Culture Shock in "Lost in Translation"

Culture shock in “Lost in Translation”

Lost in Translation is a 2003 american film directed by Sofia Coppola. Born in New York, she is the daughter of the famous film director Francis Ford Coppola (most known for “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather”). She has mainly Irish and Italian ancestry, along with some English (her father was of Irish descent, while her mother's family was Irish-American). Sofia grew up on the sets of her father's movies, often documenting the movie-making process. She loved traveling to such exotic film locations as Manila, located in the Philippines, where the filming of   “Apocalypse Now” took place. The Coppola family spent there a lot of time, because of the prolonging filming of the movie. Before becoming a film director herself she tried painting, photography, fashion design and acting. The first film written and directed by her was “Lick the Star” which was a short comedy. Next there was the film “Virgin Suicides”, and finally her most known “Lost in Translation” for which she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
The film shows us what it is like to find ourselves in a completely different environment, culture. It focuses on issues such as loneliness, alienation and culture shock through the story of two Americans feeling lost in modern day Japan. One of them , Bob Harris, is an aging American movie star, who arrives in Tokyo to film an advertisement for a Japanese whisky brand. Apart from experiencing the culture shock he is also having a mid-life crisis and seems tired by his marriage which lacks emotions.   The second is Charlotte, a young Yale graduate who comes here with her husband who is a photographer.   She feels left alone by her partner who spends most of his time working, which makes her unsure of her marriage and life. The two eventually meet and together explore the differences in American and Japanese cultures.
In the movie characters are portrayed in many situations, which make it clear that they...