Last Bill Translation

[drainer@mpinet.net]

 None of my replies are going through the list :(
 I am using AOL and trying to sent through MPInet's server...

 That's a good write up about the Japan experience.

 But then we have to ask: why was Japan chosen?


----- Original Message -----
From: <amnornes at umich.edu>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: Last Bill Translation


>
> > drainer at mpinet.net wrote:
> >
> > > I think that the closer you are to the Kanto region,  the further you
are
> > >away from Japan in so many other ways.
>
> Interesting comment, although it all depends upon your reality.
>
> As it happens, I have only seen Kill Bill among the films on Aaron's list.
The
> interest of Kill Bill was basically that it was the fantasy film of a true
> otaku with a basically unlimited budget. Nothing to the film, except the
joyous
> reproduction of the things he loves. One big, neat _collection_ of mayhem.
>
> As for Last Samurai, I'll wait for the video. It seems to be what you'd
expect
> from a bunch of dumb Hollywood fans of Kurosawa. The typical American
treatment
> of "traditional Japan" rammed into a clean Hollywood mold.
>
> Unfortunately, each of my attempts to see Lost In Translation has been
foiled,
> although I did get to see Coppola do her star turn at the Viennale. Looked
and
> sounded rather obnoxious, like the interviews.
>
> But I did have a fascinating conversation about Lost in Translation the
other
> day. It was with Mark West, our specialist in Japanese law here at
University
> of Michigan. I asked him to write something up for KineJapan, and he
offers the
> following to y'all. Since much of the conversation on LIT has revolved
around
> whether or not Coppola "got Japan right," I think Mark's comments will be
of
> great interest. He spent a bit of time as a practicing lawyer before
becoming
> an academic, so he's experienced Tokyo the way few of us have.
>
> Markus
>
> =======================
>
> I spent about a year living in Tokyo hotels when I was in law practice,
with
> a schedule of 3 weeks in Tokyo and 1 week in New York (bad idea).  I would
> get sick of each hotel, so I took the Tokyo tour -- Imperial, Okura,
Prince,
> Four Seasons, Dai-Ichi, Hyatt.   Actually the experience was even more
> surreal than that suggests -- all day every day was spent at a makeshift
> office designed to house about five regular attorneys from my firm who
were
> on the same awful schedule, as well as something like fifty staff
attorneys
> hired specifically for the case and a bunch of forensic accountants, all
of
> whom were living in the hotels as well.  The only difference between me
and
> most of them was that I speak Japanese, but you can't tell this by looking
> at me.
>
> So when I heard about Lost in Translation, I thought I would hate it.  I
> loved it.   The film did a wonderful job of portraying the loneliness of
the
> whole situation and how it drives people together.   Night after night, we
> went through the same routine of expense account dinner followed by lots
and
> lots to drink.  After a few weeks of this stuff, you run out of stuff to
> talk about, but the liquor takes over, so you either (a) talk gossip about
> people that you know or (b) tell family secrets.  This leads to lots of
deep
> friendships, some of which are just based on false intimacy, some of which
> are not.    (I recently sent an email to a person who I knew there but had
> not spoken to in 6 years; she immediately began telling me the deep dark
> secrets of her marriage.)  So when Bill Murray sits on the same barstool
in
> the same New York Grill atop the same Park Hyatt Hotel where I used to
drink
> my whiskey on the same rocks, and when he immediately strikes up an
intimate
> relationship without batting an eye, I got it.  When he wants to call his
> wife at home but not really, when he wants to hear about the kids but not
> really, when he vacillates between pining after his wife and trying not to
> think of her at all, I got it.  I had the same conversations he did (I was
> not as clever -- but with the whiskey, I thought I was), I listened to the
> same lounge singer, stared out at the same lights, changed shirts before
> going out in the bathrooms of people that I didn't know a month earlier
(and
> watched TV with them at 2 a.m.), and made the same stupid jokes (the one
> about how the Japanese switch their rs and ls "for yuks;" the obnoxious
and
> totally insensitive remarks at the sushi chef's expense etc.).  The point
is
> not how sad my life was (oh boy was it ever), but that Sofia Coppola just
> nailed the whole thing so perfectly.
>
> I also thought the movie did a great job of portraying the loneliness of
> Japan -- and not just the loneliness of the Park Hyatt.  When the gang
goes
> out to do things that they would never do back in the States -- Bill
Murray
> talking surfing, singing karaoke, and running from shady characters -- it
> captured both the release of that for the foreign gang as well as the lack
> of that option for lots of stoic Japanese.  I think that for a lot of
> Japanese people, Japan is a lonely place without much to do -- the fun and
> interesting people, or lots of them, are at salsa bars or small apartments
> with large bongs.  So when the Japanese group seemed also to be letting go
> just as the Americans were, I was surprised again at how well she captured
> the situation.
>
> I did get a little uncomfortable a couple of times.  I thought that the
"lip
> my stocking" scene was a riot, but was too slapstick -- and if it had
> happened, the reason it would be important would be because you would talk
> about it afterward over and over and it would get funnier every time.  I
> thought that the Japanese movie entourage was made to look a little too
> stupid.  And I cringed at Matthew Minami's performance as the Japanese
> Johnny Carson, but for the wrong reason -- I actually think Matthew Minami
> is pretty funny when he is on Japanese TV, so when I saw him on the U.S.
> screen doing the same thing, I was embarrassed to find that I actually
like
> such a thing, suggesting that I have spent far too much time in Japan (or
at
> least far too much time watching Japanese variety television).
>
> And brilliant casting of course..  Murray without dialogue was just as
good
> as Murray with dialogue.  And Scarlett Johansson didn't even seem to be
> acting so much as she was just hanging out with Bill Murray.  We used to
sit
> around and talk about who would play us in the movie that they would make
> about our time in Tokyo.  We didn't have a Scarlett Johansson per se, but
we
> did have a 22-year-old recent Ivy League graduate who was not quite sure
yet
> what she wanted to do with her life. I now fancy myself in Murray's role,
> but so does every other straight male that I keep in touch with from the
> case, I think -- which just lets you know how real it was.
>
>
>
>