Lost in Translation
ロスト・イン・トランスレーション
The Moonlight essay
CinemaLost in Translation and the Loneliness You Can Admit Only Away From HomeRead the essayDiscussed in the Journal
JournalThe Space Was Part of the CompositionStoryline
The whole story, ending included.
A fading actor and a neglected wife in the Park Hyatt Tokyo; much loved, and faulted in both Japan and the US for its view of Japanese people.
Bob Harris, an American film star past his prime, arrives in Tokyo to be paid two million dollars for advertising Suntory whisky. At the Park Hyatt he cannot sleep. His twenty-five-year marriage has gone flat, and he is in the middle of a midlife crisis. Charlotte, a young philosophy graduate from Yale, is staying at the same hotel with her husband of two years, John, a celebrity photographer who leaves her alone while he works and is delighted to run into Kelly, a Hollywood actress in town to promote a film. Charlotte takes the train around the city, visits a shrine, tries ikebana, and feels nothing. Jet-lagged and adrift, she and Bob keep crossing paths in the hotel bar, and begin to talk.
When John goes away on a job, Charlotte invites Bob out with her Japanese friend Charlie. They spend a night in Tokyo's clubs and end up singing in a karaoke room. Over the following days they roam the city together and become friends. One night, neither able to sleep, they drink sake in front of the television and talk about her uncertainty over what to do with her life, and about their marriages.
While Charlotte is away in Kyoto, Bob, after a cold phone call with his wife, spends the night with the singer from the hotel bar. Back the next morning, Charlotte hears the woman in his room, and a lunch of shabu-shabu passes in strained silence. That night a fire alarm sends the guests out of the hotel in their nightclothes. Bob finds Charlotte, they make up and have a last drink in the bar, and in the lift he kisses her goodbye.
The next morning their farewell in the lobby is polite and unsatisfying. On the way to the airport Bob sees her in a crowded street, gets out of his taxi and goes after her. He holds her and whispers something inaudible in her ear. She nods, crying. They kiss, and he goes.
Starring
Bill Murrayas Bob Harris
An American film star past his prime, in Tokyo to shoot a whisky advert and worn down by a flat twenty-five-year marriage.
Bob Harris’s story
Sleepless at the hotel, Bob drinks alone in the bar until a young American, Charlotte, has a glass of sake sent to him, and soon they start to talk. He goes out into Tokyo with her and her friends, sings karaoke, and spends the next days wandering the city with her. Lying awake one night, they talk about her uncertain future and their marriages. After a cold call with his wife he spends the night with the singer from the hotel bar, and Charlotte hears the woman in his room. Their lunch is strained. On his last night a fire alarm brings them together again, and in the lift he kisses her goodbye. On the way to the airport he sees her in a crowded street, gets out, holds her and whispers something in her ear, kisses her, and goes.
Scarlett Johanssonas Charlotte
A young philosophy graduate, married for two years, left alone in a Tokyo hotel and unsure what her life is for.
Charlotte’s story
While John works, Charlotte rides the trains, visits a shrine and phones a friend at home who barely listens. She has a glass of sake sent to Bob in the hotel bar, and soon they start to talk. When John goes away, she takes Bob out with her friend Charlie, and they spend the next days roaming Tokyo together. Lying awake one night, she tells him she does not know what to do with her life. Back from a trip to Kyoto alone, she hears a woman in Bob's room, and their lunch is strained. A fire alarm on his last night brings them together again, and he kisses her goodbye in the lift. The next day he finds her in a crowded street and whispers something in her ear. She nods, crying. They kiss, and he is gone.
Giovanni Ribisias John
Charlotte's husband, a busy celebrity photographer who leaves her on her own while he works.
Anna Farisas Kelly
A Hollywood actress in Tokyo to promote a film, who greets John effusively and whom Charlotte cannot stand.
Fumihiro Hayashias Charlie
Charlotte's Japanese friend, who takes her and Bob out into Tokyo's nightlife.
Why it matters
Lost in Translation is about a kind of intimacy that rarely gets a film of its own: two lonely married people, a fading star and a woman just out of university, who share a few sleepless nights and never become lovers. What passes between Bob and Charlotte is recognition, being seen at the moment each feels invisible, and the film trusts that this is enough to change them. Sofia Coppola won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The Tokyo around them is another matter. Critics and scholars in Japan and the United States have faulted the film for making Japanese people the butt of its jokes, especially about accents; in 2004 an Asian American group campaigned against it during awards season, and in 2024 Coppola said some of those depictions had not aged well. The film holds both at once: a tender study of loneliness, and a question about whose loneliness the camera takes seriously.