Short Fuse

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation has received several Oscar 2004 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Bill Murray. LiT was a film that I had been looking forward to. Whispers of how it resembled In the Mood for Love had doubled my curiosity. In the end, I was disappointed. There were several lovely moments, but I could not get past the portrayals of Japanese people and culture. Some background: I've been a lifelong Japanophile; I spent two summers in Tokyo as an intern for Japanese companies; I speak some Japanese, and understood all of the dialogue in the film.

Much of this MetaFilter thread about the Oscar noms discusses the issue of whether the film is racist. I don't believe the film or Sofia Coppola is racist. What they are guilty of is perhaps closer to bad taste, ignorance, laziness, insensitivity - sins that don't necessarily add up to racism. One anti-LiT article is Totally lost in translation, which seems too one-dimensional a critique. It's so shrill that it's as unconvincing as the counter-protests of "But Tokyo is exactly like that!" A more nuanced analysis can be found in both "Lost in Translation" Is Lost With or Without Translation and Is "Lost in Translation" Racist? These two articles provide the cultural, historical and narrative contexts within which we might evaluate the question of racism in LiT.

For my part, instead of looking outwards from the content to the context, I thought I would look into the formal qualities of the film. One of the arguments made in defense of LiT is that the casual stereotyping of Japanese people and culture is acceptable because it reflects the point of view of the Western couple. As the argument goes, the Japan we are shown must be understood as what the two flawed characters experience. Take this MeFi post: "These are deeply alienated people - their own spouses seem one-dimensional and dehumanized to them - and so compound that with the full-sensory assault of an extremely unfamiliar culture, and of course they're not exactly behaving like engaged amateur cultural anthropologists... The movie's not condoning Bob and Charlotte's indifference to and occasional mockery of their surroundings, it's just depicting these actions as honestly as possible."

But is the film "depicting these actions as honestly as possible"? I believe the film has two modes of editing with respect to the scenes where the two characters encounter Japan in various ways. I'm calling them "mockery mode" and "reverence mode". Two examples are analyzed below. Click on the stills for larger images. (Disclaimer: the stills below are taken from the trailer. The trailer is clearly not the film; the edits are often different. I believe the edits below are nearly identical to the actual scenes in the film. Since I would never download a pirate copy of the movie's Oscar screener - oh the horror! - I will have to wait until the DVD release to know for sure.)

Mockery mode

In the infamous "LIP MY STOCKING!" scene, a series of medium two-shots is used to frame Murray and the woman. We are denied a shot from Murray's POV, kept at a distance to observe coolly, and invited to laugh at the woman and the situation. The absurdity is presented as an objective element, and not at all an interpretation through the eyes of Murray's character. If I remember correctly, the same style of framing and editing is used for other scenes of mockery, confusion and rudeness - such as when Murray interacts with the restaurant chef.

Reverence mode

In contrast, a different editing style is used for the scene of Scarlet Johansson witnessing a traditional Japanese wedding. Here, Coppola cuts from a one-shot of Johansson's staring face to a shot of the wedding procession. Through the close-ups, we are clearly placed in the perspective of Johansson's character. We are invited to share and identify with her POV. The gaze of the camera creates a sense of wonder, curiosity, respect - and we are led to attach those senses to Johansson. Again, if I remember correctly, the flower-arranging scene is similarly constructed, alternating between Johansson's face and the close-ups of the trees and her hands.

A pattern emerges, and it affects how we see what we see as an audience. When the film is in mockery mode, the edit does not provide a fixed POV, and the main character does not seem quite so rude or mocking because his or her perspective is not shown. When the film is in reverence mode, the edit places us firmly in the POV of a main character, who is appreciative and respectful and rendered in a positive light.

Thus, the perspectives of the two main characters are not presented in a consistent manner. In some instances, the attitude portrayed is indeed one of "indifference and occasional mockery", but in other cases, it is one of respect and reverence. What I'd like to argue is that Coppola has shot and edited the film in such a way that it always puts the best light possible on the characters. She is unable to maintain the distance and neutrality that may lead to an "honest" depiction. Perhaps she is unwilling to condemn them to their human failings. As a result, the flaws of the film's portrayal of Japan cannot be so readily aligned with the flaws of the characters.

Memories of Murder

Wow. This film is well worth the hype as one of the best Korean films of 2003.

In Darcy's review at koreanfilm.org, he says the movie is "at turns blackly humorous, thought-provoking, and horrifying", and indeed it is so satisfying because it works on those multiple layers. As grim and intense as several scenes are - the plot is based on a true serial-killer case from the '80s that remains unsolved - there is also some very funny Korean dialogue, flavored with countryside accents, amidst the dark situations.

I'm impressed with how well the whole thing holds together. It could have been the sort of mess where the film doesn't quite know what genre(s) it belongs to, or rehashes one cliche after another. Certainly, it helps to be blessed with steady direction, quality acting, tight plotting. But beyond that, I think this film works because it doesn't attempt to be deep or flashy. Above all, it values simplicity and economy.

Take the relationship between the two cops and the unknown killer. The filmmakers resist the temptation to make it more complex than it probably was in real life: the killer runs and the cops chase - that is what they do. There are no strings attached to the purity of that relationship, as in so many bad psychological serial-murder movies.

Or take the shooting style. It's a textbook demonstration of economy in filmmaking. Camera movements and framing are carefully designed - you sense the deliberation - and no shot feels wasted. It's wonderful to feel like the filmmaker knows what he's doing and is in control of his craft, and it's a sad statement that I rarely feel that way. Or is it just my ego?

Song Kang-Ho (the actor on the left in the poster above) is priceless. I've seen 9 of the 11 films he has made, and my respect for him grows with each film.

Trailer (WMV)
CJ Entertainment site
koreanfilm.org review

2004 preview

Movies
2046
Kill Bill Volume 2
The Ladykillers
Spider-Man 2
Hellboy
Howl's Moving Castle
Innocence: Ghost in the Shell
The Incredibles

Music
Savath & Savalas - Apropa't
The Avalanches album
Boards of Canada album
Wilco album
Plaid DVD
Pixies reunion (or at least the DVD)
Sonar 2004

Anita Mui dead

Anita Mui has passed away. She was 40 and suffering from cancer. According to this article, she died peacefully after saying her goodbyes to her loved ones.

Anita was one of the old-school greats in the annals of Hong Kong cinema, the Big Sister who matched wits with Jackie Chan's Big Brother figure. I'll remember her best for her scene-stealing performances alongside Jackie in Miracles, Drunken Master 2 and Rumble in the Bronx. And for her roles in Johnnie To's The Heroic Trio, Corey Yuen's Saviour of the Soul, Stanley Kwan's Rouge.

Rest in peace.

2003 review

Movies
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Kill Bill Volume 1
American Splendor
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Albums
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher
Four Tet - Rounds
Manitoba - Up in Flames
Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
Ellen Allien - Berlinette
Radioactive Man - Booby Trap
Broadcast - Haha Sound

Songs
Manitoba - Jacknuggeted
The Go! Team - Ladyflash
Erlend Oye - A Sudden Rush
Plaid - B Born Droid
Lali Puna - Together in Electric Dreams
Prefuse 73 - Storm Returns
Sun Kil Moon - Gentle Moon

Disappointments
Mystic River
Demonlover
Cremaster
Johnny Marr and the Healers - Boomslang
Massive Attack - 100th Window
DK2: The Dark Knight Strikes Again - Frank Miller and Lynn Varley

Discoveries & Rediscoveries
24 Hour Party People
Ping Pong
Cowboy Bebop
Herbert - Bodily Functions
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Guided by Voices
Talk Talk
John Tejada
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
H2 - Mitsuru Adachi

I Still Don't Get It
Coldplay

Rest in Peace
Steve Benton
Leslie Cheung
Anita Mui
Gregory Peck
Katharine Hepburn
Stan Brakhage
Kinji Fukasaku
Elia Kazan
Jean-Yves Escoffier
Elliot Smith

Weekend recap

Went shopping for CDs and comics for the first time in 2 months. Predictably, I went a little overboard.

Saw Otomo Yoshihide at the Cambridge YMCA. Plucked strings, static grooves off two turntables, no visuals. Despite the seeming promise of untethered musical exploration, there's something predictable about this sort of abstract electronica. I had to leave early so I missed his improv sessions with a Boston collective. Maybe that would have been more captivating.

Watched Intolerable Cruelty at the Boston Common. I'd write about it, but this Sight and Sound review says pretty much everything I want to say. In a nutshell, it's a ton of fun, but a letdown when seen in the context of the Coens filmography. At times, it felt like someone else tried to make a Coens film, and did a fine (if not amazing) job at it. Really nice suits on Clooney, though.

Had my first mojito. Disappointed.

Otaking visits MIT

On October 1, Toshio Okada came to MIT for a lunchtime lecture. Okada calls himself "Otaking", or king of otaku, the Japanese slang for "hardcore fanboy / fangirl". He is a co-founder of Gainax, the studio that created Evangelion and FLCL; he also teaches a course on otaku culture at Tokyo University. (So he's like... George Lucas meets Henry Jenkins, or something.) In his talk, Okada shared tidbits, anecdotes and ideas about anime, creativity and Japanese culture.

For Okada, the two most significant Japanese otakus are Hayao Miyazaki and Takashi Murakami. It seems that Miyazaki is perceived in Japan as quite the otaku, whereas in the West, we only see him as a master of animated storytelling. The subject of Miyazaki's fandom is not anime but old-school military machinery. It reminded me that Porco Rosso began as a manga short story that is filled with details of WW2 seaplanes. Also: in Miyazaki's Spirited Away, the character of Sen / Chihiro wears a Japanese maid uniform with a little bib. Okada said that some Japanese fans found this to be a nod from Miyazaki towards the lolicon otakus. Lolicon, as in "Lolita complex", as in the fascination with young schoolgirls and their uniforms. (Miyazaki is a lolicon? Huh?)

Okada made an interesting observation about the effect of the Internet on otaku culture. On one hand, in Japan like elsewhere, the web has made it easy to connect with other fans, no matter what your chosen obsession. On the other hand, Okada felt that this community-building was causing a drop in the output of quality content. His reasoning was that many of today's best-known artists were once extremely frustrated otakus. Before the web, they could not easily communicate with other like-minded fans. After years of isolated fandom, they would begin producing their own work, out of the unbearable need to share their solitary passions. Today, said Okada, the frustration level of fans never gets very high because you can always hook up with other fans on the web. He felt this is reducing the chance that visionary artists would continue emerging from the otaku culture.

(A plausible scenario, but I would argue that the community will merely change the nature of the creative otaku output, not always for the worse as Okada predicts. For example, collaboration with digital media and tools is possible today, something not available to the old-timers in Okada's pre-web generation. And how long before a few Japanese teenagers with Powerbooks produce anime that surpasses the Gainax product? Okada has to be worried.)

In tracing the rise of anime / manga culture, Okada pointed to the effect of the post-war Japanese baby boom. He noted two aspects. First, the baby-boom generation was denied a sense of history. After the war, the American rulers saw Japanese history as a dangerous element: Japan's ancient history had been used to pump up and justify the militarism of its recent history. The suppression of history led to a cultural focus on the present. The English word "now" actually became a widely-used slang. If something was popular, it was likely to be good too. Hardcore fandom was a natural outgrowth of this obsession with the "now". Secondly, childhood rose to a higher plane over adulthood. Becoming an adult, as it came to be understood, meant responsibility but also pollution of spirit. Thus, in Japanese films and other media works, when the hero is transformed in the story, he or she goes back to being a child. This is in contrast to Western culture, where the story causes the hero to grow up, to grow older and wiser. Infantilism is still rampant in Japanese media, and this has encouraged those so inclined to embrace "kid stuff" - anime and manga - well into their adulthood.

Uma, Chiba. Chiba, Uma.

Kill Bill Volume 1

Tarantino is back.

I had been worried about miscasting of actresses, but overall I was satisfied. Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu hit the right notes most of the time; Vivica A. Fox is onscreen for a short time only; Daryl Hannah too has limited screen time, but still manages to grate; Chiaki Kuriyama from Battle Royale is perfection as a killer kogaru.

Pacing is a big issue. The film plainly drags in the middle. It recovers superbly with the much-hyped Showdown at House of Blue Leaves, but not before an uninspired anime section and an Okinawa sequence that wastes Sonny Chiba. It's tough to say without watching volume 2, but I think Tarantino could have edited the two films down to a single three-hour flick full of high notes.

About that anime sequence: I found it unimpressive, and kept thinking, "if he went all the way to Japan to shoot, why didn't he hire a top-notch Japanese anime studio to do this, instead of some wannabe American company?" Imagine my surprise, then, to find that the sequence is by Production I.G, which is as top-notch as it gets, with Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion and Patlabor in their filmography. This is sub-par for their course.

The audio mix and sound effects are fantastic - so crisp and clear. The sounds bring to life the familiar moments in action sequences.

As expected, the musical soundtrack is funky and energetic, and you can picture Quentin vibing in the editing room, yelling "yeah!" at every punch of the horn section. But he lets the music carry too much load in the editing: song after song is called upon to inject some sass and jazz into a scene. Which wouldn't be so bad, except it didn't feel organic. The pop music and the visual editing did not blend and support each other as well as they did in his previous films.

Nothing says "Tarantino is back" quite like the final battle. The big showdown is the true comeback statement, and it made me smile wide. It's full of Tarantino's trademark cineaste glee and taste for movie violence. The bloodiness of the scene is out of control, but it stays cartoony. Nothing here is nearly as horrifying as a cop getting his ear cut off outside the frame.

Report on the shoot: Time Asia on Kill Bill.
Long feature on the man's films, career, life: Vanity Fair on Tarantino.

Radiohead song inspires Korean film

Fake Plastic Trees is the inspiration for Plastic Tree. The Korean film is about a love triangle, and according to its makers, it is based on the ideas about love that are laid down in the Radiohead song. The film has been in contention at several film festivals, such as the Deauville Asian Film Festival in France. Too bad the trailer (Windows Media) doesn't excite me much. Still, I'll be adding it to the long list of Korean films I should catch at some point.

Plastic Tree: official site, AsianDB.com page

Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees (MP3, 4.7MB)

Ozu heaven

Oh. My. God.

In October, the New York Film Festival will deliver on its plan to bring the Yasujiro Ozu retrospective to these shores. It was created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the director's birth, and was first held, I believe, at April's Hong Kong International Film Festival.

The retrospective will screen all 36 of Ozu's surviving features. All 36 of them. Every single one. The mind boggles. Given the rarity with which most of these films make it out of Japan, I am going to attend as many showings as I can. Maybe I'll set up camp in New York and commute to Boston.

I usually duck when people ask about my favorite director, seeing no sense in the question. But if I had to pick, Ozu would be the one. So this news makes me very, very giddy.

A good resource: ozuyasujiro.com.