The name of the movie is called Lost in Translation, made by the director Sofia Coppola in the year 2003. The story is about two Americans meeting in Tokyo and the culture different make two people close up. There are three main themes that the director wants to show audience. The first one is lonely, second is culture shock, and the last one is sadness.
The story was beginning at a grand hotel in Tokyo. The movie star Bob Harris and woman Charlotte meet each other. Charlotte’s husband John was full passion about the work and almost ignores her, the woman Charlotte was feel lonely and do not understand all of her husband. Beside of them, the man Harris use be a movie star in the past, however, with the time pass he was not young and not popular enough. He just comes to the Tokyo for some advertisement which he do not like. In the end, they meet and help each other to live in the strange country. It is a love story but a little bit sad.
The first and main theme about the movie is lonely. At the beginning of the story, the Harris sits in a taxi and no energy on his face although it is activity outside and it is a new country for him.
Harris just sit in the car and feel tired and lonely.
Beside of them, a lot of shot in the hotel make the atmosphere support the main theme. Two people sit in the hotel bar and silence all the time, but behind of them are really noisy. The third shot is both characters sit in the room and look the TV set, all the program they do not understand and feel bored and of course lonely. The directors Coppola use a lot of the close up camera shot to explain two main character’s emotion. And also use the point of view to show it. And be a audience, it is really easy to catch the feeling because when we feels lonely, it is quite normal to look around and looks unhappy. Secondly, the director use a lot of comparison skills such as environment comparison and sound comparison to show the lonely. For example, Charlotte walking on the street and look around without purpose, and all the pedestrians looks busy.
Charlotte walking on the street without purpose.
That contrast can be easy to catch audience attention. That is the environment contrast. The sound contrast is easy to appear. Some kind of Asian music was chosen in this movie, compare with the whole background, the audience can feel the character’s psychological very clearly.
The culture shock is the second and big theme that the director wants to show. The two characters are from western country but the directors choose Tokyo to be the background. Be a audience it is hard to understand why the director doing like that. However, deep think about the whole story, it will be easy to know that. The Asian culture and the western culture have a great different. The director just use that shock to film the movie, and show the deep lonely in both characters. On the other hand, the whole story is based on a love story between two Americans trapped in Tokyo. Their relationship is fueled by their feelings of displacement in the strange world of Japan. Because the love story is based on characters feelings of being outcasts, Coppola has chosen to use and exaggerate many Japanese stereotypes current in American culture. She has used stereotypes of size, manners, and language differences to make the Japanese people seem weird and different. One of the evidence is the man Harris join a TV show in the Tokyo. And from the whole program he just smiles and do not understand what the host said.
Harris joins into a Japanese program.
Furthermore, the Japanese host talks a lot of jokes and try to make the atmosphere nice. But Harris cannot put his energy into it and look really bored. Medium shot and close up are best way to show character’s emotion, director Coppola uses a lot of medium shot and close up to show each person psychology. Compare with others, the man Harris feel absolutely bored and helpless. Therefore, the audiences are easy to understand what happened at that time and sympathy the man Harris. The second scene is happened at Harris join the advertisement. Japanese director in the movie try to talk to him and asking his to the thing which he want. But with the translator Harris still do not understand his meaning and they camera the advertisement again and again.
Harris in a advertisement.
The culture shock is a big part of the movie that the Coppola wants to show us.
Both characters close to each other and talk.
The third theme about the movie is sadness. The director Coppola balance of humor and poignancy makes it both a pleasurable and melancholy experience. There's nothing labored or forced in the exploration of the undefined yet intense relationship and the insights about this type of brief but indelibly memorable bond emerge quite casually. However, the lonely and sadness feeling are show from begin to end. Think about, be a foreigner, the language and the different society are really for people to live in different country. All the people can understand the feelings and get resonance. The scene in the karaoke shows a lot of them. All the Japanese really enjoy about that but Harris and Charlotte not, although they looks happy and activity.
Harris singing in karaoke.
Another evidence is happened in the end. In the morning the man Harris say goodbye to the women Charlotte. He will back to his country at that time. Few minutes later, he jump out the car to see her again although he already on the way. Finally, big hugs between them make the whole movie more sweaty and move to ending.
Say goodbye
It is a love story in the end but full of pain. The pain and sadness not only by their action but also into their psychology. I got some research about the director Coppola’s background. She makes the movie Lost in Translation after her lovelorn. It is possible for her just to show her own feeling in the real life. Some of the long shot express the whole background and the noisy city Tokyo. However, the character’s psychology will be sadness all the time. On the other hand, some of the camera shot in the movie expresses her emotion about Japan. Therefore, Tokyo might be taking some great memoires for her and she want to show it exactly. All in all, the third theme sadness will be related her real life.
In conclusion, the movie lost in Translation includes three main themes which are lonely, culture shock and sadness. Each of the theme the director Coppola use different shot to explain it. Last one is music in the background. The director uses two main kind of music in the film. One is Japanese traditional music and anther one is slow music. Both of them show lonely and culture shock. Looking for the whole story, it is slow and quiet. All the things around are strange and two characters more close up because they support each other. It was a warm story when the audience appreciate it and should be get a lot of memory after it.
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