Bill Murray only took the role as Garfield because he mistook the screenplay writer's name, Joel Cohen, for Joel Coen of the Coen brothers. He accepted the role, briefly skimming through the script.
According to Jim Davis, Murray recorded his dialogue in his apartment in New York City and on the set of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in Greece.
You like Stripes but not Groundhog Day?
Also, I haven't seen it in forever, but isn't that kind of the point of Lost in Translation?
Also, also, you haven't seen Space Jam?
Groundhog Day is the greatest romantic comedy of all time you Philistine.
I'm not the one who titled the thread 'What is the deal' :smug
Don’t bring Seinfeld into this
white people
Don’t bring Seinfeld into thisQuotewhite people
Murray attained a cult status far greater than the peak of his work as a comedic actor.
Lost In Translation is a terrible film where two rich white people are depressed in Japan and use low hanging fruit "japanese people don't use L's!" jokes. The entire film is one giant racist tirade after another pretending to be a film on isolation as two American's who should be happy exploring another country act like complete dicks as if they're better than everyone.
has seinfeld been good in anything other than seinfeld
also how tf does shosta label groundhog day as a rom com? it's just one storyline among many
Cindy with terrible taste per usual
The Life Aquatic is the quintessential hipster cracka ass cracka movie and I love it
Groundhog is amazing.also how tf does shosta label groundhog day as a rom com? it's just one storyline among many
So huh, did you watch the whole movie?
Cindy with terrible taste per usual
has seinfeld been good in anything other than seinfeld
He’s not even good on his own show.
Also, Bill Murray is better than all your faves, Cindi you dumb bitch :steiner
He probably hated it cause of dunces who quoted
single line to him over 20+ years if they saw him in public. I'd hate anything if I was constantly annoyed by people with it for all that time.
Man you're a little bitch. Thread has nothing to do with me and you can't help yourself.Cindy with terrible taste per usual
Nah, that's Rah. But she's certainly third after Justin Bebpo.
Man you're a little bitch. Thread has nothing to do with me and you can't help yourself.Cindy with terrible taste per usual
Nah, that's Rah. But she's certainly third after Justin Bebpo.
Get a life you fuck.
Deep cuts:
He probably hated it cause of dunces who quoted
single line to him over 20+ years if they saw him in public. I'd hate anything if I was constantly annoyed by people with it for all that time.
He hated it because the director made it a comedy and he wanted a psychological thing probably reminiscent of Jacob’s Ladder.
He didn’t talk to the director for 20 years because of it.
Man you're a little bitch. Thread has nothing to do with me and you can't help yourself.Cindy with terrible taste per usual
Nah, that's Rah. But she's certainly third after Justin Bebpo.
Get a life you fuck.
I happen to agree. I honestly don't recall TIMU having good taste in anything to my memory. :idont
Cindy with terrible taste per usual
I have great taste in things. I’m just not white. *looks at nails*
Cindy with terrible taste per usual
I have great taste in things. I’m just not white. *looks at nails*
It's a white people thing, you wouldn't get it hun :trumps
What the fuck are you talking about?Man you're a little bitch. Thread has nothing to do with me and you can't help yourself.Cindy with terrible taste per usual
Nah, that's Rah. But she's certainly third after Justin Bebpo.
Get a life you fuck.
I happen to agree. I honestly don't recall TIMU having good taste in anything to my memory. :idont
Rah can't help himself, he has to say something no matter what. :lol
Take a tag from NeoGAF seriously, brehs. Continue to be an incel, babe. :-*
I only watch Kino.
Have you even seen Sátántangó?
If this thread was about Chevy Chase, you'd have my sword Cindi! :-*
If this thread was about Chevy Chase, you'd have my sword Cindi! :-*
I like the early National Lampoon's. I've laughed at National Lampoon's Vacation harder than any Bill Murray movie.
If this thread was about Chevy Chase, you'd have my sword Cindi! :-*
I like the early National Lampoon's. I've laughed at National Lampoon's Vacation harder than any Bill Murray movie.
I'd assume you've heard or seen Fletch. Fletch is what happens when you take Beverley Hills Cop and whitewash Eddie Murphy out with Chevy.
I agree with Bill Murray having a bit of an overrated career or presense. But there are far, far worse white people celebrities/portfolios than Bill Murray.
My favourite part of Mistranslation is when Bill Murray went like: "Uhm-hmm, I love me some o dat Nikka whisky."
That movie probably only got the nod cause it was directed by Nicolas Cage's daughter, Sophie Scorsese.
The great Francis Scorcese.
I'll let you in on a secret. The movie isn't called Mistranslation either, and the whisky he was promoting in the film was a Suntory Hibiki.
I want to like Lost in Translation but that movie always puts me to sleep.
Are you trying to say that black people are typically highly respectful of the Japanese?
Have you considered the fact that their casual irreverent American racism is incidentally very realistic? And why are you always talking about white. Are you trying to say that black people are typically highly respectful of the Japanese? Sorry Cindi but you're way off on this one.
What's wrong with that statement? Cindi's in here saying "lol white ppl" as though it wasn't all Americans that are immature casual racists. Lost in Translation is very accurate in it's portrayal of American tourists of any race who hide behind the language barrier to be as rude as they'd like with no consequences.
Every Cindi thread: "Fight me"
What's wrong with that statement? Cindi's in here saying "lol white ppl" as though it wasn't all Americans that are immature casual racists. Lost in Translation is very accurate in it's portrayal of American tourists of any race who hide behind the language barrier to be as rude as they'd like with no consequences.
So that makes it a good movie? The movie doesn’t make it aware they even care much less are in the wrong. In fact, the film treats them as if they're in the right
Later in her career, Sofia garnered criticism by making a period piece about the white slave masters of slaves and doesn’t feature one Slavs or their hardship. She opined,”that’s the point!!”
So yes, white people. There are certain films that are celebrated that I just don’t get because the world view is way, way different than mine and they were curated in a white liberal bubble.
Wtf, when?
In my effort to troll I should have finished Groundhog’s Day before adding it to the list.
I made a thread asking a legitimate question and you attacked me.
Shut the fuck up.
Personally I know when someone is a dick, I don't need a voice-over telling me.
Rewatch the scene again.
https://youtu.be/4gjiQwh1p6M
Who wins the scene? How is it in any way an indictment on American tourists? What’s the messaging? It basically messages that Japanese people are weirdos.
https://youtu.be/4gjiQwh1p6M
Who wins the scene? How is it in any way an indictment on American tourists? What’s the messaging? It basically messages that Japanese people are weirdos.
I haven't seen Lost In Translation since it came out a billion years ago and I have a rule about not trusting any opinions I haven't revisited in the last decade, but I always thought the setting and the two main characters' interaction with it was meant to mirror the alienation they already felt in their personal lives and this was pretty clear?
I thought it was too big of a subject to brush over lightly, so I decided not to have that character at allHooolyyy Shiiit.
https://youtu.be/4gjiQwh1p6M
Who wins the scene? How is it in any way an indictment on American tourists? What’s the messaging? It basically messages that Japanese people are weirdos.
How do you get "Japanese people are weirdos" from that? It's entirely about the the lack of understanding in the language between Murray's character and the director- a literal example of the film's title.I haven't seen Lost In Translation since it came out a billion years ago and I have a rule about not trusting any opinions I haven't revisited in the last decade, but I always thought the setting and the two main characters' interaction with it was meant to mirror the alienation they already felt in their personal lives and this was pretty clear?
100% correct. The title refers to both the culture/language they don't understand and how their lives/family relationships have turned out.
Quote from: SofaI thought it was too big of a subject to brush over lightly, so I decided not to have that character at allHooolyyy Shiiit.
Coppola devised the idea of Lost in Translation after many visits to Tokyo in her twenties, basing much of the story on her experiences there. Coppola was attracted to the neon lights of Tokyo and has described the Park Hyatt Tokyo, where most of the film's interior sequences take place, as one of her "favorite places in the world". Particularly, she was attracted to its quietness, design, and "combination of different cultures", which include a New York bar and French restaurant.
.....
Coppola has called the film a "valentine" to Tokyo, in which she has displayed the city in the way that it is meaningful to her.
I remember having these weeks there that were sort of enchanting and weird ... Tokyo is so disorienting, and there's a loneliness and isolation. Everything is so crazy, and the jet lag is torture. I liked the idea of juxtaposing a midlife crisis with that time in your early 20s when you're, like, What should I do with my life?
—Sofia Coppola, 2003
Hawaiian filmmaker and author E. Koohan Paik wrote that "The Japanese are presented not as people, but as clowns" and that "Lost in Translation relies wholly on the 'otherness' of the Japanese to give meaning to its protagonists, shape to its plot, and color to its scenery. The inaccessibility of Japan functions as an extension of the alienation and loneliness Bob and Charlotte feel in their personal lives, thus laying the perfect conditions for romance to germinate: they're the only ones who understand each other. Take away the cartooniness of the Japanese and the humor falls flat, the main characters' intense yearning is neutralized and the plot evaporates."
Katz responded to some of the criticism by saying "Sofia's love of Japan and love of the people that she's met there is incredibly evident in the film... Literally, we recounted experiences that I think all of us had gone through," and that none of the scenes were "any slight to Japanese people."
If Sofia Coppola wanted to make a film about isolation, I get that. But the foreign nation thing completely detracts from her message.
PAN the view of Tokyo at night as we hear their conversation:
CHARLOTTE (O.C.)
Why do they switch the r's and l's
here?
BOB (O.C.)
I don't know. My fax said "have a
good fright".
CHARLOTTE (O.C.)
Let's never come here again, because
it would never be as much fun.
BOB (O.C.)
Ok, whatever you want.
Have you considered the fact that their casual irreverent American racism is incidentally very realistic? And why are you always talking about white. Are you trying to say that black people are typically highly respectful of the Japanese? Sorry Cindi but you're way off on this one.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLzKQUHiTto
Can’t wait for a year from now when Cindi will proclaim that LiT is one of the best movies of all time, and that Bill Murray is the greatest actor to walk this earth. Right after turning her guns in to the cops of course. Then she will shower us with never ending screeds on why her opinion is the only one that matters.
This reminds me of when I bought a copy of the movie to show my wife while living over there. I teared up at the end. Not because of the movie's ending, but because I had seen the film in the theater with my dad and it suddenly made me miss my family like crazy.
:tocry
Cindi is going full reset but she is correct.Tory not Tori :wag
Bill Murray is overrated, and has made maybe three good movies all of which were in like the 80sz
Wes Anderson flat out sucks. All of his movies are lame ass movies for white people that only have missionary sex and wear tori Burch flats.
Feeling out of place and alienated in a foreign culture isn't in itself xenophobic (let alone racist). Especially considering both characters, IIRC, are supposed to be in Japan for external circumstances (he's there for work, she's there because of her boyfriend). :doge
Less distinguished mentally-challenged fellowed than all those movies turning the tourist week experience of a place, into a cartoon representation of what that place is actually like.
That said, Lost in Translation is one of those movies that became annoying because of how many people jerk off to it (figuratively) so as a contrarian, one is naturally bound to hate it.
LOST IN TRANSLATION
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Anna Faris, Giovanni Ribisi
(Focus, 2003) Rated: R
DVD release date: 10 February 2004
by Sharon Mizota and Oliver Wang
Land of the Lost
The DVD of Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation includes an extra titled "Matthew's Best Hit TV." It's a five-minute clip of Bob Harris (Bill Murray) on a Japanese talk show, where he is ambushed by the hyperbolically campy host. In the film, we see only a few moments of this sequence -- Bob looking wary of the host's wild gesticulations and rapid-fire Japanese -- but the unedited scene is far more awkward. Shot on video rather than 35mm, the scene resembles the sort of bad SNL skit that Murray might have suffered through in his early career. The only bit of charm comes at the end, when an exasperated Bob abandons decorum and stuffs a live eel down the host's suit jacket. This moment rescues a scene that is otherwise a series of cheap shots set against a mesmerizing, colorful background. That is, Lost in Translation in a nutshell.
While Murray is undeniably excellent as a slumping, has-been action star, and Lance Accord's cinematography infuses the film with a fetching, quiet beauty, the rest of Lost in Translation is as transparently thin as the pink panties that Charlotte (Scarlet Johansson) strips down to whenever she decides to stare wistfully out of her Park Hyatt window. (About those pink panties: one can't help but notice that Charlotte actually sheds clothes to take her perch. Is there an overactive heating vent beneath the window ledge? Or is her privileged quarter-life crisis so overwhelming that she has to strip in order to free her ennui? It is either one of the film's great existential enigmas or a shameless acknowledgement that Charlotte's gauze-wrapped bum makes a reliably eye-catching shot.)
Lost in Translation is awash in such arresting visual moments. A 20-story brontosaurus lumbers across the facade of a Shibuya office building. A neon kaleidoscope skates across Charlotte's taxi window. Rows of blinking red lights sigh across the Tokyo skyline. Accord portrays Japan's uber-metropolis as an enticing ocular playground where every shadow is inviting, every light a beacon, and the hues put a rainbow to shame.
But this vision of Tokyo is affecting because it's recognizable: since Japan's rise to economic power in the '80s, Hollywood movies have endlessly recycled Tokyo as high-tech dystopia. And Coppola's movie reads like a playlist of Tokyo's Greatest Hits: blinking pachinko machines? Check. Wood-paneled shabu shabu booth? Got that. Demure ikebana flower arrangers? Yup. Modernist girlie bar with contortionist strippers? Oh yeah.
It's all familiar background, made from postcards and stock extras who all stand 5'6", slur their "L's" into "R's," and chatter incomprehensibly like so many small children. True, it would undermine the whole "lost in translation" theme if Coppola provided subtitles for the monolingual, English-speaking audience, but in encouraging viewers to feel as stranded as Bob and Charlotte, she also has them adopt their troubling view of Tokyo as an exotic yet tiresome playground.
The common defense of the film's orientalism is that Tokyo is "just a backdrop," that Coppola is not trying to make a "statement" about Japan, its culture or its people. But this excuse fails to acknowledge the ways in which Japan (and Asia writ large) has long served as a stage set where white people play out their existential dilemmas. In the last six months alone, Tom Cruise traveled to feudal Japan to rediscover his honor in Dances with Shoguns, and Uma Thurman flew into Tokyo to avenge her stolen past in Kill Bill, Vol. 1. In Japanese Story, though Toni Collette finds herself in her native Australia, co-star Gotaro Tsunashima conveniently serves as a one-man distillation of Nippon's inscrutable mystery.
Lost in Translation one-ups its peers with better music, prettier shots, and a more charismatic lead, but its racism is all the more insidious for being wrapped in a pleasing package. It exchanges the Rising Sun/Black Rain/we-can't-trust-these-slant-eyed-Japanese-bastards racism for a racism of sheer laziness: trotting out one-dimensional caricatures of wacky Tokyo hipsters and cheap gags like the call girl who keeps commanding Bob to "rick my stockings!" long after the joke has gone from blandly humorous to disturbingly cruel.
That said, there is one scene that exhibits something approaching humanity. When Bob takes Charlotte to the hospital, he finds himself engaged in a futile, linguistically challenged conversation with an elderly Japanese woman in the waiting room. Their halting pantomimes and onomatopoeic utterances send two women seated behind them into a fit of giggles. By placing the laughter on screen, Coppola unseats the sense of superiority inherent in Bob's alienation. Rather than a bemused outsider, he becomes part of the joke; the Japanese are laughing at him, too. The DVD offers another version of the scene: Bob abandons any attempt to understand, putting his arm around his waiting room neighbor's shoulder in a silent gesture of camaraderie. In that moment, they're both lost in translation, and their connection, as they agree to misunderstand, is far more affecting than any other in the film, including Bob and Charlotte's.
The two leads do share some touching moments of tenderness, but their relationship hinges on the shaky premise that we are supposed to care about them. The film assumes we'll feel sympathy for Charlotte's "I don't know what I'm doing with my life/marriage!" laments and Bob's slow descent into faded glory and chilly family life. However, it's difficult to work up the requisite sympathy for a snotty Yale graduate and a wealthy movie star who spend their sleepless nights pouting in the hotel bar and taking midnight swims in the indoor pool.
Star-crossed and unconsummated lovers, Bob and Charlotte deserve each other, not just because they're lost and lonely, but also because they're both too self-centered to see the world around them. Wrapped in the myopia of whiteness and American cultural privilege, they fail to see the humanity of the city and people around them.
In one of the DVD's other deleted scenes, Charlotte walks into a random store off the main Tokyo strip. In it, she glances at some bondage photos of Japanese women, then walks over to where two robots, a "boy" and a "girl," roll over to her, briefly looking up at her with lifeless eyes. They "see" but don't recognize Charlotte in any meaningful way. She's merely an object they sense in front of them, worthy of a quick investigation but nothing more. It's an ironic allegory for Lost in Translation itself, a swirl of titillating yet fleeting postcard images and people who glance at one another but never connect.
Yes, two people who don't attempt to understand it either. Let's stay in our hotel room drinking.
Yes, two people who don't attempt to understand it either. Let's stay in our hotel room drinking.
Right...one of them is having a midlife crisis and the other is unsure what to do with herself since her marriage isn't going the way she thought it would. Again, that's the whole point of the movie- they are lost.
Did u kno
Not all protagonists in movies are sympathetic and that's okay
If you just wanted to be mad at white people again you didn't have to come up with such a flimsy topic to do so
Yes, two people who don't attempt to understand it either. Let's stay in our hotel room drinking.
Right...one of them is having a midlife crisis and the other is unsure what to do with herself since her marriage isn't going the way she thought it would. Again, that's the whole point of the movie- they are lost.
I've never seen Lost in Translation because I don't watch garbage movies
Also What about Bob is the only good Bill Murray movie.
“I have no argument. Time for ad hominems and straw man arguments.”
I win.
What do you win
Rushmore was just kind of insufferable for me. I understand why people like it, it's just not for me.
One great moment was when Bob was on the treadmill and it wouldn’t stop because in japan everything is cold and mechanical apparently.
"If you have a message, call Western Union." as the quote goes.Feeling out of place and alienated in a foreign culture isn't in itself xenophobic (let alone racist). Especially considering both characters, IIRC, are supposed to be in Japan for external circumstances (he's there for work, she's there because of her boyfriend). :doge
Less distinguished mentally-challenged fellowed than all those movies turning the tourist week experience of a place, into a cartoon representation of what that place is actually like.
That said, Lost in Translation is one of those movies that became annoying because of how many people jerk off to it (figuratively) so as a contrarian, one is naturally bound to hate it.
Feeling out of place isn't xenophobic.
But making the native people the butt of every joke certainly is.
This is further accentuated by the fact that the film having sparse dialogue to help create a tone. But it also makes the characters hyper under developed. They're mostly just a canvas for the setting. Further, due to sparse dialogue it's the type of film where you can read what you want to read. What I read, due to constant mockery of Japanese people, is racism and xenophobia. The whitest of films.
Watch the film again. Is there a single positive Japanese character in the film? No, they're the butt of every joke. The message is "this place is weird". My conclusion: Lost in Translation is a xenophobic film.
"If you have a message, call Western Union." as the quote goes.Feeling out of place and alienated in a foreign culture isn't in itself xenophobic (let alone racist). Especially considering both characters, IIRC, are supposed to be in Japan for external circumstances (he's there for work, she's there because of her boyfriend). :doge
Less distinguished mentally-challenged fellowed than all those movies turning the tourist week experience of a place, into a cartoon representation of what that place is actually like.
That said, Lost in Translation is one of those movies that became annoying because of how many people jerk off to it (figuratively) so as a contrarian, one is naturally bound to hate it.
Feeling out of place isn't xenophobic.
But making the native people the butt of every joke certainly is.
This is further accentuated by the fact that the film having sparse dialogue to help create a tone. But it also makes the characters hyper under developed. They're mostly just a canvas for the setting. Further, due to sparse dialogue it's the type of film where you can read what you want to read. What I read, due to constant mockery of Japanese people, is racism and xenophobia. The whitest of films.
Watch the film again. Is there a single positive Japanese character in the film? No, they're the butt of every joke. The message is "this place is weird". My conclusion: Lost in Translation is a xenophobic film.
Arguing about what a film's "message" is supposed to be, is always a tedious affair, so i'll avoid that aspect (art is supposed to be deeper than that, anyway).
The film is from the point of view of two alienated foreigners, in a strange land (yes, strange from their specific point of view).
What the hell would be the point of inserting a Japanese character who is "positive" (?) just so you're spoon fed a moral out, for what is an intentionally awkward and uncomfortable situation for both the main characters? The Japanese culture is seen as weird and comical by the two main characters, and is thus depicted that way for the audience, who is asked to inhabit their shoes for 2 hours.
Having to bend this, so that the audience doesn't feel uncomfortable, is absurd.
And i don't even particularly like the movie, but i like even less the constant dumbing down this type of reading demands, which gives us all that shit art talking down to their audience like they're children.
The thing about the depiction of Japan is that neither of them can relate to the country or enjoy their time there until they find each other in that bar. Each person becomes a lens for the other that unlocks the potential of a fulfilling life. It's not that "Japan is _, the people are _" it's "my life was _, but now my life is _". and the experience of being in a strange country is the symbolism for that.
What about it? Are you really telling me you need a movie to openly and actively chastise its characters on screen, lest it be interpreted as an absolute endorsement of their actions?"If you have a message, call Western Union." as the quote goes.Feeling out of place and alienated in a foreign culture isn't in itself xenophobic (let alone racist). Especially considering both characters, IIRC, are supposed to be in Japan for external circumstances (he's there for work, she's there because of her boyfriend). :doge
Less distinguished mentally-challenged fellowed than all those movies turning the tourist week experience of a place, into a cartoon representation of what that place is actually like.
That said, Lost in Translation is one of those movies that became annoying because of how many people jerk off to it (figuratively) so as a contrarian, one is naturally bound to hate it.
Feeling out of place isn't xenophobic.
But making the native people the butt of every joke certainly is.
This is further accentuated by the fact that the film having sparse dialogue to help create a tone. But it also makes the characters hyper under developed. They're mostly just a canvas for the setting. Further, due to sparse dialogue it's the type of film where you can read what you want to read. What I read, due to constant mockery of Japanese people, is racism and xenophobia. The whitest of films.
Watch the film again. Is there a single positive Japanese character in the film? No, they're the butt of every joke. The message is "this place is weird". My conclusion: Lost in Translation is a xenophobic film.
Arguing about what a film's "message" is supposed to be, is always a tedious affair, so i'll avoid that aspect (art is supposed to be deeper than that, anyway).
The film is from the point of view of two alienated foreigners, in a strange land (yes, strange from their specific point of view).
What the hell would be the point of inserting a Japanese character who is "positive" (?) just so you're spoon fed a moral out, for what is an intentionally awkward and uncomfortable situation for both the main characters? The Japanese culture is seen as weird and comical by the two main characters, and is thus depicted that way for the audience, who is asked to inhabit their shoes for 2 hours.
Having to bend this, so that the audience doesn't feel uncomfortable, is absurd.
And i don't even particularly like the movie, but i like even less the constant dumbing down this type of reading demands, which gives us all that shit art talking down to their audience like they're children.
Yes, and I argue this makes film racist and xenophobic.
What if the film took place in Mexico?
“Why do they eat so many beans?”
By calling a foreign nation weird and with the main characters feeling above it all it comes off as a judgement of Japanese culture and people. While also demanding the audience to feel sympathetic for the two main characters.
I’m not saying you have to have a positive Japanese character. But you said “feeling out of place and alienated isn’t xenophobic” and that’s well and good, except that you ignore that every Japanese character is an abstract caricature.
What about it? Are you really telling me you need a movie to openly and actively chastise its characters on screen, lest it be interpreted as an absolute endorsement of their actions?"If you have a message, call Western Union." as the quote goes.Feeling out of place and alienated in a foreign culture isn't in itself xenophobic (let alone racist). Especially considering both characters, IIRC, are supposed to be in Japan for external circumstances (he's there for work, she's there because of her boyfriend). :doge
Less distinguished mentally-challenged fellowed than all those movies turning the tourist week experience of a place, into a cartoon representation of what that place is actually like.
That said, Lost in Translation is one of those movies that became annoying because of how many people jerk off to it (figuratively) so as a contrarian, one is naturally bound to hate it.
Feeling out of place isn't xenophobic.
But making the native people the butt of every joke certainly is.
This is further accentuated by the fact that the film having sparse dialogue to help create a tone. But it also makes the characters hyper under developed. They're mostly just a canvas for the setting. Further, due to sparse dialogue it's the type of film where you can read what you want to read. What I read, due to constant mockery of Japanese people, is racism and xenophobia. The whitest of films.
Watch the film again. Is there a single positive Japanese character in the film? No, they're the butt of every joke. The message is "this place is weird". My conclusion: Lost in Translation is a xenophobic film.
Arguing about what a film's "message" is supposed to be, is always a tedious affair, so i'll avoid that aspect (art is supposed to be deeper than that, anyway).
The film is from the point of view of two alienated foreigners, in a strange land (yes, strange from their specific point of view).
What the hell would be the point of inserting a Japanese character who is "positive" (?) just so you're spoon fed a moral out, for what is an intentionally awkward and uncomfortable situation for both the main characters? The Japanese culture is seen as weird and comical by the two main characters, and is thus depicted that way for the audience, who is asked to inhabit their shoes for 2 hours.
Having to bend this, so that the audience doesn't feel uncomfortable, is absurd.
And i don't even particularly like the movie, but i like even less the constant dumbing down this type of reading demands, which gives us all that shit art talking down to their audience like they're children.
Yes, and I argue this makes film racist and xenophobic.
What if the film took place in Mexico?
“Why do they eat so many beans?”
By calling a foreign nation weird and with the main characters feeling above it all it comes off as a judgement of Japanese culture and people. While also demanding the audience to feel sympathetic for the two main characters.
I’m not saying you have to have a positive Japanese character. But you said “feeling out of place and alienated isn’t xenophobic” and that’s well and good, except that you ignore that every Japanese character is an abstract caricature.
I guess people being afraid of the Joker had a point after all.
Again, this is a call for the dumbing down of art, for people who want to be talked down to like children.
It'd be the equivalent of "don't try this at home", only those messages are usually aimed at impressionable children.
Have you ever left the US before?
I’m not saying that at all nor am I calling for the dumbing down of art. :rofl It exists. Therefore I will critique.You can critique all you want, unfortunately, it doesn't mean your critique is any good. ::)
It’s hilarious you say I’m calling for dumbing down Art when you can’t handle art that exists to be critiqued, one reason in which art partly exists. In your own inability to understand critical opposition to art you have already dumbed down art.
If a movie about two people going to Mexico and questioning “why do they roll their r’s?” existed. I’d call that racist too.
Meanwhile, you probably aren’t even an artist.
At this point you aren’t even actually arguing against my actual content. It can exist and I can also critique it.
Have you ever left the US before?
Nope.
I haven’t been outside the USA but have lived in different cities before. I know what it’s like being outside of a culture. I am black American in USA. I shouldn’t have to visit another country to critique how Lost In Translation presents Japan.
Do you know what it's like being in a completely unrecognizable culture and not speaking ANY of the language? :lol
The least they can do is try. But they don’t. Not even at home. So they go to another country and stew in their hotel room drinking booze and making fun of the local culture. “Let’s never come back here.” Meanwhile the film tries to make their alienation sympathetic. This is why it fails as a film.
If I were going on a trip with my husband/wife for their job to another country I’d try to learn the culture and at least some of the basics of the language rather than constantly riff on it.
Do you know what it's like being in a completely unrecognizable culture and not speaking ANY of the language? :lol
I sure don’t. But you liked a post just the other day about what it’s like being the sole black person at a metal concert while arguing I have no experience with cultural alienation in this thread. Funny.
Know what I do when I go to the Vietnamese restaurant? I try to pronounce the meal names right.
Or when meeting someone new. “How do you pronounce your name? _____? Is that how you pronounce it right?”
I try to interact with other cultures in an empathetic manner.
Why? Because I’m not a cac. Meanwhile my Asian friends had to come up with English names that aren’t their actual name because no one bothered to try to pronounce it right.
The least they can do is try. But they don’t. Not even at home. So they go to another country and stew in their hotel room drinking booze and making fun of the local culture. “Let’s never come back here.” Meanwhile the film tries to make their alienation sympathetic. This is why it fails as a film.
If I were going on a trip with my husband/wife for their job to another country I’d try to learn the culture and at least some of the basics of the language rather than constantly riff on it.
Do you know what it's like being in a completely unrecognizable culture and not speaking ANY of the language? :lol
I sure don’t. But you liked a post just the other day about what it’s like being the sole black person at a metal concert while arguing I have no experience with cultural alienation in this thread. Funny.
Know what I do when I go to the Vietnamese restaurant? I try to pronounce the meal names right.
Or when meeting someone new. “How do you pronounce your name? _____? Is that how you pronounce it right?”
I try to interact with other cultures in an empathetic manner.
Why? Because I’m not a cac. Meanwhile my Asian friends had to come up with English names that aren’t their actual name because no one bothered to try to pronounce it right.
The least they can do is try. But they don’t. Not even at home. So they go to another country and stew in their hotel room drinking booze and making fun of the local culture. “Let’s never come back here.” Meanwhile the film tries to make their alienation sympathetic. This is why it fails as a film.
If I were going on a trip with my husband/wife for their job to another country I’d try to learn the culture and at least some of the basics of the language rather than constantly riff on it.
I'm sorry but visiting fast food or dine-ins does not count remotely for interacting with other cultures.
On a side note, it really pisses me off when white people use food as their favourite "pro" diversity thing.
He is now a man that has lost everything. Despite his sins, he’s still a sympathetic figure. A tragic character.Just because you personally didn't relate and identify with the two characters, doesn't necessarily make the film bad. :yeshrug
In order for me - the viewer - to sympathize with these two privileged fucks, I have to buy into it. And their sympathy, no matter how much (or more accurately, how little) the film tries, it doesn’t work. It isn’t earned and that’s why it fails as a film.
How the hell can you title the thread "What's the deal with white people and Bill Murray movies?" and then spend 4 pages talking about LiT isn't good because the characters are disrespectful to Japanese culture? LOL
Also, you complained that the movie used Japanese culture as a prop when that's why Bill Murray's character is so disillusioned in the first place, he is a literal prop in the whiskey commercial because of a communication barrier between him and the people around him. IIRC Scarjo's character is feeling the same way because of the way her husband ignores her for work. That's why they act like assholes until they forge a connection and start to enjoy the feeling of being lost together.
I haven't seen it in like 8 years but it was definitely a good movie, and this whole trend of people realizing themes are problematic and pretending that keeps you from relating to media is dumb as fuck.
Whenever you guys want, I have legit internet nowguys, i'll check this movie out and ring in with a final verdict. don't stress.momo's movie nights :lawd should bring those back
or should I just wait until you all organize a rabb.it night? :brain
I cant believe this is your movie tastes and just because you dont like something it's for whitey? Those movies are legitimately great, with Lost in Translation being a top 5 movie for me.
Well, in caddy shack he ate a chlorine soaked candy bar that people thought was a dookie, white people eat that shit up
yeah when i don't like something i usually say it's trash that sucks balls and turn it into a race thing. what a weird troll.
yeah when i don't like something i usually say it's trash that sucks balls and turn it into a race thing. what a weird troll.
https://www.indiewire.com/2019/09/steve-jobs-called-disney-ceo-hate-iron-man-2-1202176280/
“I believe that if Steve were still alive, we would have combined our companies, or at least discussed the possibility very seriously,” Iger writes
Bill Murray is popular with white people :idont
He’s a notable fixture in Wes Anderson films and we’ve all agreed that the guy makes white ass films.
i too love to be overly confrontational while talking out of my ass then act like everyone else is overreacting when they respond to me
Also since we're talking foreign culture and xenophobia.Bill Murray is popular with white people :idont
He’s a notable fixture in Wes Anderson films and we’ve all agreed that the guy makes white ass films.
Your average person (white or otherwise) doesn't know who the fuck Wes Anderson is, let alone watch any of his shit.
People know Bill Murray from Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters, some of his smaller roles / cameos / meme status, and maybe Lost in Translation if they’re a bit more “cultured.”
u r so dum
I do this or behave this way too often. :-\i do too, so i shouldn't talk shit about others doing it. oh well, we're all hypocrites in some way :lol
Rushmore was just kind of insufferable for me. I understand why people like it, it's just not for me.
Fuck white ppl
Fuck white ppl
I rather watch Wes Anderson's white ass films than Tyler Perry's black ass films :trumps
It is trash but Cindi's completely missing the point of the movie and making it a race thing and arguing for days over it is lol