wow. i netflixed it and will watch it this weekend.

Lost in the translation makes fun of the deepest core of loneliness and self awareness. There should be a lonely people waning before the film stating that if you are lonely AND/OR seeking self awareness that you should try not to watch this movie because it will poke fun at your disconnection from the rest of humanity from the perspective of a NOT LONELY person WRITING ABOUT WHAT GOES ON INSIDE THE HEAD OF A LONELY person. Then they should follow it with a free consession stand tub of popcorn and a free ticket to "Miracle" because that movie WILL make lonely people feel better.

Thank you. Good night.

First of all, I know you are only trying to express your opinion, but I seriously don’t appreciate your “I’m going shove this in your face and prove that I’m right while making you feel as stupid as I can” attitude. Especially the scrolling crap you had on your Xanga, what the hell was that all about? That actually pissed me off quite a bit. It’s about simple respect.
Second, you know damn well Chris bought this movie, and you keep throwing it in his face. It’s simple psychology, no one wants to hear about something that they made a decision to buy/own, is the most awful thing in the world when they don’t personally think it is. And just the way you’re bashing his movie, pisses me off. Now you may think so, and that’s fine, but no need to continuously repeat to everyone that it was the worst movie ever, and make a bigger deal out of it than it already is just to incite something. Once again, simple respect.
This is by no means just a mere plot summary, I’m going to get to the core, to the meaning of the movie, call it BS if you want, since that’s what I think everything you’ve written about the movie is as well.
Now, to me, this is a good movie mainly due to what the story is about in relation to the title "lost in translation", and how it relates to my, and everyone else in the world. Now, you don't have to agree, and I know you probably won't, so it doesn’t matter. Damn it this is going to take a long time... two people’s struggle, Bill Murray and Scarlet. Murray's character is a super star in US, but at the core he's just an ordinary human being like the rest of us. He talks about his $2 million in earning for the ad he’s doing in Japan as if it were nothing. He’s sick of the super star life, it’s become mundane. Even glamour and attention seems trivial to him, he’s seen it all, he gets too much attention. Scarlet on the other hand, doesn’t get enough attention. She sacrificed her own career and interests to follow her husband to Japan, just so she could spend even less time with him and sit around alone all day. She has so much ambition yet she can’t fulfill them, and wonders what she can do. Murray has fulfilled his dreams, is successful, and now at midlife, doesn’t know what he wants to do.
There’s your basic conflict for the two characters, they’re opposite… yet similar at the same time. That is why they are able to have such a connection, they literally complete each other; each one has what the other doesn’t, and both are lonely. Murray has the attention, success, and identity. Scarlet has youth, drive, and ambition. It was no mere coincidence they just happen to match up so well, Coppola has carefully given these two the characteristics needed so that they could relate to each other and develop a bond. Once again, young, driven ambition meets success and established identity. It’s what they’ve been searching for all their lives. Murray’s midlife crisis makes him want to relive the golden days and experience drive again, Scarlet’s insecurity about her own future makes her want to accomplish something instead of sit around all day. There is your basic plot. (plot: 3 : the plan or main story of a literary work) this is also where it gets somewhat abstract.
All the scenes of Murray and Scarlet literally getting “lost in translation” represented the distractions and uncertainties we face while “growing up”. Remember the scene you said that was a wasted 5 minute scene in the hospital with that Japanese person singing? It made no sense, Murray didn’t understand what that woman (I’m not sure if that was a woman or man, I was sitting too far away) was singing, yet he just sort of went with the flow. When life gives you a batch of uncertainties or change, do you sit there? Run away? Or go with the flow? Best answer is probably to go with the flow, and see how things pan out. Think about it, what do you do when you don’t speak a language, you eventually have to learn it. Although the movie is set about a few weeks long, the characters couldn’t learn Japanese, the solution/message is still there. When you get lost in translation, you learn to speak a new language.
Murray and Scarlet are both “forced”(I use that word loosely) to go to Japan for whatever reason. They are placed into an unknown territory. They don’t speak the language, don’t know the custom, and more importantly, they both don’t know where their life is taking them. They are lost, physically and emotionally. Yes, I know that is a common theme, it is a part of everyone’s lives, but Coppola is looking at the bigger picture in life. Like I said earlier, watching this movie is like reading a novel, if you keep wanting to look for an awesome plot, you’re just going to miss the main message.
Basically, what Murray was searching for during his mid-life crisis manifested itself as Scarlet, and what scarlet was searching for during her time of uncertainty manifested itself as Murray. They find what they were looking for, but were both scared, timid, to go forward with their feelings. When I said internal conflict, there’s a lot of subconscious emotions going on. Scarlet knows that she wants to pursue what Murray represents, as does Murray. But it is so hard to take that first step to get to where you want to be. When I plan to write, or set a goal for myself, it’s that first moment of the actual “doing” that is the hardest part. That is why the kiss came so late, that’s why there was so much building up, the “doing” part for most of us is really hard to do. I know you are a “doer” and may not see it that way, but from all my experiences with people, “doing”, taking that first step, is the toughest. But once the first step is taken, everything changes.
After they kissed, Bill Murray whispers something in Scarlett’s ears. What he said I couldn’t hear, and I don’t know if it was even meant to be heard. Let’s say Murray had told her he’d come back for her. The story is a happy ending, she finds what she had been searching for, as does he. Let’s say Murray told her that he would cherish this moment for the rest of his life, and left it at that. Both of them still found what they were searching for, and lost what they were looking for. You lose something, you find something. What’s lost isn’t forever, if she tries hard, eventually she’ll find what she’s looking for.

“You'll think. You'll laugh. You'll be marvelously entertained. And you'll be touched."
As you can see, this movie has made me think. The humor on the other hand is very subtle, as is in most Bill Murray movies. That is also the reason he was the perfect actor for the job. You don’t need a Jim Carey or Chris Tucker for this role. Why? Because the character is of an aging actor/star, who is lost in a foreign place, he’s lost his place, and thus searching aimlessly. Wow, I think this relates to everyone’s lives. And guess what, sometimes, when we least expect it, we find that something we’d be looking for even if we don’t know we had been looking for it. Serendipity. Murray finds Scarlet, Scarlet finds Murray. I found the movie humorous, but that’s just because I really enjoy subtle humor. Although I don’t laugh out loud, subtle humor gives me a good feeling, and makes me smile. Perhaps those older critics laughed because the older you get, the more subtle your humor gets. I was touched at the end, especially watching the build-up before the kiss. Where Murray had Scarlet bring down his coat. The audience can feel the sexual tension between them, yet they don’t kiss. The other blond girl tries to hit on Murray, but he brushes her off, that was a subtle display of his affection towards Scarlet. The hot blonde girl wasn’t what he was looking for, it was Scarlet, and what she represented.
The golf scene was not useless waste of 3 minutes. Where can a man play golf where the backdrop is a volcano. It’s not something you can find anywhere. You can go to any golf course in America, and I bet you wont be able to find a huge volcano in the backdrop. But, wherever life takes you, you still do the things you usually do. Even if it’s something as simple as golf. Coppola tried to make the movie as realistic as possible despite having to implement so many abstract themes. Life goes on, people play golf, when a Japanese person sees a foreigner in their country, they’ll probably talk to them and laugh at them. My brother’s neighbor, who’s white and speaks no Chinese, went back to Taiwan with my brother last winter break, and guess what? He was laughed at due to his lack of language and the fact that he was just completely out of place. He didn’t want to eat the food, couldn’t speak the language, and it was funny to my family. Life is mundane, we spend a third of our day sleeping, then 2- 3 hours eating, we are really active doing something only 8 hours a day. And even in those 8 hours, it’s not always action packed, perhaps one of those eight hours something really exciting and meaningful happens, if not less than that. The movie was also trying to capture that as much as it could. If anything, this movie was trying to capture too many things, and perhaps lost you in the process.
I can go on and write several more pages, but it’s time to sleep. if you have any questions or concerns that you want me to address, give me some time, and I will eventually address them.
Once again, simple respect, no matter what, Coppola put a lot of work into this movie. You can bash a 5 dollar Bruce Lei movie as much as you want. But “Lost in Translation” is not “the piece of shit” that you make it out to be. You give it absolutely no credit, it doesn’t get 4 oscar nominations if it is totally undeserving of it.