By Noriko Miyazaki

When I was younger, so much younger
than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so
self assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind and
opened up the doors.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me?
—From Help by the Beatles

The movie Lost in Translation has rewarded me for years of boredom and loneliness in life. Unlike some “perfect” human, many have felt left behind — all behind of anything they would see and hear in life. We try, but it seems too distant to ever feel satisfied. Translation however sends a message for those lost souls: “All right, here’s the deal. Your situation is not that complicated. You’re not alone.” No, maybe we aren’t alone. We all go through this “what-am-I?-What-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life” state of mind. And the film says that everyone is no different; everyone is wondering who to be. It seems not to matter. It happens to anyone, even in her 20s and in his 50s.

The movie follows the development of a platonic relationship in a foreign country between an aging American movie star and a newlywed Yale graduate.

The old American star, Bob Harris (Bill Murray,) comes all the way to Tokyo to tape advertisements for a Japanese whisky. In contrast, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) stays in Tokyo with her photographer husband, who’s got a week-long shoot of a rock band. Both Bob and Charlotte happen to stay at the same hotel and meet at a bar. Bob is in his 50s and Charlotte is in her early 20s. They don’t have much in common but bump into the same plight: Both are lost in life. After 25 years of marriage, Bob has suffered his mid-life crisis. His trans-Pacific dialogues with his wife sound as meaningless and emotionless as they could ever be. “Do I need to worry about you, Bob?” asks his wife composedly, who is half the world away. “Only if you want to,” he calmly replies.

Charlotte remains lost as well. Her husband is busy with his assigned job and is gone most of the time. She is adrift in a foreign city and is uncertain of where her life is headed. Surrounded by Tokyo’s strange culture, her uncertainty silently increases. Bob and Charlotte soon realize they are two of a kind and start forming an unusual and intimate friendship (but in contrast to so many contemporary films, a non-sexual one). Both are afraid to be left alone and forgotten. This feeling, which Director Sophia Coppola ably depicts, is what the audience would identify with.

As its title implies, the film Lost in Translation is not all about two Americans who are lost in a foreign language but is about those who are lost in communication even in their own language. Both Bob and Charlotte’s marriage standoffs represent their inability of establishing mutual communication, which leaves them experiencing further pain by their “lost” feelings.

Translation was filmed on location in Tokyo, where I was born and raised.

Tokyo is unlike any other place. As a Japanese friend of mine remarked, life in the city is as bizarre and absurd as a constant mid-life crisis.

The city can be full of absurdity, and the film succeeds in portraying a good deal of Tokyo’s strange culture including Anime, karaoke and high-tech virtual video games. The difficulty Japanese have with the letters ‘R’ and ‘L’ and their funny English accents are certainly described in this film. Those are no different from what an average American has seen for the last decades. However, Coppola’s attempt to visualize Tokyo’s cityscape and nightlife may surprise American audiences. The film shows aspects of Japanese culture that American viewers have not been exposed to often. Coppola knows where to go to glimpse the real scene where Tokyo hipsters come around and spend their nights. The exotic clubs are gloriously artificial but look sophisticated by their use of lighting and sound effects. Their selections of played music tickle your sense of rhythms. Those who have experienced Tokyo’s nightlife may know, but they can be as esoteric moments as one could ever have in a foreign city. Some small parts of the film’s portrayals are exaggerated, and others are a little misrepresented, but Coppola unmistakably represents the faces of Tokyo. As a Tokyo native, I don’t often give a thumbs up for the portrayals many films make of Japanese culture. But for Translation, I’m willing to do so.

At the end of the film, Bob whispers something in Charlotte’s ear though it is too faint for us to get what he said. But we see his word has seemingly dispelled her plight right away. We all know Bob said what Charlotte wanted to hear, which was after all only what he wanted to say.

Noriko Miyazaki is a journalism student at the University of Oregon and is originally from Tokyo, Japan.