Everyone wants to be found.

I like the movie Lost In Translation. Enough so that I have the movie poster hanging in my apartment. Probably not a huge surprise, given that 1) I lived in Japan, 2) Bill frickin' Murray can really act, and 3) Scarlett Johanson is hot as the sun. However, people who have seen the movie on my recommendation fall into two categories - "loved it!" or "WTF?" There really is no middle ground.

So recently a friend (and her mom) watched the movie on my recommendation, and they both hated it. My 'bad taste in movies' has become a running joke in their house. Of course, I respect their right to disagree (sorta), but they asked me to explain why I like the movie so much.

I had a lot of trouble doing so.

Yeah, I lived there. Watching the movie certainly evokes a whole slew of emotions and memories - most of them pleasant - from my time overseas. But I refuse to chalk my high regard for the movie up to that single fact. There are plenty of people who have never been to the country, and they loved it too. So there's gotta be something else.

There's a lot of subtlety in the film, and like any good story, nothing is ever perfect. Many of the scenes are little vignettes and observations; they don't necessarily advance the plot - but they're certainly not filler. The film was shot in something like three weeks - some of it illegally (you need permits to shoot on the streets & in the subways in Japan, and the crew didn't want to bother getting them) - and so there's a "one-take" feeling that often captures the quick pace of Tokyo; the city is almost another character.

I also recognize that many scenes involve Bill & Scarlett not understanding a whole bunch of Japanese. I don't know what it's like to watch those scenes and not understand both sides... it makes me laugh even harder at the actors' confusion. But the humor in there? C'mon, it's fucking hysterical when the old guy in the hospital tries to ask Bill how long he's been in Japan (yes, that's all he's asking) - go to about 2:54 in this clip. Watch the women in the background... they can't hold their shit together. (Bill, by the way, improvised the entire first scene of the clip in the restaurant)

Anyway, the movie is full of little funny moments like that. It's also painfully revealing and can break your heart at times. But it's different from a lot of Hollywood movies in that there's no real plot, nothing is ever dumbed-down and spelled out, there are no 'good guys' and 'bad guys,' and many scenes are left wide open (including - in my opinion - the end of the movie). There are no big explosions, nobody dies, there isn't all that much dialogue... it's a loosely told story at best. That's typical of a lot of Japanese films/shows; the ambiguity factor is much higher than the definite-end factor.

So in the end, who knows. Guess there's no accounting for taste, and there's certainly no way that I can explain why I like this movie... it just resonates with me. That's the best I've got. But Bill Murray still should've beaten Sean Penn for Best Actor, dammit.