thevoid99's Classic Films # 2 Pt. 4: Lost in Translation
Jul 29 '04 (Updated Jul 30 '04)
The Bottom Line Part 4 is a Continuation on the Key Scenes & Mystery behind "Lost in Translation".
Everybody Wants to Be Found Part 4: Seeing Beyond the Screen of Tokyo Pt. 2
Now that Bob Harris and Charlotte have found each other for comfort, it doesn’t help ease the loneliness they have. While Bob’s wife is miles away back in the U.S., Charlotte’s husband John has grown distant and more concerned with his work. With John ready to leave Tokyo for another assignment in Japan, Charlotte wanted him to stay and drink the two bottles of Cristal they were given. Unfortunately, John has to leave. Even though he says, “I love you” and probably does mean it, does he know he’s neglecting her? There was a question asked by a fellow writer at Epinions.com whether if John was having an affair. Well, I don’t know. I don’t think so but there could be some questions, especially relating to Kelly but we would see her later on in a funny scene where she sang Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” at the Jazz Club in the hotel where Bob and Charlotte would just walk by and laugh.
John’s departure would now leave to a scene that I would remember the most of all the moments in the film. Everyone would talk about the karaoke scene, the conversations, or any other scene relating to this film. To me, the scene that grabbed me the most not just spiritually but emotionally on many levels is that shot of Tokyo from the hotel room Charlotte is in as she is watching by the window. The way Sofia and cinematographer Lance Acord captured that scene was just breathtaking. The first moment I saw that shot with Tokyo looking below where Charlotte is looking. Immediately, I wanted to cry because it was so moving. Just that small moment and emotion that Johansson progressed into that scene was just powerful without doing so much.
Prior the making of this film, Sofia’s father suggested that Sofia should go digital for the film’s look since it was a new thing. Well, digital and film transfer are very different. There’s been few films that looked great through digital transfer, Lars von Trier’s “Breaking the Waves” and “Dancer in the Dark”, Rebecca Miller’s “Personal Velocity”, and “Michael Winterbottom’s "24 Hour Party People” and “In This World”. On one hand, it would’ve looked great but the reason Sofia chose film rather than digital is because she said film had a more romantic quality. If the film was shot digitally, it wouldn’t have the dreamy textures in Acord’s cinematography and the result might look nearly grainy so I think Sofia made the right choice.
It was something that I would later parallel in my own life when I went to Miami for 2 days before my cruise trip during the Thanksgiving holidays last year. I have been to Miami for several years in my life but since this was my first family vacation in 7 years, things have changed. Whereas the Miami of 1995-1996 was this beautiful, colorful city with all of these beaches, the Miami of 2003 was a much different scene. Either I became more cynical or it revealed a superficiality that was cruel. I didn’t do much in Miami but I arrived at night, didn’t sleep much because of curtains (and I later found some curtains that would’ve covered the sunlight on the day of departure). After returning from my aunt’s house the next day where my cousin dropped me off at the hotel I was staying in where my sister would just hang out with her. All I did was just stayed in the room I shared with my sister and just watch movies and do nothing except go to the lobby and use free Internet there.
What I think made that scene more moving was its choice of music, the Squarepusher track “Tommib” by its composer Tom Jenkins. That melodic synthesizer riff playing up to the film’s emotional subtlety really heightened the film’s emotion and when I was looking up at Miami through my hotel room with my CD Walkman playing that song. I knew what it felt to not just be alone but also not be heard. I ended up using the soundtrack of that film as my own soundtrack of loneliness throughout that whole trip. It was the only record that knew what I felt and as I watched the film for the third and final time in the theaters on Christmas Eve in Buckhead at the Lefont Theaters. Seeing that scene in the big screen really felt that I was in that same hotel room Charlotte was in and knowing how she felt. It’s a connection that is very powerful and very spiritual from my own view. It’s something I’m not sure I could feel again but what Coppola, Acord, and Johansson did was in a word, magical.
After that highly emotional scene, we see Bob and Charlotte meet again after she swam in the Park Hyatt’s pool. She asked Bob if she wanted to go out and meet up with some friends of her in Tokyo and he accepts her invitation. Meanwhile as he returned to his room, we see that his wife sent him a package of carpet samples where was trying to find the color of Burgundy. So he knocks on Charlotte’s door where she sees him wearing this orange, camouflage t-shirt and couldn’t believed how lame he looked. He turns the shirt inside out to be a bit cooler as the two decide to go out and have some fun.
They go to a Japanese club where they meet Charlotte’s friend Charlie Brown (played wonderfully by Fumihiro Hayashi) who shows Charlotte and Bob the world of Japanese nightclubbing through techno music. For Charlotte, she finally had something to do other than wander around through Tokyo by herself while Bob talked to Japanese man in French while discussing with Charlie about surfing with some Japanese surfers. This scene really works as it heightens up happier emotions as opposed to the melancholia the film often surrounds itself which then leads to one of the greatest scenes in the film.
After running away from a bartender, Charlie, Charlotte, Bob and their gang go to Charlie’s nice house for some cool tunes, pictures as Bob felt more relaxed than he had been since arriving to Tokyo. Then after listening to Phoenix’s “Too Young”, it’s time to sing with the karaoke machines.
Now karaoke has a strange history of just being uncool. Sure, you could try and sing a standard pop tune but there’s that risk of making a fool of yourself. In Japan, karaoke has always been popular and has become an underground thing lately in the U.S. with a much broader selection. In my cruise trip in that Thanksgiving weekend, when I checked the events they were having, I heard they had a karaoke thing. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the limited selection they had and obviously, they hadn’t seen the movie yet. Hell, I was hoping to do something like the Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, or whatever that I thought it was cool but I will have to wait.
The karaoke scene starts off with Charlie doing a hilarious butchering job on the Sex Pistols’ classic “God Saves The Queen”. Now with his thick Japanese speech, its funny but you’re not laughing at him but laughing with him as well as singing the song. Hell, I think John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten must’ve gotten a kick out of it. Better Charlie to butcher a Pistols classic than current “American Idol” reject William Hung, who would’ve gotten the words wrong and bring more embarrassment to his own community. After Charlie’s hilarious butchering of the Pistols’ punk classic, Bob Harris comes along to do his rendition of the Nick Lowe-penned, Elvis Costello & the Attractions 1979’ classic “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding” where Charlotte watches with a mop-top pink wig.
For those who know Bill Murray’s history would’ve expected him to do his lounge singer act from “Saturday Night Live” for the “Star Wars” song. Well, with the Costello song, he didn’t do that but sang with all of his heart out knowing he’s not a great singer. It’s the emotions that really were amazing in this song and there’s a picture on the album sleeve for the film’s soundtrack that was really touching. Charlotte watching Bob singing his heart out that I found to be moving. Then it was Charlotte’s turn to sing where she chose the Pretender’s “Brass In Pockets”. Scarlett Johansson, a fan of musicals, finally gets a chance to show her singing abilities. While her singing voice is a bit squeaky, Johansson makes up for it with a charming stage presence and being playful at the same time. Every time I hear “Brass In Pockets”, I’m going to have that image of Johansson in pink hair singing that song in a flawed by lovely presentation.
Then comes the emotional punch of Murray’s rendition of Roxy Music’s “More Than This” where to be honest when I first heard in the soundtrack (as a secret bonus track), just before I saw the film, I didn’t really like it. I thought he sounded too lazy because I was expecting the SNL lounge singer gig. Then when I saw the film, I realized that if he did that, it would’ve been too easy. Instead, he just restrained himself and put out something straightforward. Then once I bought the soundtrack and heard it again, I liked it a bit more and after repeated listens, I finally understood what Murray was doing. He made Bob Harris’ character just sing with his heart out by playing it straight with Charlotte watching and there’s a shot where she looked like she’s falling for him, not the actor but the man. It’s obviously one of the most romantic moments in the film followed by more moments in the minutes to come where Charlotte’s head lies on his shoulder.
Then comes one of my favorite musical moments where My Bloody Valentine’s “Sometimes” appears to the images of Tokyo with Charlotte watching the city as if she’s looking at something different in its beauty. With that distorted, bleeding guitar riffs of Kevin Shields playing in the background with his romantic, drowsy vocals with his indistinct lyrics. It’s not clear at what Shields was saying in the song but that element of romance is heightened with these following lyrics:
Close my eyes, feel me now. I don’t know if you cannot love me now. You will know, and your feet down to the ground. Over there, and you will not have to know. You can hide, oh love or the way I feel.
-Kevin Shields, “Sometimes” by My Bloody Valentine.
The scene finally leads to what Bob and Charlotte was waiting for, some sleep. Bob sleeps a bit in the cab he and Charlotte were riding back to the Park Hyatt Hilton and upon the return with Richard Beggs’ distorted use take on “Sometimes” in the background. There’s a touching moment where Charlotte, now sleeping is being carried like a bride by Bob as he puts her in her bed at her room using his instincts. It was a romantic moment only followed by Bob returning to his dismal life as he calls his wife about the carpet and hears his daughter now wanting to eat. He tries to tell his daughter to eat but she doesn’t listen as he tells his wife that he’s getting the day off. For Bob, it’s a sign that his marriage is now in disintegration with Charlotte being his hope for now as he gets a call from her later that morning in a deleted scene on the DVD. Replacing Charlotte’s call to Bob in her hotel room is a scene, that really has nothing to do with the film but I think Sofia Coppola just wanted to give Bill Murray a chance to show his abilities as a golfer.
I honestly find that scene to be funny because if you think of Murray’s career, you immediately think of “Caddyshack” and his Carl Spackler character. It’s funny how Murray went from that goofball to the romantic in this film where we see Murray hit a golf ball right in front of Mount Fuji in this amazing shot by Lance Acord and Murray hit that ball in perfect golfing form.
After that scene comes a more relaxed scene where Charlotte and Bob have lunch in a sushi bar where another conversation is talked about where Bob talks about the pain he’s received from a massage. Charlotte then reveals a bump on her foot that she had a few days ago where her toe is becoming swollen and in classic, comedic form, Murray talks to a sushi chef about the toe and wonders if they serve, black toe. There, Bob accompanies Charlotte to the hospital in another hilarious moment where Harris tries to understand Japanese with an old man.
Now, earlier I indicated the criticism of Americans being lazy for not learning languages when traveling to foreign countries. In this scene, it doesn’t matter because the only thing that isn’t foreign or translated is humor. I’m not sure what the old man was saying but the scene with him and Murray is just classic as the two try to talk to each other in their respective languages while Murray’s Bob Harris character is waiting for Charlotte finishing her foot X-ray, where in that scene, Charlotte somewhat understands the doctor, who is talking to her in Japanese. It’s just a funny and very human moment where at the end of the day, the best form of language is humor.
After a few scenes that involved Charlotte looking at pictures of John and Bob practicing putting in their respective rooms. They meet again for another night on the town with Charlie at an exotic strip club. Charlotte asks where Charlie is and Bob says, “Oh, he is over there taking dance lessons”. They leave while looking at the lights and a truck of Bob’s Suntory ad in light and the jazz club where they both laugh at hearing Kelly butcher a Carly Simon classic. Later, comes probably the most emotionally dramatic moments of the film that begins with Charlotte suffering from jetlag to the electro-throb of Kevin Shields’ “Are You Awake?” The track really captures a pulse of alienation where Charlotte just looks around and reads magazines and then sees a message slipped under her door. It’s from Bob who just says, “Are you awake?”
She comes to his hotel room where the two drink champagne and watch Federico Fellini’s classic 1960 film “La Dolce Vita” starring the late Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg. While watching the film, the two discuss how they first saw each other where Ekberg’s transfixes them during her call for Mastroianni to join her in that fountain in Italy, one of the greatest scenes in cinema. For them, it was a night for them to enjoy themselves where Charlotte later asks Bob about why the Japanese switches the R’s and L’s here where he responds, “It’s because we’re not making them laugh so they have to amuse themselves”. In response, Charlotte says, “Let’s never come here again because it wouldn’t be so much fun”. In many aspects, it’s true. If they did reunite years later, it wouldn’t be as much fun because they would be different people and that’s where the fear begins about their own lives.
Charlotte finally opens up about her self-loathing, notably when she has the urge to create for herself. She tried taking pictures and tried to write about things but is often critical on herself. Bob tells her to keep trying and figure it out for herself. He says he’s not worried about her being an artist if she tried. Then Charlotte comes to the question of marriage in which, Bob finally opens up and admits, it’s hard and it’s not easy. He admits at first, things with him and his wife were fine until his career was in gear and they weren’t the same after that. Then he said the scariest day of your life is when you’re first child is born and your life is gone, never to return. For Bob, his kids mean everything to him because they become the greatest group of people he’s ever met but now that’s he’s often away to put a roof over their head and feed them, he’s learning that they don’t really need him since their mother is there.
Watching that very poignant scene from my view showed how far Bill Murray has become as an actor. While Murray’s always done some sort of lowbrow comedy to entertain his audience but if there was one film prior to “Lost in Translation” that showed is ability in a straightforward dramatic scene, it was in “Groundhog Day”. The scene in “Groundhog Day” that was poignant I think for myself and some fans was a scene where Bill Murray told Andie MacDowell’s character about her ambitions and desires in a very well-mannered town that was just charming. In “Lost in Translation”, that conversation with him and Scarlett Johansson about the fear of marriage showed Murray being a very restraint tone towards his performance by just revealing not just the dangers of marriage but growing up.
That scene not only opened Harris’ life to Charlotte but also to himself where it would lead him to open a door that he probably has looked at briefly but would now go in there fully. What would come later in the film are Bob’s own undoing and his exploration of his own self-loathing and how his own life has now become meaningless to everyone around him. There is probably an obvious fear among everyone about growing up and getting married. The biggest fear I think when they reach middle age, it’s the point where you feel if your life is meaningful to anyone and how useful can you be. For Bob Harris, it’s the beginning of him looking back into his own life and career and maybe he realized, it’s become meaningless and the biggest blow is the fact the kids don’t need him.
Then, there’s that question I talked about earlier concerning John in relation to Harris. Well, there are some signs that maybe John will treat Charlotte in the same way Bob’s relationship is to his wife. Then again, Bob stated that for a while, they had fun and then it just got lost when family arrived. If John and Charlotte had stayed married, it would be a very dull marriage with John maybe finally waking up and realizing what’s just happened and why Charlotte never left him. It’s a very scary place to be in when you don’t realize what you’re doing those you love. This is where I think is Charlotte’s emergence into coming out of her own to find her own answers. She goes to Kyoto to find some answers for herself in a very beautiful scene that involved a traditional Japanese wedding where the wife is hiding her face. Charlotte is just seeking answers that would maybe guide her to a peace of mind and happiness that she’s been seeking for since her arrival in Japan including a scene where she pinned a note to a tree, that Johansson never revealed and it will never be shown.
Bob Harris meanwhile, goes back to work when he doesn’t want to where he talks himself into appearing in a TV talk show with host Matthew Minami (Takashi Fuji) for Matthew’s Best TV Hit. While the actual episode shown on DVD is a total riot with the boisterous Minami and Murray getting himself involved with touching something very disgusting, in the film, it’s a bit funny but also sad. We see Harris come undone with a disintegrating marriage where he engages in something that would hurt him and everyone he cares for including Charlotte. On the eve of Bob’s departure, Charlotte returns from Kyoto to find him in a very inappropriate manner. On their lunch, she turns all of her frustrations on him with him taking all of the criticism from her while fighting back a bit. Later that night, those feelings are gone when Charlotte learns he’s leaving to return home but he tells her he doesn’t want to and just be with her for a while where they’re forced to say goodbye.
The next day would lead to the most talked-about endings in the history of cinema where many compared it to the final scene in Michael Curtiz’s “Casablanca”. Notably because of what wasn’t said in front of the audience. The thing Bob Harris whispered in Charlotte’s ear in the streets of Tokyo just as he was about to leave isn’t just the most emotional but also the most intriguing. Many wonder what did Harris whispered into Charlotte’s ear? You know what, that was something the audience wasn’t supposed to know. For the first time in my own knowledge of cinema, the actors were given the freedom to not reveal anything and just said whatever. Sofia Coppola doesn’t know either and maybe Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson have forgotten what was said.
If I knew what was the real answer, for me it would totally ruin the entire movie for me. It’s because it’s something that I don’t want to know and it’s something only the actors have and it’s none of my business. So the next best thing for me is to keep guessing and play with it for a bit. Maybe it’s a metaphor disguised in gibberish and if I did find out myself without any information from the filmmakers, actors, experts, or anything. I wouldn’t tell you either. I would rather keep the mystique and romanticism of the entire film and it’s something I will treasure for myself, hopefully to tell the people involved with that film in what I think was said. After that, comes a very climatic ending to a perfect song that doesn’t just describe the film but also, provides a fond ending to a modern day masterpiece.
“Listen to the girl as she takes on half the world. Moving up and so alive. In her honey-dripping beehive, beehive, it’s good, so good, it’s so good, so good. Walking back to you is the hardest thing that I can do. For you, I’ll be your plastic toy; I’ll be your plastic toy, for you. Eating up the scum is the hardest thing for me to do”.
-“Just Like Honey” by the Jesus & Mary Chain from “Psychocandy”
© thevoid99/Ikebana/Okrad/Charlotte Holloway Publishings, 2004.
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