LOST IN TRANSLATION

This film was directed by Sofia Coppola, daughter of the great Francis Ford Coppola. Main characters are played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. They both won BAFTA film awards for best actor and best actress.

The whole story takes place in Tokyo. Bob Harris is an aging actor who travels to Tokyo to shoot a whisky spot. In the same hotel where he stays is Charlotte, a young girl who is in Tokyo because her husband is working there as a photographer. Both Bob and Charlotte are in a foreign country where they can’t do anything but walk along, unable to understand anything or anyone. But one night they meet in the hotel bar. And during the next days they develop a bond that stays between love and friendship, and precisely because this bond is none of those feelings entirely, it is much more indestructible. 

Depending on which moment of your life you see this film, you’ll love it or you’ll just stay the same, like abstract painting. From a superficial point of view, nothing happens on this film: just two people, who meet each other, spend time together and then say goodbye. But if you know how to really watch this film, you’ll discover that silence speak more than words. 

This film goes beyond the typical movies in which two married people meet, fall in love, have sex and end up together living happily ever after. This film has nothing to do with that, because it is not that simple. They both are married; they can’t just let their partners and start a brand new life together. They have houses, jobs, and Bob even has two kids. 

All these “obstacles”, however, do not prevent Bob and Charlotte from feeling that they have found somebody special. And they know that because they run along the roads holding hands, they sing in a karaoke, they laugh, they talk until falling sleep, but they also remain silent, just being together. Apparently, they have nothing in common but, somehow they feel the same, have the same doubts and, therefore, understand each other like nobody else could. But, despite all these things, they know that that cannot and is not going to last forever.

I think this film is more beautiful than any archetypical love story. Maybe it is because there’s no happy ending, because they do not exactly fall in love. They just find somebody they like to be with. Is it love? Friendship? Or maybe it is just coincidence. But, from my experience, the best things can happen out of a coincidence: you meet somebody at the supermarket that ends up being the best friend ever; or you meet somebody at the gas station that turns out being the love of your life. But even if you get married or not, even if the relationship last seven days or your whole life, the important thing is that you get to feel like Bob and Charlotte when they are together: the happiest person on earth.