Lost in translation

The first time I heard about this movie, I was already in stitches to watch it. Something about a couple lost in a city tempts me, an imagery for blurry neon lights swirling and blinking in the foreground with streams of people rushing past leaving only trails of colours, all surrounding one person stuck, lost, confused in the middle appears in my mind. Static, clear, sharp form of a human, the only distinguishable object in the image, but in his/her eyes, there's everything but clarity. Loss of focus. However, the aspect of romance from the first glance about the movie from reviews, synopsis and writings fed me doubts about it. I dislike movies whom advocate romance as a key for solving crisis in life. No, it's way to illogical, unreal, idyllic, romantic and unbelievable to me.

So when I finally got around to watching the movie, I was sceptical. Luckily for me, Sofia Coppola wasn't one of churning passion and huge actions or emotions in her directing. Nope, was there even romance? Probably, yes but from my perspective, it was more of companionship, a deeper, intimate level of friendship between the male and female protagonists rather then romance. I love how she told the story through casual, spontaneous conversations between the characters with no need for extra explanations of storytelling. You know the relationship between the girl and her husband is facing problems as you hear their conversation, one speaking, the other barely listening, one asking, the other not bothering to understand. You can also pick up the details just by observing the setting, the characters, their emotions and well- acting. I love how you can sense their loss of direction and awkwardness through the scenes, without any need for statements or writings. They both switched on their tellies in the hotel, flipped through the channels, unable to find anything interesting or even audible, in fact, as all the programmes were in Japanese, even the western shows dubbed Japanese. The only form of escapism robbed. Lost.

Another of my favourite part is when both of them lay on the bed, chatting in intermittent conversations. They weren't looking at each other, only lying on the bed in their comfortable positions talking, almost lazily to each other. The topic then proceeded to deeper issues, problems faced by both in their lives currently, which then the girl asks the guy if her issues will ever go away. The guy answered truthfully, minimally and I love how even he seemed unsure of his answers. I never like movies portraying people as wise, smart, perfect people.

But above all that, the best thing I like about the movie would have to be the fact that even by the end of the movie, their problems were not solved. They were still the same as before, still on the road to search for a better life, to joy, satisfaction. But on this tough road, they met each other, strangers on a strange piece of land and gave each other comfort and strength, albeit only for a short moment. But it's these random strangers we meet on our path whom offer us the best advice and revelation sometimes.

" I just don't know what I'm suppose to be."
" You'll figure that out. The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you'll let things upset you."