Thank you Ms Copola

Rating: Null/10 (17 November 2003)

Thank you Ms Copola for offering up a movie that can be politically incorrect without another public outcry. The declining Billster towers over the Japanese like an NBA megastar. The Japanese speak, well, Japanese as if the Americans should understand their every word. It's bizarre and funny.
Thank you for the texture. Throughout the movie she immortalizes the Japanese cliches -- flower arranging, Buddhist shrines and pools of solitude. Just when you've had enough serenity she shocks us with thunderous laser guns, edgy loud music, kinky prostitutes and Sopranoesque sex bars. Let's not forget the God Awful TV hosts, commercials, worse than ever movies, and yes, make it go away Karaoke.
Thank you for portraying a culture that is just as full of itself as ours. Thank you for an ending that begs for the sequel that will never be. Thank you for showing us again that love energizes, pierces the boredom, heals, and holds hope in its giving fingers.