Last Bill Translation

[Khash Najib]

Not a film comment, but if you are not in Japan and want
to get a visual idea of "Crazy apartments of
twentysomethings" you should have a look at the book
"Tokyo, a Certain Style" (original Japanese: Tokyo
Sutairu) by photographer Tsuzuki Kyoichi
?? ??. The book is made of wide-angel shots of crowded
apartment inhabited by young Japanese people. Some are
hilarious.

See the cover at Amazon:

English version:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0811824233/qid=1072168778/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-5733147-2525434?v=glance&s=books

Japanese version:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4480038094/ref=sr_aps_b_3/250-1084291-1543428

Najib El-Khash





>Crazy apartments of twentysomethings.... This is
> hard for me to describe
> outside of someone seeing the film. A few of my
> friends are in a band in
> osaka and have rented a large flat together. In
> terms of space and
> style, it really resembles an apartment used by the
> group of young
> Japanese used in the film. The walls are completely
> covered with art in
> my friends place, with all there instruments hanging
> around, weird
> colored lighting (reds, blues), and this peculiar
> red sofa.... Something
> very similar is in Lost In Translation. I don?
> think that many Japanese
> twentysomethings have anywhere near the space or
> d?or of my friends,
> because their apartment was quite unlike the one
> room mansions most of
> my other friends lived in, but since their place
> exists and a similar
> place exists in LIT, maybe there are more places
> also similar to these
> two.
> 
> Jp
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu 
> > [mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]
> On Behalf 
> > Of drainer at mpinet.net
> > Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 10:48 PM
> > To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> > Subject: RE: Last Bill Translation
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >  I don't think my replies ever went through.
> >  So here they are again:
> > 
> >  
> >   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>
> > Sent: Dec 22, 2003 8:53 PM
> > To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> > 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 
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> > >
> [mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On
> Behalf 
> > > Of Jonathan Crow
> > > Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 8:26 PM
> > > To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> > > Subject: RE: Last Bill Translation
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I actually found Lost in Translation really
> irritating.
> > > Whenever a western filmmaker goes over and
> shoots in Japan, 
> > > most seem to recycle the same visual clich?: a
> shot of Mt. 
> > > Fuji, the Shinkansen, a Geisha, some misty
> temple, and the 
> > > riot of neon in Shinjuku. And in the Lost in
> Translation, 
> > > Coppola dutifully includes each one of these
> clich?. (OK, 
> > > there was no geishas in LIT but there was a
> woman in 
> > > traditional bridal garb).  I'm not really sure
> why the movie 
> > > was set in Japan except to accentuate its
> exoticness in 
> > > relation to main characters.  And that's a
> particularly 
> > > unimaginative way of portraying the country. 
> For a film that 
> > > had so much going right for it (Bill Murray's
> performance for 
> > > instance), its depiction of Japan was just lazy.
> 
> > > 
> > > Anyway, that's my two cents,
> > > 
> > > Jon
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> > >
> [mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On
> Behalf
> > > Of drainer at mpinet.net
> 
=== message truncated ===


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