Fragmentary, Undeveloped Work of Art

Rating: 5/10 (2 February 2004)

It is gratifying that so many like a movie that does not depict graphic sex or violence, that, on the positive side, is very creative filmmaking. The Bob Harris character is played pretty deadpan, for instance. Pardon . . . SPOILERS COMING! The romance is not likely to develop, and we are glad that it does not. These elements, together with the long shots of still faces, still scenery, make for an innovative and artistic film.
Why was it made? People who either have traveled to Japan or who are into the electronics devices and media made possible by Japan will like its scenes. Things in downtown Tokyo are compacted, for instance, a party in a tiny cubicle of a high rise apartment building, seen clearly from outside the window. Thus, it is a travelogue for Japan, no doubt in part funded by the Tourism Bureau of Japan. Well, what if you are not into electronics and mass media?
Why else was it made? To show that an older man and a young, zestful woman can have a sort-of relationship without sex. If so, it failed a bit. They are acquainted but they do not grow by the end. For the Charlotte character to grow, her earlier stated inner conflicts must be resolved. Yet she remains unenlightened as to her vocation. She remains a philosophy major attracted to Buddhist priests and complaining that she is involved in promoting hair products. She remains romantically uninvolved. The final sequence much-touted here is like the return of a "Don't want" product to the store: they don't even take phone numbers or anything.
Isn't the title decentralized? The two involved in this central relationship are not the ones translating; they both speak the same language. The title alludes to a joke you saw coming. It alludes to the trouble Bob Harris is having following a Japanese director whose interpreter is reluctant to thoroughly quote him. It isn't funny the first time, because it's based on the old impression that someone talking in a foreign language seems to be using a lot of words. It is repeated so many times that you want to turn the page. Now, every time this movie is mentioned, you think of the tired joke that the script kept repeating and which is away from the main thrust of the film.