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Most of my time in US, I had been spending time watching DVDs - original one ok, pirated is hard to come by unless you opt to join the "torrent-lution gang". Well there is a best business practice they teach in my company which is BPX, so to be compliant, any PC is not allow to bit-torrent, but reality who cares except me, truth is I always think we should honor actors/actresses and directors by buying original DVD if they put up a good show.

Back to the topic, I had been watching tonnes of movies I had missed in the 80’s, 90’s when I was limited by budget problem during my early day, where I only get RM 10 per month, which is equivalent to 2 shows / month if you spend everything on movie only. A lot of nice movies back then like "fight club" by brad pitt and edward norton, "godfather" by Al Pacino, "the thing" by kurt russel, "memento" by (dont know who) etc. But the one the captured my attention and I enjoy watching most is "Lost In Translation" produced by Sofia Copolla, daughter of Francis Copolla and starring Scarlett Johannsen and Bill Murray.

The destination, Japan, was a movie about a newly wed couple, with the wife staying alone in hotel most of the time while her husband is busy with work with Bill Murray acting as a famous actor in mid-life crisis coming to Japan to shoot a commercial. Together they found their commonality ( losing direction in life), established a wonderful friendship, leaving back wonderful memory and going back to their own life. Well, the movie doesnt really tell you whether they fall in love with each other, but through their gestures you can feel there was something going on….no, they dont cheat on their other half, but they have a wonderful 1-week friendship and sweet memory to cherish.

I like this movie maybe because I am now alone in US and missing my home a lot, being alone in this strange place can be a scary experience, but as usual we struggled, adapted and then moved on. But the process doesnt always sound as smooth as it was, a lot of adjustments have to be made, particularly where you want to spend your leisure time when you are not working. Going around here costs a lot especially when I like to travel light and alone, I am a person who emphasized a lot on who you are going with for an outing, because it could result in a wonderful trip or an awful trip, I especially hate those experience where you spent a lot in a trip end up satisfying other needs. Not anti social, but there are certain things which will leave a better taste in your mouth if you do it alone with you on way, maybe I am a control freak haha.

Working is also not fun, you met people who dont understand your language, their fear to your threat is equal to your fear to their expectations. It turned out to be a rather exhausting relationship when there is something shaking up the trust factor. You are doing everything double the amount of time and effort, just to prove you are doing the right way. But in reality there isnt really a right way, there is only your way or my way. It was an experience though, but you sure hope it is a short one.

With all these factors accumulated, so when I watched Lost In Translation, it hits me straight away with a "Bang", I like this movie, I felt like the actor and actress is acting on top of a script I am writing just that I changed the place to Japan. I downright love this movie, I dont think I will ever develop this kind of love towards this movie if I watched it in Malaysia.

It was especially funny when Bill said "the people here like to substitute R with L", Mr Black will end up as Mr "Brack", Roger Moore will become loger Moore, on second thought Japanese do speak that way…haha !

Throughout this tough 6 months in US, Lost In Translation is a movie that sums up my thoughts and experience with referenced to the part how they struggled and adapted then moved back to their life. Relocation is not fun, but it is a virtual experience of what will happen if something changed in your life, no gf and family close to you, you lost your human network, you lost your friends and you lost your financial power. It is a lesson that should be appreciated.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 2:12 am and is filed under Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.