Friday, October 3
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Lost in Translation [journal] I saw Lost in Translation a few days ago. It was a great movie even though it probably didn't accurately present to us Japan. I had to write a multicultural essay on it and here's chunks of my work: Lost in Translation focuses on two North Americans temporarily living in Japan. It is a story about an aging movie star prostituting his last inkling of fame to advertise a Japanese whisky; it is about a lonely newlywed wife who married a career obsessed husband. In this foreign city they share a mutual insomnia and the story of their life. They share it in the cocktail lounges, the karaoke bar and sushi restaurants of Japan. Through this, the audience is shown behavioural norms of Japan and how cultural identity can be created from a culture of two.Here's a major chunk of my paragraph talking about behavioural norms: There is one scene in the movie that epitomizes the behavioural norms theme seen throughout the movie. It involved the director of a commercial, who was expressive, passionate and talkative. He described in Japanese to Bob Harris (the actor) exactly what he wanted Harris to do. After a minute of exaggerated Japanese explanation, the English translator said to Harris, "He wants you to turn to the camera." As beautiful, detailed and ancient as Japan is, the viewer as a stranger will only absorb so little. When we are shown the many Japanese behavioural norms, it is not so much lost in translation, like the director's instructions, as it is lost in depiction. That is, when they show rows of Japanese women and men thanking Mr. Harris (for no apparent reason at all except for allowing himself to be thanked) and bowing their heads, we laugh because we take it as a small part of what really is a deeper traditional and behavioural norm we know nothing about. When we see an effeminate talk show host making hearts with his fingers and doing little dances we laugh. We laugh because we see it as a peculiar exotic dance and a strange way of behaving. We don't see it as the evolution of Japanese tradition. Here's a bit about my cultural identity paragraph: They disagree with the values at home, they feel distant from the group they are a part of and they don't understand themselves. Now placed in Japan, a foreign country, this confusion is only accentuated. The strangeness of Japan is a looking glass into the strangeness of their lives. However, they eventually find salvation through each other by creating a subculture of two.I enjoyed writing this essay, but what I really wanted was to have complete control with it. I wanted to write a movie review, but I was constrained to writing about cultural identity and behavioural norms! If you enjoyed the movie a good interview with Sophia Coppola (the director) can be found HERE.
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