The Need of Translation

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2004)

People today have become more and more stupid, easy things need to be translated into even more easier things. This film draws from peoples willing of not knowing, so everything is translated into something they can understand.
We get pretty pictures, but nothing special, we get visual actors to translate the words of the screenplay to pictures. We have a unexperienced director with a great idea but too complex for her to understand so she loses some of the genius in the translation there as-well.
The use of pictures is clever, but not necessarily remarkable, since you don't really need to translate pictures, you only need to translate the token confined in the picture, such as culture, but token-to-token translation is easy.
In my mind this would have worked better with a more experienced director. The other thing that didn't work for me was Bill Murray. I think that Kurt Russell was better suited for this part. Largely due to the fact that this isn't what we would expect from his, just picture him doing the kareoke scene.
The point of the film was lost in translation. Since it is based on the target audience not understanding Japanese or Japanese culture. This alienation of people is dangerous.
We also have different media in the film, as video games, commercials, kareoke, and the play with-in the play is a bleak shadow of that played in In the Mood for Love.
This is a film in a row of wannabe-deep-films, Ghost World is one example, but since the directors aren't experienced enough it's pointless.