Japanese and American culture in Lost in Translation

Good directing seems to run in the Coppola family. Lost in Translation is a unique, beautiful movie of an American romance set against surreal Japanese culture and you end up not wanting to leave Tokyo.

Tokyo itself is, of course, indescribably weird. Japanese post-war culture so embraced the ideals of capitalism and modernity that the cult of the corporation is almost religious. Everywhere is neon, everyone is shopping and personalities are defined by what people buy. Hobbies are just so many accessories. And through it all runs the Japanese masochistic tension, the absurdity of which only Bill Murray’s deadpan humour can bring out.

The classic translation joke, for instance, is done to perfection as a Japanese ad director prep talks Murray’s character for 3 minutes at a time but all the translator can offer is: “Look into camera with intensity.”

“Are you sure? It seemed to me like he said a whole lot more.” Murray queries.

The painful formality of communication, the rigid Japanese hierarchy and protocol are done to perfection and the protagonists seem relaxed in comparison. The two cultures meet like oil and water and Murray and Johansson get to float above the usual confines of age and social setting and drift into a hotel romance.

Both characters are married and they come together in a subtle meeting of souls that is never consummated but wavers on the edge of physicality as they find themselves alone in a foreign metropolis. With each day more surreal than the next, they’re the only two who get the joke that, to everyone else around them, their partners included, is lost in translation.

Whether they’re watching absurd Japanese game shows where contestants drop spaghetti into each others’ mouths or else going to restaurants where they’re expected to cook their own fish (a standard in Japan but freaky for Americans), their mutual disorientation mirrors their own lost life states. Lying on the bed of Murray’s hotel room, Johansson asks:

“Does it get any easier?”

Murray replies:

“No,” then “Yes. As you get older and you figure out what you want, you don’t let things upset you so much.”

Part of the magic of Lost in Translation is simply that the movie can be slowed down to include a conversation so authentic and relevant to most people’s lives. The dialogue doesn’t lead anywhere, it just leads. Neither of them know what they’re doing or why except that against the backdrop of a surreal Japanese culture and in the limbo of a hotel, their subtle relationship is the only thing that makes sense.

Japan and Japanese culture isn’t mocked or derided in Lost in Translation, it’s just shown against an American foil. Whether it’s swimming pool aerobics, courtesy prostitutes who simulate rape scenes or just the national obsession for karaoke, Tokyo seems like one of the most fun places on the planet to fly and have a week long hotel romance.