A delightful touch of aphrodisiac lights in Tokyo takes you to an exciting fortress of solitude as Sophia Coppola expressly sets the locations in the busy aesthetic city of Japan. Lost in Translation has been nominated for four academy awards and won Best Original Screenplay- for Coppola, she immediately idolizes and ponders Tokyo as the right setting for her cinematic image of a place that is known but nowhere to be found.
Lost in Translation, played by two talented stars of different generations (Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson), flawlessly meet the expectations of an "on-the-sly-yet-liberal" love affair. Bob Harris (Murray), struggling with a mid-life crisis, is an American actor who lands in Tokyo to film his whiskey advertisement. On the other hand, Charlotte (Johansson), a young college graduate married to a celebrity photographer with whom she's unsure of having much of a future, finds Bob in a hotel they both reside in during their stay in the city.
With both perspectives' given explanation, Director Coppola leaves viewers expecting an intimate scenario that is never bound to continue as she tries to capture the character's fondness together in a slow-mannered way. Instead, however, it is quite a film that translated emotions even when one is lost, giving the clarity it deserves.
An open-ended cliffhanger is the best when both discretely whisper as Bob departs. Creating curiosity about what could've happened, the anticipation of a new wave relationship, a sex scene, leaving each other's family, or perhaps just living lives separately. Life goes on.
How did I start becoming a film geek?
"A great film is when it reaches you. It's direct with no pretensions, no bullshits. Just life."
I vividly remember those definitive artistic utters of my classmates back in college when indie films were being justified on the table in front of our pop-culture professor. We would sometimes skip classes (forgive me, mother) to watch movies and analyze whatever we thought had meaning, even though it probably was just as hypothetical as it seemed.
Influential directors like Woody Allen, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, Greta Gerwig, and many more have been brought into existence. I find them very intriguing. Then I started writing film reviews in 2016 for personal satisfaction and only shared them with some people I felt comfortable sharing with.
A close friend once told me that a cohesive narrative plays a vital role in appreciating films. At first, I didn't understand how to distinguish a great movie from a not-so-good one. The expressive approach in storytelling is straight to the point without hesitation, which gives an open understanding between the author's purpose and the reader's interpretation.
I actually asked him why. "A great film is when it reaches you. It's direct with no pretensions, no bullshits. Just life." he says.
There's no life without films and vice versa. These visual narratives are our vague reality in the past, present, and future. I might be right or wrong with my explanations and assumptions of my writings. However, I do hope films will make us more aware of comprehending life compassionately without judgments.