One of the worst films ever made

Rating: 1/10 (21 January 2008)

Having lived in Japan for many years (I'm from Ireland) I was looking forward to a Bill Murray comedy about the extraordinary city that is Tokyo and the incomprehensible (to most Westerners) Japanese. Instead, I was subjected to what I can only call racist abuse. If this film had been made in Africa about Africans' behavior, speech, dress and customs, everyone would have been up in arms. Every cliché about Japan was thrown in. Bill Murray just didn't have to act, and not even Scarlet could redeem the mess. Coppola had to film in the hotel in secret as she wasn't given permission to use the place, and I can see why. It could have been a wonderful film full of insights into the quirky (?) nature of the Japanese as seen by Westerners instead of the hackneyed meaningless dirge. Just because Americans never travel, jet lag becomes a plot piece. Jeez! Jet lag? You have got to be kidding me. For anyone who knows anything about Japan this was an insult.