Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola is a famous film director in America and one important
characteristic of her movies is the topic of the films is all about young ladies.
The movie I will talk about is “Lost in Translation”, this movie is the one of the most representative works of Sofia Coppola. This film is talking about an outdated
start Bob Harris who goes to Tokyo to shoot an advertisement, he feels
lonely and boring in Tokyo and he meet a girl in Tokyo, her name is Charlotte, she is a beautiful girl and she just graduate from university, she married with a photographer, but he is always busy in his work. He always ignores her and left her at hotel. Because of these reasons, two lonely people go together to enjoy party and going to Karaoke and so on, they enjoy their Tokyo life. But at the end of the movie they kiss goodbye. They will on their own way in the future.
At first, sexy Charlotte appear on the screen, at that moment the audience may think this movie maybe a “sexy” movie. But what happen later, there is not any relative to “sexy”. I think it is a way to grab audience’s attention at the beginning of the movie. With the movie going, some scenes express the lonely emotion of Charlotte, such as she is lean against the window, sitting in the bathtub with headphone by herself or she holds an umbrella in the street and the director always put a lively background in order to stand out Charlotte’s lonely. Charlotte still trying to make phone calls to her friend to pour out her complaints but unfortunately she only got perfunctory attitude. Especially the behaviour of her husband, we can remember a sense, her husband has a beautiful friend, she is a famous idol, one night, they talking happily in the pub, and Charlotte sitting next to them, but she seems no words to say, just looking at her husband and the famous idol talking, she knows she is ignored by her husband and her husband only interested in his job, she has no job, nothing to do everyday, and there is a big comparison between the husband and wife.
About the Bob Harris, he got family, but he plays an unimportant role in his family, and his cause is going down day by day. He is disappoint of his life, he goes to Japan, in his view, he unaccustomed everything of Japan, For example, he is not interested in the TV shows, and he does not know how to use chopsticks. He is living in eastern country and experiencing a totally different society, he thinks life is hopeless, it seems that every thing is no colourful till he meets Charlotte.
Two lonely people got their own trouble in Tokyo, they often can not fall asleep at night, and they live in the same hotel, so they meet each other quite often, day by day they becoming “good friends”, the reason why I use quotation marks is the relationship between them seems that not only just friends, the feeling is ambiguous, they found they always come alone when they meet each other every time, as a result they on the same way to eliminate the lonely, they having party, they go and sing karaoke, drunk together. It seems that they found a way to “solve” the boring life. With the movie going they even sleep in the bed together, but they do nothing. So the relationship of them is between lover and friend.
BUT
The turning point of the movie is one day in the morning, Charlotte goes and visit Bob Harris but she hear the sound of singing from Bob Harris’s room, she knows Bob Harris sleep with the singer last night. From now on they feel embarrassed, they had a lunch with a unhappy ending, ambiguous feeling of them is broken, at night the alarm in hotel blaring, the girl meet the man outside the hotel, they talk to each other, but the conversation sound likes meaningless, just like symbolic greeting, film so far, audiences may think the girl will hate the man from now on, their relationship has been finished immediately, but the result is quite different, the night before leave they know they are loath to part with each other, but the dream always must be finished at the end, each story must have a ending happy or sad, they know their role of their life, they should on their own way tomorrow, but at the end of the movie ,they recall the past memory, they know they miss each other, so they kiss goodbye in the street.
About the scene
The first time they meet is in the life, and the life has so many people, why Sofia Coppola chooses life as their first meet scene? Because the crowd and small space bring us the strong depressive feeling, it can much more easily to demonstrate the film title “lost in translation” it means everything is unsure in Tokyo. And also every time when he in the lift, he found he always the tallest guy in the life, from this we can know, he is the visitor to this country, a different race here, everybody is different to him, he just like the fish out of the water.
Second, When Bob Harris shoot the advertisement, the director is a Japanese, the director always shout to Bob in Japanese, but Bob can not understand what did he said, and another photographer talk to him with the bad English, Bob have to guess what did he said, this two scene give me a feeling is that in this country I am totally a outsider, I can not into this city, so feel very lonely a helpless.
Third
Sofia Coppola is a famous film director in America and one important
characteristic of her movies is the topic of the films is all about young ladies.
The movie I will talk about is “Lost in Translation”, this movie is the one of the most representative works of Sofia Coppola. This film is talking about an outdated
start Bob Harris who goes to Tokyo to shoot an advertisement, he feels
lonely and boring in Tokyo and he meet a girl in Tokyo, her name is Charlotte, she is a beautiful girl and she just graduate from university, she married with a photographer, but he is always busy in his work. He always ignores her and left her at hotel. Because of these reasons, two lonely people go together to enjoy party and going to Karaoke and so on, they enjoy their Tokyo life. But at the end of the movie they kiss goodbye. They will on their own way in the future.
At first, sexy Charlotte appear on the screen, at that moment the audience may think this movie maybe a “sexy” movie. But what happen later, there is not any relative to “sexy”. I think it is a way to grab audience’s attention at the beginning of the movie. With the movie going, some scenes express the lonely emotion of Charlotte, such as she is lean against the window, sitting in the bathtub with headphone by herself or she holds an umbrella in the street and the director always put a lively background in order to stand out Charlotte’s lonely. Charlotte still trying to make phone calls to her friend to pour out her complaints but unfortunately she only got perfunctory attitude. Especially the behaviour of her husband, we can remember a sense, her husband has a beautiful friend, she is a famous idol, one night, they talking happily in the pub, and Charlotte sitting next to them, but she seems no words to say, just looking at her husband and the famous idol talking, she knows she is ignored by her husband and her husband only interested in his job, she has no job, nothing to do everyday, and there is a big comparison between the husband and wife.
About the Bob Harris, he got family, but he plays an unimportant role in his family, and his cause is going down day by day. He is disappoint of his life, he goes to Japan, in his view, he unaccustomed everything of Japan, For example, he is not interested in the TV shows, and he does not know how to use chopsticks. He is living in eastern country and experiencing a totally different society, he thinks life is hopeless, it seems that every thing is no colourful till he meets Charlotte.
Two lonely people got their own trouble in Tokyo, they often can not fall asleep at night, and they live in the same hotel, so they meet each other quite often, day by day they becoming “good friends”, the reason why I use quotation marks is the relationship between them seems that not only just friends, the feeling is ambiguous, they found they always come alone when they meet each other every time, as a result they on the same way to eliminate the lonely, they having party, they go and sing karaoke, drunk together. It seems that they found a way to “solve” the boring life. With the movie going they even sleep in the bed together, but they do nothing. So the relationship of them is between lover and friend.
BUT
The turning point of the movie is one day in the morning, Charlotte goes and visit Bob Harris but she hear the sound of singing from Bob Harris’s room, she knows Bob Harris sleep with the singer last night. From now on they feel embarrassed, they had a lunch with a unhappy ending, ambiguous feeling of them is broken, at night the alarm in hotel blaring, the girl meet the man outside the hotel, they talk to each other, but the conversation sound likes meaningless, just like symbolic greeting, film so far, audiences may think the girl will hate the man from now on, their relationship has been finished immediately, but the result is quite different, the night before leave they know they are loath to part with each other, but the dream always must be finished at the end, each story must have a ending happy or sad, they know their role of their life, they should on their own way tomorrow, but at the end of the movie ,they recall the past memory, they know they miss each other, so they kiss goodbye in the street.
About the scene
The first time they meet is in the life, and the life has so many people, why Sofia Coppola chooses life as their first meet scene? Because the crowd and small space bring us the strong depressive feeling, it can much more easily to demonstrate the film title “lost in translation” it means everything is unsure in Tokyo. And also every time when he in the lift, he found he always the tallest guy in the life, from this we can know, he is the visitor to this country, a different race here, everybody is different to him, he just like the fish out of the water.
Second, When Bob Harris shoot the advertisement, the director is a Japanese, the director always shout to Bob in Japanese, but Bob can not understand what did he said, and another photographer talk to him with the bad English, Bob have to guess what did he said, this two scene give me a feeling is that in this country I am totally a outsider, I can not into this city, so feel very lonely a helpless.
Third
She sits next to the window by herself. Through the window, she can see the prosperous city and the tall building everywhere, a modern city, but after all a glass window between she and this beautiful city, she can see the city clearly, but she can not touch the city at that moment, and she can see the people laughing and talking, walking in the street, but she can only stay in the hotel, just “enjoy” the quiet bedroom. These scenes represent the lonely as well.
Fourth is Sofia Coppola use language to demonstrate the lonely, such as they are in the hospital, they want ask for some help, but they can not understand the Japanese, is that feel helpless? And when Bob Harris in the waiting room, and a Japanese grandmother talk to him, but we can not say it is a conversation because he can not understand what did she said, but the grandmother is happy, it seems everybody in this city is friendly, but the language, the culture….he thinks the wonderful things in Tokyo are no relative to him at all, he wants said something but nothing to say.
Another one is Bob clumsy using the chopsticks, it is quite funny in the movie for us, he looks like do not know how to use chopsticks, but the sense is meaningful, because it let us know the big difference of culture, so Bob not only has the problem with language, but also have to facing the big problem of culture, and no one can help him in the foreign country.
About the light, we can find a common point of the movie which is they in the room or in the club, always the room come with a slight warm light. The indoor light almost the same through the whole movie, the light can bring us the comfortable, and when Bob Harris talks to Charlotte, always match with the slight warm light, it means the feeling and the life is warm at that moment. To be honest, the story line of this movie is simple, just tell us two American facing their own problem of their life in Japan and these unhappy things let them go together, at last they have to on their own way in the future, but at the end they kiss goodbye in the street, so it left us a thing, they are the lover or just friend? No one knows. And this movie is expressing the strong “lonely” emotion in foreign country, it is a sad story but it is not a depress movie, because Sofia Coppola demonstrate this move by humour way, the bad English of Japanese make us laugh, but it express the helpless of Bob;
Why the movie is successful? In my opinion is this movie using humour to demonstrate lonely emotions and the movie recall many people’s similar memory of their life, help the audience to express the voice they want to say in their heart.
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