Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Lost in Translation

This is topic Lost in Translation in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000652

Posted by Aldo Baez (Member # 790) on 09-26-2003, 10:09 PM:

I saw this the day after I watched American Splendor and while not as good, it's still a very very good film. I'm not a big fan of Bill Murray but he had me chuckling at his photo shoot and when his massage came knocking on the door. He and Ms. Johansson do a great job portraying their relationship (which oftentimes wander into a fake this-would-never-happen-in-real-life area when older/younger couples are concerned.) A reviewer said this movie was like a photographic love letter to tokyo and that pretty much sums up the great cinematography. This really makes you interested in visiting there with all its quirky attractions. A wonderful surprise in the line of bad movies the past few months.

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 09-27-2003, 10:20 PM:

Written and directed by Sofia Coppola and co-produced by her father, Francis Ford Coppola, this comedy presents the lives of an aging American movie star, played by Bill Murray, and a young neglected wife of a photographer, played by Scarlett Johansson.

The setting is a huge modern hotel in Tokyo, contrasting the frenetic neon street life, teeming with game arcades, and the silent stillness of the towering skyscraper landsape, with lonely bored principal characters in the hotel rooms above,

On the one hand, night life partying with karaoke hipsters, frenetic clowning of talkshow hosts, and the absurdity of advertising commercial production, while in the same city the peace of temple gardens and flower arranging, provide background for the melodrama.

The film has some hilarious situational comedy. The English dialog, for a comedy, lacks witty repartee, being realistic to the point of silences when the would-be lovers are tongue-tied by their prior marital commitments. (The meeting of the principals reminded me of "Strange Iterlude" with added contrast of their ages.)

I really enjoyed the scene in the electronic arcade, seeing the young gamers playing the machines like drums, inventing their original musical interactivity not dreamed of by the inventors. (Whatever became of the pachinko parlors?)

As for the ending, as they used to say in japan, "Shii katta ganai..."
................................................................
Screened 09/27/03 at the Kew Gardens Cinema,(Sr. ticket $5.00)
at 7 PM, attendance about 45. Five CA trailers + 3 PSAs; image and sound good, except trailers were joined with opaque tape with marker writing on them.

Gerard

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 09-28-2003, 08:14 AM:

Movie was pretty good. But like the other Sophia Coppolla movie, Virgin Suicides, this movie is paced slowly. So you need to watch it when you are in a mellow mood. However, the slow pace is a lot more welcome as you can immerse yourself into these situations unlike Virgin Suicides where you maintain a distance from the characters and can merely empathisize with them.

The leads, especially Murray, were really good in this. And Sophia the filmmaker has shown a refreshing restraint in depicting the relationship other indie filmmakers may not have been able to. Some other indie filmmaker would have had them jumping into the sack the first night and have them worry about the ramifications about such an event later on , whining the rest of the movie. See for yourself how this relationship progresses.

Another thing I liked about Coppola's writing was that she resisted the temptation to launch into full scale indie cutesiness with a bunch of quirky situations popping up througout the movie. The movie starts off with some easy comedic targets, but becomes bigger than that later on .

I liked the karoake scene with Roxy Music's More Than This. Bill murray does a good job in showing his new found earnestness when singing that song.

My only quibble in the movie was that it takes a little while to warm up to the Scarlett Johansenn character. You would think that she would find something interesting to do instead of being so self pitying at the beginning. I don't think we ever know what she is looking for to make her time pass better. But you tend to overlook that later as you warm up to the character.

It's nice to see Sophia Coppola has surpassed her dad's quality output in the last 2 decades with 2 good movies in a row with the second one being better than the first.

If you liked Linklater's Before Sunrise and Wes Anderson movies like Rushmore and the slower paced Royal Tenebaums, you are a good candidate to like this movie. Sorry, I can't think of any other way to describe the appeal of the movie. However, it lacks the poetic visuals of a Wes Anderson movie, though the visuals are effective in their own right. Supposedly Wes Anderson helped Sophia Coppola in getting Bill Murray to warm up to the script.

Frontrunners for lead actor in my book so far are Paul Giamatti for American Splendor and Bill Murray for this movie. Unfortunately, judging by the indifference the academy has to these kind of movies (i remember how Punk Drunk Love got snubbed, Royal Tenenbaums didn't get any acting nods, Bill Murray didn't get anything for Rushmore), I don't have high hopes for any oscar for this movie or American Splendor.

Watched it at a Madstone in Atlanta. The pic wasn't framed right by the theater. You could see the tips of the boom mikes 3 or 4 times.

(edited because I felt my original review was incomplete).

[ 03-20-2004, 04:56 PM: Message edited by: Pravin Ratnam ]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-28-2003, 11:58 AM:

quote:
Watched it at a Madstone in Atlanta. The pic wasn't framed right by the theater. You could see boom mikes 3 or 4 times.

Did you let them know so they could adjust the framing correctly?

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 09-28-2003, 09:48 PM:

John, normally I do. But I had to leave in a hurry. I will tell them the next time to be careful. It is sad that the art crowd is as ignorant as the mainstream crowds when it comes to these issues. No one else seemed to care.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-29-2003, 04:30 AM:

Pravin, that's what you get for going to Madstone. [Smile]

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 09-29-2003, 06:27 PM:

Hey Joe, it could have been worse. Some user on imdb complained about seeing even the poles attached to the boom mikes the halfway point onward.

Maybe the boom mikes were held pretty close to the intended portion of the image and even a minor mistake exposed the boom mikes(only a tiny portion was available for split seconds 3 or 4 times at my theater).

I give credit to the local madstone for at least giving us better options. But the demographics suck. I didn't realize a lot of old people lived here in a suburb which is not even an outer suburb of atlanta. A lot of young families, but their tastes skew to the safe side i guess. A movie like Days of Heaven played for 3 months (NOT KIDDING!). I liked Days of Heaven, but unless you got a pristine print showing off the cinematography, it is kind of a dull movie. Meanwhile, a lot of the youth oriented indie movies do badly. The Princess Blade had an EMPTY house on the second day it came out.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 10-12-2003, 03:39 PM:

AMC Hamilton, 10/11, 4:50 matinee. Hall #6, attendance ~60-70.

Cross a man going middle-age crazy with the thought that he's turning Japanese. That way you'll get the gist of this movie.

The game arcades that Gerard S. referred to are indeed pachinko parlors. Also, pay attention in the karaoke parlor to where one of the men is doing "God Save the Queen". Sex Pistols in a karaoke bar? You won't get it unless you're familiar with late-70's British rock. "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors should have been on the soundtrack -- it was a US hit as well as a UK hit.

As Pravin said, you need to be in a mellow mood when you go see it. I took my time to drive down so I was at the theater well in advance of the start time.

Presentation: Image good to acceptable -- it was framed properly (unlike Madstone) but was jittery in R1 and R4. Also, did the Crap Code appear on this movie? I swear I caught a glimpse of it. Sound was acceptable for Dolby.

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 10-13-2003, 05:02 PM:

The film is very laid-back, slow, deliberately quiet. The characters felt so real. Dialog was spare, letting the emotions behind the words drive the characterizations. Coppola seems to have a firm hand on direction. not a "fun" movie as people might think from Murray. And the temptation was avoided to "pump" up comedic elements, as nothing really out of reality happened (no, the karaoke scenes weren't even made into a big joke). Some reviewers complained the film didn't really understand Japanese culture, but that is fine, as the characters didn't either (and this really wasn't the point, anyway. The characters didn't really understand themselves).

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 10-23-2003, 03:08 AM:

quote:
Watched it at a Madstone in Atlanta. The pic wasn't framed right by the theater. You could see the tips of the boom mikes 3 or 4 times.

this occurs where bill murray is being filmed for a suntori commercial. you can also see much of the crew in that scene. if you look closely, you can even spot the camera. how sloppy. [Razz]

good film.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-23-2003, 04:00 AM:

quote:
Some reviewers complained the film didn't really understand Japanese culture

What did they mean by that?

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-04-2003, 10:01 PM:

I think they may have missed the point. This is not about Japanese culture. It's about two Americans somewhat dazed by it.

Tsk tsk. All these comments and not one about the opening shot. And I had been telling all of my friends someday all movies will open this way!

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 11-05-2003, 10:07 AM:

I'm still trying to figure out how Scarlet Johansen's 40', panty clad bottom introduces me to the film. But I'm not complaining. [Big Grin]

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-09-2003, 12:04 PM:

Maybe it's to make sure you remain seated.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 12-23-2003, 07:46 PM:

Finally, got around to seeing this one, still playing but only two shows a day on one screen in town.

Enjoyed this one very much. Can certainly relate to the disorientation one can feel when being thrown into such a totally foreign milieu as modern-day Tokyo and its hipster scene. (FWIW older non-local Japanese can feel just as disoriented when visiting Tokyo. [Smile]

) Can also relate to the mid-life crisis thing, or is it just temporarily losing one's way, living for the moment, not sure of the path one has chosen, reacting to instead of planning for life's events? Anyway, really liked it--looking forward to having it in my DVD collection.

* * * * *

Century Suncoast, Tuesday 2:15pm show (2nd of 2), $5.75 matinee price, screen #1, about 15 attendees.

Framing, focus, and screen illumination OK. Sound level OK, but will have to see what this title is supposed to sound like when the DVD comes out. This print was trashed--horizontal and vertical scratches throughout the full length. Some vertical scratches deep enough to show green or yellow. A dirty print too, again throughout the full length. Sound played muffled, scratchy and distorted on anything other than quiet dialog. Lights in the booth caused distracting patterns in the house. Someone had picked up the bottom drape and flopped it over the top of the bottom screen mask (they probably keep the trash cans under there). Very classy. The print tailed out on the screen--as has just about every other title I've seen at this theater. In the past this theater has done better--with this show they have certainly slipped badly on presentation.

[ 08-27-2005, 11:03 PM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 02-07-2004, 12:42 AM:

It's about time... I always contemplated about watching it, now that I have... I can say I enjoyed it... I haven't seen Bill Murray star in anything in a long time. Its good to see that he can still pull it off. My friend fell asleep in the middle of it, she didn't really like it. But she laughed more than I did, where as for me.. I liked it. [thumbsup]

7/10