say the words. As if you are Bogie in Casablanca, saying, "Here's looking at you, kid," -- Suntory time!

Interpreter [In English, to Bob]: He wants you to turn, look in camera. O.K.?

Bob: Is that all he said?^[3]

Locations

The bar featured throughout the film is the New York Bar, situated on the 52nd floor of the Shinjuku Park Tower (新宿パークタワ) and part of the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo.^[4] Other locations include the Heian Jingu shrine in Kyoto and the steps of the giant San-mon gate at Nanzen-ji. All locations mentioned in the film are the names of actual places, bars, or businesses that existed in Tokyo at the time of filming.

Reception

Boosted by critical acclaim – notably a 95% approval from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes – and audience word-of-mouth, the modest feature film (with only a $4 million budget^[5]) became a comparative box office hit, returning more than $44M in receipts from the U.S. alone and almost $120 million worldwide. It was praised not only for Coppola's script and distinctive directing, but also for the work of Murray, who by many accounts gave the performance of his career.^[6] Johansson also received notice for her strong performance. Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, describing it as "sweet and sad at the same time as it is sardonic and funny."

Some reviewers criticized the film's purposely vague ending, in which Coppola skirted the concept of denouement and left the conclusion entirely up to the opinions of viewers. Noel Megahey of DVD Times considered this device a "cheat" on the audience and argued that the film was "equally as endearing as frustrating for viewers."^[7]

One of the most negative reviews came from Kiku Day (a reviewer for British newspaper The Guardian), who strongly criticized the movie for what she claimed was "anti-Japanese racism". She cited the film as an example of how Hollywood is "the handmaiden to perpetuating the belief of the superiority of U.S. cultural values over all others" and characterized director Coppola as "the thinking person's Sylvester Stallone."^[8]

Awards

• The film won an Oscar for best original screenplay. It was also nominated for best director (the first time an American woman was nominated for this award), picture and actor.

• The film won Golden Globes for best musical or comedy motion picture, screenplay, and musical or comedy actor. It was also nominated for best director, and musical or comedy actress.

• At the BAFTA film awards, the film won the best editing, actor and actress awards. It was also nominated for best film, director, original screenplay, music and cinematography.

• It won four IFP Independent Spirit Awards, for best feature, director, male lead, and screenplay.

Cast

• Bill Murray as Bob Harris
• Scarlett Johansson as Charlotte
• Giovanni Ribisi as John
• Anna Faris as Kelly
• Fumihiro Hayashi as Charlie Brown
• Akiko Takeshita as Ms. Kawasaki
• Catherine Lambert as the Jazz Singer
• François Du Bois as the Pianist
• Tim Leffman as the Guitarist
• Kazuyoshi Minamimagoe as Press agent
• Kazuko Shibata as Press agent
• Take as Press agent
• Sam Jones as Bob's agent
• Ryuichiro Baba as Concierge
• Takashi Fujii as TV host (as Matthew Minami)

See also

• Lost in Translation (soundtrack)

References

External links

• Official site
• Lost in Translation at the Internet Movie Database
• Lost in Translation at Rotten Tomatoes
• Review by Roger Ebert
• Guardian article on the film's perceived racism
• Draft Script (9/2/2002 draft)
• An audio analysis of the whisper in the final scene which purports to reveal what Murray's character said.

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