Last Bill Translation

[drainer@mpinet.net]

  So does Lost in Translation orientalize Japan?

  All of my friends tell me to watch it (they've never been to Japan), my
father's friend says it's "exactly like our trip there" (he was there for a
week when I moved there). I also found it that a lot of subculture people
seem to find the movie "amazing." And as I said, with the exception of my
father's friend, none of them have been to Japan...

 ... this is why I am curious to watch it. (Although I currently live in
Japan, I still consider myself a tourist. After all, I do not consider my
work there to be permanent.) How does the film construct Japan? How is the
experience of being in Japan portrayed in the movie? Japan definetely
belongs in the postmodern (in so many ways) and is also a haven for cultural
studies, but then again, I think that the same can be said about other
places.


 On the other hand, the story seems to be what most of my friends
particularly go for, so maybe the Japan[ization] of it all is just there for
aesthetic coolness (as another poster pointed out)? It would make more sense
for this to be the case, given Coppola's other works.


 Unfortunately, it is not playing here anymore (I'm currently in the U.S.
for two weeks), so I can't watch it.

 What are crazy apartments of twentysomethings like? I think that I have the
most "Japanese" apartment out of all of my friends in Japan, and that is
only because my place is old.

-df
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean Pierre Kellams" <tetsuo at technolustomega.net>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 8:53 PM
Subject: RE: Last Bill Translation


Jon,

Isn't that what the experiences of those characters would be of Japan.
While I was last in Japan for a year of study, the experience of my
family members who have travelled on business trips to Japan is much
like that of Lost in Translation. They take pictures of the Geisha, the
Shinkansen, the temples, and the neon. It is representing the Japan
those characters would experience. It also shows the crazy apartments of
twentysomethings that typified my experience in Japan.

Also, be fair. Johansson visits Kyoto as a tourist in the temple montage
sequence. The neon lights of Shinjuku surround the Park Hyatt. The
shinkansen is an experience most Americans are new to experiencing.
These are all things that would be new or foreign to an American
unaccustomed to visiting living in Japan. It is exactly what a
tourist/business trip photobook would be filled with. Sofia Coppola has
a great deal of experience with Japan because of her clothing line (that
sells particularly well there) and has made a film representative of her
experience and experience like hers.

Jp