There are millions and millions people that go to other city, other country for their own purpose, such as studying, working…. “Lost in translation” is the film that expresses the feeling of this group of people who are lonely, confused and lost in their life. It is hard for this group of people to understand the different culture, customs, lifestyle, language, habit, behavior of the new place. This film was directed and written by Sofia Coppola who is an Academy Award-winning U.S. screen-writer, film director, actress and producer. She is the third female film director to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing. 
This movie is a comedy drama which is talking about two stranger who have completely lost in their life, the process of knowing each other, finding something in common of both, becoming good friends, then understanding the feeling of each other, avoiding accepting the truth that they have fallen in love and the love explode at the end. Sofia Coppola shoots the busy outside of Tokyo to highlight the lonely of the lost people. For rendering the atmosphere, key point of shooting, the light, main color, sound, music, the songs they sing in the KTV, the songs others sing and some sound effect play an important role in the drama.
The two main actors, Bob Harris and Charlotte have the similar background. Both of them do not understand Japanese. In the movie, Sofia Coppola used a lot of space to highlight this point, which also is the reason that two main actor could fall in love. The swimming pool, TV program, video games, talk show, entertainment, “dancing class”, the facilities in the gym or in the hotel, Bob use chopsticks to eat food which is very hard for him, Charlotte can not see the difference of the menu, all these in this story is to prove the gap from Japanese. When people go to other country, it is extremely hard for them to overcome these gaps that are social problems in the world.
Bob Harris has a 25-year marriage with Lydia who loves him. But after they have kids, Lydia transfers the love to their kids. With the time goes by, Bob feel lonely because her wife does not care whether he is with her or not as before, she pays all her attention to take care of their kids all the time instead. Bob sometimes goes outside for earning money, which makes the situation worse. Bob is not necessary in the family any more. When the first night in Tokyo, he received a fax from his wife at 4:20 in the morning, which tell audience that her wife can not know the Japanese time. It reflects that his wife do not care him very much, which is contact with her feeling. He is lost and hopeless. He thinks that it will never be changed.
Charlotte just graduated from dale and has gotten marriage for 2 years. Her husband loves her, but he is so busy that he can not take good care of charlotte and spend time being with her. Her husband always goes outside to take photos for earning money. On the other hand, her husband care his job more that her. And she has not a lot of friends and job in Tokyo, she feel lonely. What she can do is just to read magazines, watch TV and go to pub to drink. She is stuck, she do not know what she should be or do, what she married and how her life will be in the future but she still have hope to change this. She tries to do change this situation. She go to temple for hope, weave scarf, try ikebana, make up herself. Her husband do not understand her, she also do not want to hear what her husband was talking about which showed in the 15minutes of the movie. Then she still complete lost in her life.
In the movie, Sofia Coppola uses the speaking from a CD to point out the main idea of the movie which is “Did you ever wonder what your purpose in life is? Find your soul’s purpose and destiny. Every soul has a path, but sometimes that path is not clear. How each soul begin with a imprint, all compacted into a pattern that has been selected by your soul before you have ever gotten here.” This is a kind of summary of this movie to tell audience around what will happen next and work in contact with the main idea and the story. Sofia Coppola wants people to think about these questions to get purpose and destiny for their life, do not just keep being confused for the life.
Both Bob and Charlotte have lost in the beginning, they do not know what the purpose for their lives is, the difference between them is Bob is hopeless, Charlotte still want to change this. The camera shoots charlotte looking outside several times and she asks her husband whether he is awake or not represent that she is still filled with a little hope. Charlotte holds her knees and looks outside appeared in the shot shows her lonely and the demand that she need some one to understand her feeling and situation but her husband do not understand her. She is confused what she is doing. She lost hope for getting understanding from her friend. After she cried in the time of 15 minutes, a series of motion of Charlotte also highlight her psychology that she wants change her life, she begins with an imprint as the CD said. She wants to meet a friend who can understand her. When they notice that they have fallen in love, they try to escape and back to their own life, but as the CD said, they accept the truth at last. After the KTV scene, on their way back to hotel, they have fallen in love with each other. At the end when Bob hold Charlotte into his arm, the environment become blur because they do not loose themselves any more. The environment is just to highlight that people should concentrate to themselves not confused by the outside. In the movie, there are the only two main character, the others are less important and just exist for highlight some point of the movie.
The songs in the story speak out what their feeling and what they really want to say. “As I walk through this wicked world, searching for light in the darkness of insanity. I ask myself is all hope lost, is there only pain and hatred and misery? And each time I feel like this inside, there is one thing I want to know, what is so funny about peace, love and understanding” That is why Bob is so sad and what he is confused. “I am winking at you, gonna make you notice, gonna use my arms, gonna use my legs, gonna use my style, gonna use my sidestep, gonna use my fingers, gonna use my imagination, cause I am gonna make you see nobody else here no one like me….” when Charlotte sing “no one like me”, Bob shakes his head. “I could feel at the time there was no way of knowing fallen leaves in the night who can say where they are blowing as free as the wind hopefully learning why the sea on the tide has no way of turning…” They are talking about the opinion and feeling to the life.
At the beginning of the movie, camera shoots the back of Charlotte who is lonely and sleeping. At the same time, the sound turns louder from quiet. When Bob first appears in the movie, the music shows his mood clearly, which is curiosity to this new city. When shooting charlotte, the camera often pans from outside or to the outside to highlight the busy night in Tokyo where people always keep working or doing. The first time Bob came to the pub, camera first concentrates to some Japanese enjoying their life, they talk, laugh and drink. After that, shot came to Bob who was drinking and eating cigar without any companies.
There is almost no extremely close up shoot in this movie, the director choose close up and medium shoot to shoot them talking because environment is extremely important for the movie. The two main characters are just two single person in a modern city.
The music also is very important. At the beginning, background music in the two minutes of the movie, the music shows the mystery, to show the character’s curiosity to the city. Some music in the middle have some contact with what is going to happen next. The whole movie is filled with Japanese language that the two main character do not understand to show they are islated from outside in Toyko.
The movie chooses black as the main background color, which represents the situation, background and emotion of characters. With the story goes by, the background color becomes warmer and warmer, which reflect the relationship between Bob and Charlotte.
At the end of movie, Bob Harris hold Charlotte into his arm, they accept the truth that they have fallen in love and the love explodes. It is the start of a new story, which means the end of this story. The story ends with shooting their back, they separates temperately. They change their choice to turn right… The amazing end makes audience to think about the could happen next which let audience to keep imagining.
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