casually racist

Rating: 3/10 (22 March 2010)

Lost In Translation is a very well-crafted film. Lance Acord's cinematography is nothing short of masterful. The acting from the leads is nuanced, characters memorable.
The film's casual racism, however, is deeply regrettable. Almost every scene revels in the throwaway mockery of the Japanese: accents, language, culture, stature: all are subject to a torrent of snide belittling by the film- makers. What's more shocking is that more attention hasn't been called to this. Put another way: if this film was set in Africa and contained similarly juvenile mockery of the populace, there'd doubtless be uproar.
All in all, a well-made film severely let down by an unforgivable streak of crass racism.