Thursday, March 04, 2004

Went to watch "Lost In Translation" before the choir performance today. I'd been meaning to watch it after I read the review of it in ST Life!, and it being set in Japan was definitely a plus.

It was very... well, the only word I can think of is subtle. Everything was about nuances - the gossamer-like threads of meaning in language, in culture, in actions, in the things left unsaid. I would have said it was titled very aptly, because so many meanings were just that - lost in translation. It truly explored the inadequacy of words to convey all that emotion and subtle feelings, the kind you can't really explain and you can't really put your finger on because it just is, and there is nothing in any human tongue you can say to do justice to it. And of course Japan has to be the most suitable place and culture to really express those subtleties. I liked the way it portrayed the dichotomy that is Japan - how so much of the traditional culture and language is about those undertones and the various shades of meaning (the chanting Shinto monks, the steps on the lily pond in the shrine, the concept of ikebana, the groom offering his bride a hand... ) that cannot be translated satisfactorily into any other language, yet the modern culture can be absolutely crass and in-your-face and exaggerated at the same time.

And all these fragile and intangible things was very much what the relationship between Bob and Charlotte was about. Two people who seemed to have connected at a level where sex was not really an issue, two lost and lonely people finding solace in each other in that cacophany and the bright-lights of Tokyo... two people trying to find their place in Life. There was this scene where the two were in bed, just talking (reminds me of Philip Larkin's "Talking In Bed", except these two really had something to talk about). And falling asleep talking, with absolutely zero sexual tension, nor a need for it to make that scene seem complete and right. Cynics like me may simply write it off as two foreigners on foreign soil seeking something familiar for comfort and warmth, and frankly in my opinion it probably is why this entire relationship started out anyway. And yet there was something in that relationship that went beyond that... another feeling and nuance I can't put into words.

The ending didn't agree with me however. Somehow I would have found that ending more poignant if it had ended without the kiss... maybe just end with Bob catching a glimpse of Charlotte from his car, and she turning part-way to show that lovely side-profile, her obvious non-Asian-ness setting her apart from the crowd, and she not seeing his car pass. Or perhaps it should just have ended with the hug in the middle of the street as the world around them continued to move and live and breathe, and go about their own business. It just seemed too overt, and spoils the beauty of the nuances in the movie *shrug* Oh well...

the dead woman murmured 3/04/2004 09:26:00 AM
|

mood

Translation:
Nemo nisi mors.


the subject

utopist. dreamer. cynic. poet. a contradiction. eccentric. cartesian. a starlight in the gloom.

The patient, born in 1984, suffers from a history of idealism of unknown onset and duration.

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