February 10th, 2004
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Lost in Translation (thoughts)
I finally got to see Lost in Translation last night. I probably should have gone to bed since I was still beat beyond form from skiing, but I couldn’t contain my curiousity any longer. Usually when I hear a lot of public hype about a movie, I get let down. Case in point, Finding Nemo. Hundreds of millions at the box office, Japanese premiere, Sony Mediage and a twenty-dollar ticket- I’m exceptionally let down. It took two and a half additional viewings on the plane from DC to allow me to begin treating it with respect. It’ll still never reach the plateau in my mind I had it set up for but that’s life.
However, Lost… followed suit with other personal recommendations of less general appeal (such as American Beauty) and did not let me down. It’s not a Midnight Cowboy, but it’s a good film (as opposed to movie). I think it’ll grow on me more and more too, I listened to it while at work this afternoon.
A lot of people have asked me if Tokyo is really like that. Though I believe that no one picture can even show a fraction of this amazing city, they actually didn’t distort or blow anything out of proportion. I found myself thinking the camera filters (and/or post production) were a little kind to the outdoor atmospheric tinting, but that’s completely legitimate for cinema. Other than that, all the personalities and attractions were pretty on.
It’s a nice piece: the characters are real, the dialogue is interesting and absolutely nothing is phony. I think it’s the genuine nature and lack of phoniness that turns me on to it so much. The soundtrack works well but it’s too short. I wonder what forces govern how much of a CD’s seventy-four minutes are used at release.
It’s got me thinking, which is a good thing, but I think so much anyway so I’m not sure if that says anything.
