Volume 3, Issue 6

In This Month's Issue:

• Lost in Translation - The Soundtrack - by Larry Wiebe
• Lost in Translation - The Movie - by Tony Hajjar
• Meet the new trainer: Christie Atherton
• Photo Show update

Lots of big words, arranged with care.

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack. And you may find yourself in another part of the world. And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile. And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife. And you may ask yourself? Well… How did I get here? And you may ask yourself: How do I work this? And you may ask yourself: Where is that large automobile? And you may tell yourself: This is not my beautiful house! And you may tell yourself: This is not my beautiful wife! Same as it ever was… Same as it ever was… Same as it ever was… Same as it ever was. Recently flew Singapore Airlines. 29 movies. 85 tv programs. 102 cd’s. 12 audio channels. 31 Nintendo games. Think about that next time someone tells you JAL is the best airline. Thanks to all who contributed to this newsletter and my sincere apologies to Van for failing to thank her for her article in the last newsletter. Cheers, Larry

　

Lost in Translation - An album review by Larry Wiebe

First off let me make it very clear I’ve never reviewed an album before. I’m not Phil or Jim: I can’t talk intelligently about music and explain to you WHY a piece of music is worthy of your time for reasons beyond that I like the way it sounds or I like the way it makes me feel or I like the way it downloads quickly off the Internet, all very subjective categories. So then why am I writing this review? Well, first, because Tony reviewed the movie for this newsletter so it ties together thematically (along with Christie mentioning she likes independent films and Brian trying to sell stereos which can be used to play… that’s right, music!). So you see everything fits together quite nicely like… like some nice-fitting thing. The second reason I’m doing an album review is because I bought the soundtrack a few weeks ago at Tower Records in Shibuya and I quite enjoy it. Of course, later I found it on sale at Costco for a much lower price, but that’s to be expected. Of course, the third, and most important reason is because I didn’t get enough submissions this month to fill up the newsletter . Did you notice the subtle hint there? So here goes? my first album review. Are you ready? Are you sitting down or reclining in a comfortable position in a well-lit room conducive to reading without straining your eyes? Because your eyes are very important. You only get two so take care of them. Have you had them checked lately? But I digress. One thing I’ve learned over the last few months editing the newsletter is the importance of padding to fill space. Sometimes I’ll just write utter nonsense because I’m not sure anyone is even reading this stuff. Like for example once I wrote “Senile felines” What was that all about? Nobody ever asked. Actually it was a palindrome: it reads the same backwards as forwards. Same as “no melons, no lemon”. Another way to fill the page is to suddenly increase the font size. And of course strategically-placed pictures violating all known international copyright laws work wonders. Hey, I’ve already filled more than half of this page and I haven’t even written anything about the album yet! But I digress. By the way, wasn’t that a great photoshow last weekend? Did anyone else find it suspicious that there was only one entry in the Golden Week category? What was that all about? The lengths some people will go to just for a can of beer! Anyways, the album. There are 15 tracks on the album. Sixteen if you buy the Japanese version instead of the import version. How do you tell them apart? Well, the import version is about 600 yen cheaper and looks like the original movie poster with Bill Murray sitting on the bed in his Tokyo hotel room wearing a bathrobe. Turn to page two in this newsletter for an example. The Japanese version has a picture of the actress Scarlett Johansson lying on a bed on the cover. The soundtrack includes five songs by Kevin Shields and one with his former band My Bloody Valentine. Apparently this is a really big deal to some people. I’d never heard of either before I bought this soundtrack. Ask Phil or Jim or someone else who knows stuff about music why this is a big deal. Lots of reviewers used words like “ambient” and “eclectic” and “spongy” when describing this album, so if those are words you like to use when talking about your favorite music perhaps this album is for you! All I know is I like the way it sounds and the way it makes me feel and the way it downloads quickly off the Internet. Dang, I’m out of space. How did that happen?

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Lost In Translation - A movie review by Tony Hajjar

Lost In Translation, Sophia Coppola’s directorial debut, is a movie about a middle-aged, past-his-prime American movie star, (Bob Harris) played by Bill Murray, and a young newlywed woman (Charlotte) played by Scarlett Johansson who is the wife of a busy rock celebrity photographer, who meet in Tokyo and develop an intriguing relationship built on their mutual loneliness, situation and inability to interpret their environment and the culture that created it.
It’s always my first inclination to pan a movie in a review because I think it’s fun to do and I don’t really expect to influence anyone for the good or the bad. Of course anyone with a brain that functions doesn’t really base a decision to watch and subsequently like or dislike a movie on a review he or she has read. Anyway, this time I think I’ll just say that I like the movie, but I don’t love it. Far be it from me to be a purveyor of bad tidings.
Bob is in Tokyo to shoot a Suntory Whisky commercial for Japanese television. Charlotte is just hanging out while her husband does photo shoots and hob knobs with rock stars and supermodels. Bob and Charlotte are staying at the same hotel and that is how they meet. Murray plays Bob well as the charming, cynical older married man who woos lonely young Charlotte with his wit and humour about the shockingly inexplicable culture they find themselves in together. I don’t recall ever seeing Scarlett Johansson in anything before this, but she does a fair job at playing the broody young Charlotte trying to “find herself” and figure out what she’s doing in a marriage with a guy she admits she doesn’t really know, all the while trying to navigate through the murky labyrinth of Tokyo culture.
The most obvious draw about this movie for many of us living in Japan might be that the action takes place in Japan. Some of the things I saw were implausible and simply reinforced the stereotypes that we know some foreigners who don’t live in Japan have of other foreigners who live in Japan. (Some other people have this impression too.) There is a certain amount of humour in Lost In Translation when we see Bob’s way of dealing with his being a celebrity in Japan. The movie shows some stereotypes and some situations that, for those of us who live here, don’t seem likely at all.
In a sense, this is a story of unrequited love, but it isn’t really. It's also a story of heartache, heartbreak and betrayal. The romance is what drives the action in this movie; the scenes that connect Bob and Charlotte’s meetings are almost incidental. But I won’t tell you who betrays whom, who has a romance with whom, or anymore about the plot because it might spoil the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.
What’s interesting about this movie is that the title augers how meaning is somehow misunderstood and humour is not appreciated because of a cultural and language barrier. The true meaning of the title is much subtler than that and for the discerning movie watcher (I don’t mean those who think a car chase, a crash, an explosion, a gun fight or blood, guts and gore make for good cinema) you will be pleased at how Coppola maneuvers the action and the characters with nuance and that little spark of enigmatic…something or other. I can’t put my finger on it right now, but you will like that Je ne peux pas expliquer when you see it. For the rest of you, there’s a chase scene.
It’s interesting too that Bill played Bob and Scarlett played Charlotte. I often wonder if they were the original names of the characters in the screenplay, or if the actors said they wanted names that sounded closer to their own. I think the original names were Devon and Millicent, but I could be wrong.

　

WELCOME THE NEW TRAINER: Ms. A:

Hometown: Vancouver
Hobbies/Interests: Anything in the great outdoors and most indoor sports as well.
Best thing in Japan: The reason I’m here.
Worst thing in Japan: “Hatsa”.
Best restaurant in Japan: So far they’ve all been great? no best or worst yet.
Best place in Japan: Kagoshima.
Favorite Japanese word: “Tanoshi”.
Favorite movie: The latest one is “Whale Rider” but I’m a big fan of independent films; anything produced outside of Hollywood.
Favorite drink: Microbrewery beer.Favorite music: My tastes are all over the place and to pick a favorite would depend on the time and place.
One book to have on a desert island: “How To Survive on a Desert Island.”
Personal goal: Learn Japanese and about Japan.
Most embarrassing moment in Japan: Just about every time I try to speak in Japanese and confuse the vowels!! Eg: takonoke=takenoko
Person I admire the most: A few friends back home? they’ve moved to Canada after being through some of the worst events in recent history, but can still stay positive and see good things in all people.
Most useless bit of trivia: To add to Lisa’s comments, as a friend reminded me before coming here: a stinkbug isn’t bothered by microwaves either. For other useless trivia: there are white bears that are not polar bears. They live on an island off the coast of B.C. They are Kermode bears or “spirit bears” and are a part of the black bear family.

We recently had our 4th Annual Photo Show. You can see the winners for each category here.