Tokyo And Kyoto

Rating: Null/10 (14 May 2004)

I consider this film to be an effective expression of narrative realism, made possible by the abandonment of the three-act structure and that which it generally includes. Sub-plots stay unraveled. The inciting incident is a mere parody of its use in a conventional film, it exists strictly for appearances, not to set up a Robert McKee-style plot. Why not go with McKee? Impossible for the purposes of realism; that's not how it goes down in real life.
Coppola seems reasonably good at writing for men too: while her male leads are both horndogs who will be the death of their mates, they have enough good qualities to form a contradiction that convinced me of their reality.

The charges of racism being leveled against this movie are hubris. They stem from a hysterical reaction against any white filmmaker who dares to write an unsympathetic role for someone with a different ethnicity than their own. So what Coppola sneers at the rape-fantasy prostitute in Bob Harris' hotel room? Does she not show her delight with the traditional Japanese wedding in the garden at Kyoto? Indeed, the dominant tone of this movie struck me as the amazement of a rural colonial, touring her capital for the first time.
This in a city [Tokyo] that some journalists consider to be tourist-unfriendly. Coppola is an obvious urbanophile, (unusual in women) and found plenty to catch her fancy: from mag-lev trains, to silly karaoke bars and digital brachiosauri. I should rent it again, Scarlett Johansson's mercurial hotness probably deflected my attention from a lot of it.

8/10