I saw this recently but right at the end where they meet in the Alleyway/ mall thing Murray whispers something to the girl… what did he say? The sound system in the theatre ‘dropped’ right out at this point…
it’s deliberate. he whispers, but the audience doesnt get to hear.
(lol. this reminds of the xmen 2 post about the ending. is that phoenix’s/jean grey’s shadow?)
Thx for the clarification, the sound had been dropping out the whole time so I couldnt tell. Hearing My Bloody Valentine on the big screen in tinny low level volume was really disappointing.
My wife and I just saw the movie this past weekend. We both agreed that it was the “realest” or “truest” movie we’d ever seen. It was rather depressing, though. IMO, the most unique thing about the movie was how it told a simple story without airbrushing or overdramatizing it. I think the audience was really drawn into the mood of the film, not just because the actors played their characters well, but also because it was so easy (or uncomfortably easy) to relate to the story.
I think the fuss about Japanese or anti-Japanese stereotypes is extremely overblown. I’ve been to Japan and my wife has been there quite a few times. We both agreed that all of the “stereotypes” in the movie were actually quite based on reality, or at the very least based on reality as an educated foreign visitor to Japan would see it. If the movie were about Japan, this might be a disappointment. However, the movie is not at all about Japan. 
Concerning doctors speaking English, I have no idea if Japanese doctors can speak it. However, I’ve been to plenty of Taiwanese doctors who can’t speak English at all, except for a few medical terms. Maybe they can read it well, but they always spoke to me in Chinese, even when I asked them to repeat or simplify what they were explaining. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if most Japanese doctors can’t speak English.
As for the steretypes…
I find the fact that Tom Cruise could be “The Last Samurai” far more offensive toward Japanese culture than some joke about shower height.
[quote=“alidarbac”]What was interesting/disappointing was it’s lame Chinese name. I think it was
anyone notice how Bill Murray holds his chopsticks in LIT? Holds them in the middle. How can he eat that way?
i dont know but maybe bill was arranging an assignation stateside with scarlett…if you want to believe this then it gives the movie a happy ending after all…anyone like to put some words into bill’s mouth?
[color=red]SPOILERS[/color]
Here is a fairly negative review of it. I wonder if they will ever show the movie in Japan? Maybe we should invite Sofia to visit Taipei?
[quote=“lane119”]
i once stayed with an ex-girlfriend in bangkok at le royal meriden and i have to say it was my worse ever stay in bangkok simply cos you’re so closeted in a luxury hotel you really struggle to have any “real” experience…
that said lets not forget its not only japanese culture bill and scarlett are escaping from but also their respective spouses and the out of control cameron diaz character
I just saw the film.
Good, but very slow and the KTV scenes were overly long.
I thought they could have come up with more funny culture contrasts than they did.
I saw it with a Japanese person who thought it was OK; she laughed a lot, but she said it was very definitely a foreigner-constructed movie from the foreigner perspective.
Surely that was the whole point: conveying the way a first-time visitor would look at Japan.
The movie really made me think how someone in my family, none of whom has been to Asia, would view Taiwan compared to my own view. People walking around slapping themselves in the park; people wearing jackets back-to-front on scooters; people taking out their garbage in their underwear - it’s bizarre!
I thought the hotel scenes were terrific. It’s amazing how 5-star luxury hotels are always so insipid and anodyne. I guess because they are designed to suit the business traveller - no doubt designed by men, chiefly for men.
No wonder people commit suicide in them.
All hotels aspire to be anodyne, do they not?
Perhaps you meant “antiseptic,” as in something devoid of enlivening or enriching qualities?
No Wolfie, I meant what I meant:
Insipid in the sense of bland and lacking personality
But aren’t those hotels just so lush and luxurious you want to wallow in the gloss and plumphiness? They’re best in summer when the room temp is just right. The hallways are so quiet and soothing. You can order those triangle sandwiches and pots of coffee via room service, loot the mini bar, watch the pay for movies…
And they put the little chocolates on your pillow when they turn the bed down…why bother to leave that?
[quote=“Alien”]But aren’t those hotels just so lush and luxurious you want to wallow in the gloss and plumphiness? They’re best in summer when the room temp is just right. The hallways are so quiet and soothing. You can order those triangle sandwiches and pots of coffee via room service, loot the mini bar, watch the pay for movies…
And they put the little chocolates on your pillow when they turn the bed down…why bother to leave that?[/quote]
Because it gets real old real fast. You soon lose any sense of belonging anywhere, and feel condemned to a comfy and soulless prison just on the other side of the glass from the real world. Didn’t you notice all the shots of the city outside the glass from the characters in the film, pulsing and breathing, just beyond their reach? The high point of the film is when they break that barrier and get out into the city for a little while.
Actually, the feeling of the movie (outside of Murray’s desperate comedy) reminded me of “Happy Together”, which I liked quite a bit. Both were dark and depressing, offered a glimpse of salvation followed by a return to purgatory. Very little dialogue in both as well, but lots of feeling.
I think all this stuff about the movie stereotyping the Japanese is hogwash. It is not supposed to be a study in sociology, it’s a comedy movie.
It was not racist or offensive toward Japanese.
ok let me put it this way, I don’t think someone who non Japanese can really say if this film was stereotypical or not. I mean it is hard to say because for non-Japanese, they don’t have enough cultural or background understanding to comprehend what is racist and what isn’t.
As a Taiwanese American, I was watching the film, and being a “semi” foreigner to Taiwan, I could say that I relate to a few of the things the main character had gone through. However, one thing that really does bug me, is that it has a sort of negative undertone – a bit like, the 2 main characters don’t even wish to be there, and though their acting is alright, their thoughts and feelings just don’t come through. Whatever point Coppola was trying to make was definitely not evident enough for most viewers.
It seemed like, all the images Coppola had were very strange and negative. It was as if, all the stories or experiences Coppola may have had in Japan, she tried to condense in a 1 week period in this movie. I mean, the average Japanese would not have gone thru what the main character had gone thru (the mature ‘weird’ prostitute, the game show, esp. the doctors not speaking any lick of english, the strip bar), I mean sure these things are present in Japan, but come on, Coppola seemed to imply that All of Japan was like this given a 1 week stay-- video games, KTV’s , superficiality, and just a really odd culture.
At least she could have put more thought into providing a more balanced and realistic view of the environment. She could have explained her story a little better too, it just seemed lacking a lot of things.
why does she have to provide a balanced view of the environment? the film is about alienation. just because she’s a westerner making a film set in japan doesn’t mean she has to portray japan in a wholly positive light. that’s like saying any asian movie with the us as a setting needs to show it in a positive light.
japan is the backdrop for the movie, not the focus of the movie itself. the movie could have just as easily used korea, taiwan, thailand, etc. as the setting.