Ref. recent (Jan.4) NY Times article and responses to it
'Hollywood's Land Of The Rising Sun'
subtitle ' This seasons Japan movies : naive, racist ,
well intended, accurate - or all of the above ?
Article scans elements of "The Last Samurai" ,
"Lost In Translation" and "Kill Bill" for the above .
Well into the article 'L In Translation' is summed up
like this
'with it's more intimate scale,
traveler's eye perspective and
absence of convincing native characters ...'
Hmmm
I saw a few in the movie ...
There is Hayashi ('actor' , a publisher really) ,
who plays the Japanese party guy who goes out with
Bill Murray's character on his break out from Hotel in Tokyo .
They go to lapdance place and on for drunken karaoke
where Bill croaks / croon the words to a bland karaoke version of "More Then This " by Roxy Music .
Having met Hayashi , I can believe Hayashi was in his heaven in those scenes .
Ditto the TV host scene . Matthew Minami nailed it .
There are shows like his on everynight in Tokyo
Noted to mention the Tokyo ites in all the street scenes doing their part as an extended cast
Anyone's who's ever been a traveler to Tokyo
could laugh at the non - communication and easy visual jokes
and can prolly add a great story or 2 -
possibly ones about using the automated, computerized toilets,
or trying to find your way around where everything is in Japanese (although it did get much better in the 1990's) .
but the movie did get the feel of the kind of alienation
of Tokyo for a foreigner .
More feel, for example ,
than the bad set finale in the "New Rose Hotel"
film version of William Gibson's story by Abel Ferrara.
Down and just about out , lying low
in the blown aftermath of a 'Corporate extraction'
in a rented space in a capsule Hotel
somewhere by the Tokyo Bay docks.
Could have been an interesting visual , but the production subbed some no budget space for the sleek capsule Hotel
I/we were waiting for , ruining a chance to affect .
Nice views out those high Tokyo Hotel windows ...
mental note : to remind to see sunrise from Roppongi Hills next time
Nice soundtrack too .
Great hear Kevin Shields really weighing back in
Still , many Asians viewers and online
had/ have serious complaints about the portrayals of Asians,
that's a whole thing onto itself , but i hear them too .
At least people can talk about it after seeing the movie.
I thought it was mostly funny
We're interested to see how it does in Japan when it opens this spring
