Lost in translation is a 2003 movie directed by Sofia Coppola starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. It presents the lives of two individuals, Charlotte and Bob, while on a trip in Japan for a brief period of time and for different reasons; they meet, they talk about life and I would say that that is just about it. In a way the movie represents the “what ifs” one stumbles upon constantly in life, the way personal dimensions interact with one another and how desires and circumstances factor in. What is lost in translation in this case, other than the linguistic barrier that exists when approaching another language and culture, is the theme of the unseen.
The movie merely drops crumbs of background, details of the life of the two protagonists; their story, as important as it is, is there just as an outline and in the end is superfluous. Bob is a known actor who is in Tokyo for work; he is probably having a mid-life crisis and marital problems, mostly finding it difficult to communicate with his wife. Charlotte is on a trip with her husband who is absorbed by work; she has a major in philosophy and is traversing a difficult moment as she is trying to find out what to do in life.
They meet through a glance, a chance encounter that will lead up to them searching for each other’s company various times because of their sleeplessness. Many scenes have a note of sadness to them because of how the protagonists feel, trapped or stuck in their current condition, but this is counterbalanced by a certain purity and wholesomeness when the two of them interact. Their dissatisfaction and regret towards their previous circumstances is swept away by the moments they are living. In each other’s company they find bliss, a momentary safe heaven and happiness, and yet even they realize that it is not something that is meant to last or something that is meant to be. The game of genuine smiles and wholesome moments that the two share will be just a moment suspended in time; yet, after their encounters, after a somewhat embarrassing goodbye, there is that final moment the movie decides to keep for itself. That moment, that could lead viewers to ask several different questions, is the perfect conclusion to a movie that magnifies a single moment in someone’s life.
Lost in translation is certainly not for everyone, it is probably a “hit-or-miss” type of movie as you either like it or don’t. The fact that certain interactions between the characters are filled with silence to the point of embarrassment or the fact that certain scenes, including the cinematographic ones that depict Japan, do not advance the plot, if at all there is such a thing to be identified as plot, are things that might make the movie seem slow-paced. On the other hand, these scenes also constitute the fundamental beauty of the movie.
Lost in translation depicts more than just the difficulties of communication with the other; it also emphasis the difficulties of interpersonal interaction and the complications that arise in conversations with one’s self. It shows how difficult some moments may be, those moments when one feels “stuck” or “lost”, while also giving the perception that one way or another they are part of life. If it is a question of finding the “right moment”, it is also true that there is never such a moment as things just tend to happen; that is also part of the intrinsic beauty that surrounds us and that the movie partially portrays.
I would give this movie a good 8 out of 10 “EasyPeasyJapaneseys”.