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tenpence
Joined: 24 Feb 2003
Posts: 174
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 Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2004 1:20 pm Post subject: lost in translation |
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| were people offended by the attitude towards Japanese in the film ' Lost in translation'? |
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GundamRX78
Joined: 25 Jan 2004
Posts: 10
Location: London
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2004 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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I did not watch this flim, but had it done somethings wrong to Chinese?
_________________
I love Hong Kong |
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amyip
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 25
Location: London
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| Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2004 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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| I saw the film and had heard that the Japanese in the film were not portrayed in the best light but when seen in the contexts of the film I understood why. The whole point of the film are that the characters played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are foreigners abroad and are both going through a period of loneliness and despair in their lives. The reason why the Japanese are portrayed in perhaps not the best light is because it is seen through the two characters eyes and everything seems alien and wrong to them. I think that if the film had been based in another country like Sweden, for example, it would have been depicted the Swedish in a bad light. The fact that the people are Japanese in this case is arbitrary and not a deliberate poke at the Japanese. |
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eye_candy1870
Joined: 08 May 2003
Posts: 86
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| Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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amy,
You should work for the United Nations. Your comments are typical of your 'sort'. |
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amyip
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 25
Location: London
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| Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 1:02 am Post subject: |
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| eye_candy1870 wrote: | amy,
You should work for the United Nations. Your comments are typical of your 'sort'. |
If that 'sort' is erudite, sophisticated, well-educated, sensible and pithy then I'm glad. So long as its not the same 'sort' of people like you. LOL. |
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GweiLo
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 149
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| Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 1:12 am Post subject: |
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hehehe
If I wasn't already Married Amy ;-) |
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eye_candy1870
Joined: 08 May 2003
Posts: 86
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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amy,
its 'girls' like you that make white men think they can chat up my gf. But I know not all chinese girls fall within your remit.
One rotten apple often spoils the barrel... |
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eye_candy1870
Joined: 08 May 2003
Posts: 86
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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BTW amy,
I seen your pic on that other chinese forum you post on. enough said....LOL |
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malnoh
Joined: 05 Mar 2004
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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| eye_candy1870 wrote: | BTW amy,
I seen your pic on that other chinese forum you post on. enough said....LOL |
You should go to the BBC meets in London. She looks much much much prettier in real life. In fact, a bit of a babe actually! |
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topbloke
Joined: 07 Apr 2004
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 1:37 am Post subject: |
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| amyip wrote: | | I saw the film and had heard that the Japanese in the film were not portrayed in the best light but when seen in the contexts of the film I understood why. The whole point of the film are that the characters played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are foreigners abroad and are both going through a period of loneliness and despair in their lives. The reason why the Japanese are portrayed in perhaps not the best light is because it is seen through the two characters eyes and everything seems alien and wrong to them. |
True, that's the idea. Unfortunately we, the audience, also see Japan through Murray and Johansson's eyes. So Murray's boorishness and patronising attitude towards the Japanese is how the director makes us see the Japanese too. And that view is not flattering. Look at it this way: Murray and Johansson are the ones we are made to feel sympathy toward. The Japanese are just background scenery there to put the American's story in relief.
It would have been fairer for the director to have made Murray and Johansson seem to be the odd ones. Surely it's these two who are the misfits here. It would have been better to have shown some positive (but still authentically "foreign" to the Americans) as well as quirky behaviour from the Japanese. It would have been nice to see the American's own foolish eccentricities shown up from time to time, and their failure to adapt not simply a fault of the bizarreness of the locals, but also the fault of the visitors being fishes out of water. Surely this would have still have pressed home the point of the Americans' social isolation just as effectively and the two characters would still have had our sympathy.
I'll put it yet another way: if the director's approach was the most appropriate one, why are the most memorable moments from the film the ones where the Japanese are made to look the silliest? Surely the main moments should belong to the American couple, for they are whom the film is supposed to be about. |
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amyip
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 25
Location: London
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| Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2004 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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| I agree with a lot of what you are saying but as we have both said its about perspectives. I personally didn't come away with particularly strong memories about the Japanese silly bits rather the moments when they were alone together in the bar and in the bedroom and those long beautiful silences. I actually found that both of them seem to acknowledge that they themselves were slightly odd as well in the fact that they did not seem to relate to anything around them at all. They were surrounded by all this beauty which is captured in the cinematography and yet they couldn't feel it. |
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amyip
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 25
Location: London
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| Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2004 4:50 pm Post subject: |
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| malnoh wrote: | | eye_candy1870 wrote: | BTW amy,
I seen your pic on that other chinese forum you post on. enough said....LOL |
You should go to the BBC meets in London. She looks much much much prettier in real life. In fact, a bit of a babe actually! |
Why Malnoh, hello?! Hehehehehehehe. |
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