SUNDAY 14th SEPTEMBER

Xenophobe chases pregnant teen bride : Lost In Translation

After all the hype about this film I was happy to sit in Chelsea on Sunday to enjoy this as a beautifully photographed string of witty scenarios but it didn't reach me as a great new piece of cinematic history that critics had promised. I assume that the film was very autobiographical but it failed for me on two counts.

Firstly, (correct me if I'm wrong) but the actress was obviously pregnant. I spent the rest of the film unable to believe that Bill Murray was really interested in chasing a pregnant wife so instead I spent a lot of the time fascinated with how the director shot scenes and directed the actor in order to hide the podgy belly and fattening but.

My second issue was about the jokes about how odd/strange/different the Japanese are. The film moved from parody to xenophobic tabloid mirth to racist slurs. I seem to remember that most films that take the piss out of a country's differences normally go through an arch to show how beautiful/clever/cultural/etc that country actually is a to and more worryingly. I think I saw 2 shots where they showed an endearing image of Japan and the 'witty' jokes soon relied on the main premise of 'look - aren;t the Japanese small!' and this was repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated. Yes there was a countermeasure by making a tiny piss-take about blonde bimbo yanks (how many are there left) but this was insignificant. The film really reflects how even 'cultured' Americans view the rest of the world and exemplifies current US foreign policy. The film demonstrates that all Americans think foreigners are odd, silly, physically weaker and tells us that wouldn't the world be a better place if we were all Americans.

Posted by Guy Brighton on September 12, 2003 at 05:24 PM | Tags/Topics: | | (0) | Add GB To Your News Feed

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