Lost in Transasian

Rating: 1/10 (22 September 2003)

Wow. Kind of a 'cute' movie, riding on that independent film vibe of the individual's search of meaning in life, struggling mightily against an ignorant and heavily cynical world. Sounds like a downer? Never fear, this movie spends 85 percent of the time making fun of japanese people.

If these were scathing attacks, perhaps this movie could almost pass as parody, making fun of stereotypes by overkill is quite effective. Except these were literally, 'let's make fun of the Japanese as bizarre little benign aliens who want to become like us.' This is about two white people trying to have fun in an alien land, shaking their heads at the ridiculous customs of these funny little people, marvelling at how the Japanese could be so different from our own sensible caucasian perspectives. There is no japanese character in this movie who is not grossly caricaturized. Also, whenever Sofia Coppola directed a long lull in the film, hey, insert reocurring joke about height/accents/culture and make the audience laugh, again! There is no such thing as a tired joke in this movie, some jokes are methodically inserted every 15 minutes.
Actually, it's really worthwhile to watch Sofia Coppola deftly direct the profoundly subtle relationship between a 21-year-old yale philosophy major and a washed-up 55-year-old actor. Sure...they both...don't like their lives, do like to drink at the bar, eat food (hey at least no more jokes about monkey brains, huh? good thing this wasn't a korean movie), crack jokes about the japanese! The movie should have the tagline, "How any two white people, no matter how different in age and personality could become soulmates once thrust into this horrible technologically advanced but spiritually backwards world." Or "Peter Pan and Wendy in Captain Hook's Oriental Nevernevernightmare." This movie can be metaphorically summarized by how any two people can fall in love on a deserted island, a deserted island full of poisonous snakes, fetid water, quicksand, and erupting volcanoes.
I challenge anybody in the world,including any type of funny little aliens, to logically prove that the particular setting of Japan was necessary to the plot of the movie. Would the relationship between Bill M. and Scarlett J. be any different, if say, it took place in manhattan? Absolutely not, but we wouldn't have the 'comedy' aspect of the movie. And what makes it comedic? Are you laughing at comedy, or are you laughing at the Japanese, these common, stereotypical jokes? I challenge somebody to find any shot in this movie of a japanese person (or perhaps apes in japanese costumes) who isn't acting silly or over the top, as part of a joke, a joke in which the japanese are the being punched by the line.