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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 9:37 am
by jml2
it still amazes me how deeply and similarly this movie affects the people it does.
I think this movie is truly unique in cinema this way.

Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 9:44 am
by kite
Hey Pitman!, sorry for the late reply.

I couldn't watch the movie that night, my PS2 couldn't read the DVD at the start of the movie. I went to see the DVD if it had any scratches and it didn't. I tried again and still didnt wanted to work, I got pissed and went to sleep :(

And even having the thought that i had prepared for the occasion, it was 11 pm and i was in my pijammas drinking tea, I also was playing the soundtrack in my stereo at full volume!!

Anyways, I bought a new DVD player and im going to try to watch it tommorow.
Wish me luck.


P.S. I dont have the DVD, I rent it at this local movie rental place. Apparently they only have 1 copy of the movie

Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 10:02 am
by Pitman
cosettery_kite, hey! good to hear from you. Good luck! Hope it works out for you. I'm going to watch it tonight after midnight. I'm staying up really late tonight because I'm on holidays tomorrow and I'm flying out to British Columbia tomorrow which is a 3 hour time difference. So, I'm trying to beat the jet lag. Although it would be cool to watch the movie under jet lag conditions. I won't get a chance to see it again until I get back on the 22nd of May.

If you want a copy of the movie, let me know, I could mail you one.

Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 4:06 pm
by mothling
Pitman; you just reminded me of my plans to bring LiT with me on my flight to LA from England next month. It would be the perfect film for me to just chill out with during the flight.

Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 4:09 pm
by Nak Nak
I listen to the LiT soundtrack during the first part of any plane journey - "Girls" is a perfect take-off song.

Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 2:11 pm
by Pitman
mothling wrote:Pitman; you just reminded me of my plans to bring LiT with me on my flight to LA from England next month. It would be the perfect film for me to just chill out with during the flight.
That's a long flight. Are you going to LA on vacation?

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 5:18 am
by mothling
Yeah, a 8 day holiday. After this one, Tokyo is next on the list.

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 8:46 am
by Pitman
Tokyo and Kyoto would be glorious. I am definitely going to save up for that one. It would be nice to travel with someone though. What about you, would you go alone?

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 2:16 pm
by mothling
I think I would be too scared to travel alone to be honest :/
When I travel to Tokyo next year, I am going with three friends. I thought I was going to have to really talk them into it but I only had to so much as bring up the idea and then show them the Park Hyatt Tokyo website and they were in.

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 12:44 am
by Flyonthewall
Traveling with people is cool.. but I also like to travel alone. Im kind of spontaneous and would like to explore the place so if I was alone, I wouldn't have to follow an itinerary or schedule.

I mean it'd be nice to be able to walk around in Shinjuku and Shibuya at night and just revel in the nightlife :D

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 12:03 pm
by burgundy
This seems to be the thread for newcomers to the LIT sickness to come clean. So here I am -- maybe a bit a late for the party but so be it.

I received the 'punch in the stomach' last week and this film has occupied a lot of my time ever since. I teared up the first two times. I don't know why it took almost three years for me to finally see it. But now I've made up for lost time -- I've seen it 4 times now. It's a bit worrying, really.
But it's just so compelling at so many levels. And the music is unbelievable. As soon I heard the opening notes to Just like Honey, I was in complete rapture. I hadn't heard that song in years. I used to listen to Jesus and Mary Chain back in the 80s so hearing again provided another layer of nostalgia for me.

I was so happy to find this forum. Reading through it, I realize how common this emotional reaction is. Obviously, this movie touches on some powerful feelings that are common to everyone. Maybe it's the paradox of the joy and sadness we all feel when in the company of people we like. Joy that our existential isolation is suspended or ended for a time, but knowing all the time that nothing lasts forever and at some time, those feelings of comfort and friendship and love will go away as the person leaves either through planned or unplanned circumstances. The friend met on the trip has to get on with their life, or a loved one dies. In a sense, this movie is about that generic sense of loss that all humans have to face up to.

One of things that I related to in the film is the depiction of the travel experience. It just rang true on so many levels. Although I have never been to Japan, I have been to Thailand a few times. The sense of dislocation and the possibility of excitement and meeting up with people you will never see again is all part of the beauty and sadness of travel. The jet lag, the fantastic new places you visit -- this movie describes the experience of modern travel better than any other movie I can think of.

I am an incurable romantic -- maybe that's a prerequisite for seeking out a forum like this -- and I also wished for Bob and Charlotte to get together at some later date. I think that's a natural wish. The inevitability of loss is somehow postponed or even defeated. Of course, I have read some of the good ideas here taken from interviews of Sofia and Bill Murray that really this is movie about those transient contacts we have to enrich our lives. It's fairly clear from them that we are not supposed to think they will ever see each other again. And yet, part of me (most of me!) hopes they will.

I have tons more I could say, but I'll stop for now. I think my hour of therapy is up.

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 1:23 pm
by 52FM
Welcome to our little corner of cyberspace!

I never get tired of reading people's reactions to this amazing film. You're not "late to the party" at all. I know a lot of people who have posted on here regularly still lurk from time to time.

You capture the essence of the film very well - continue to post. We DO want to hang on to ephemeral feelings very badly. Sometimes we can - sometimes we can't. Sometimes we should - sometimes we shouldn't. I really believe Sofia - through her own experiences - is trying to say "enjoy and appreciate the moment" and then assess later if it was neant to be over or meant to continue.

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:03 pm
by Flyonthewall
Welcome and I echo 52's sentiments. That "punch" hit me pretty hard too and I do find a sense of comfort reading and posting here.

To this day, Im still in a state of limerence for "Charlotte". Although I do realize that she is a fictional person and that the story was indeed a result of a connection that neither was seeking, it just happened. I've also realized the film's message to see and appreciate all the little connections we all make daily since you never know how they will turn out. :D

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:50 am
by burgundy
Right on.

That is the great thing about this movie. It stays with you. It makes you think about your life in a new way. Hopefully we have all learned something from it.

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 12:55 pm
by Too Young
Wow seems like this film really hits people hard after watching - I'm glad I'm not the only one. It's great reading this forum and seeing other people have had similar feelings to yourself.

For me no other films takes you on a emotional journey with as many mixed emotions as LIT. Right from the opening bars of "girls" to the heartbreaking ending I experience all the emotions the characters go through - I feel Charlotte's sense of loss and longing as she stares out the window, I feel Bob's sense of losing someone special as tears start welling in his eyes at the end. But I also feel the sense of exhilaration and excitement as they have their first night out in Tokyo together. I no longer get that "punched in the stomach" feeling many of you have described, as strongly any more as I have seen it over 10 times now. Now I'm mostly left with feelings of melancholy and loss as the characters journey is over but also mine too as I didn't want it to end.

This feeling often lingers around a couple of days afterwards, I look at life in a positive hopeful way and at that same time wonder where my life's going. Then when my heads cleared I smile and think to myself I can't wait to go on that journey again.

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:16 pm
by SunsetOdds
That punched in the stomach feeling has left me too :cry:
For about 3 months after watching it the third time I felt like I had gained a new emotion,
Something like objectless love, or an everlasting aching
Between my first and 30th viewing I have seen many new films. (Lost made me love cinema)
I've watched apocalypse now, 2001, Paris texas and lesser known films like chungking express or rushmore but nothing ever conquers the all encompassing warmth and hold this film has on me.
Gonna stay up late and watch it tonight,
Love this forum and film so much.

Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:23 am
by Bob_san
It's great to see 10 years later people are still discovering this film and the experience of it!

Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 8:03 am
by tpl89
I first watched this film in August 2007 and nothing since has come close to having the same impact on me. It simply is perfection.

Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:02 pm
by Atlanta Bill
This is my first post to the Forum, and I think this thread is an appropriate place to start, as obviously I can’t stop thinking about Lost in Translation either. Introducing myself by introducing my initial reaction to this film seems to be a good foundation for learning about me and about my takes on LiT.

The preface, however, has to be an answer to “where have you been for the last 12 years?” It is amazing to me that I only found this site in the last few months. I have a quite large LiT folder of items I’ve collected from the web that go back ten years. So in all that searching for LiT items I don’t know how I missed this forum.

Anyway, there are brilliant things posted here and I could likely write for months, having thought a lot about most of the issues that the veteran members have commented on. It won’t be that fast in reality. Like others, life has other demands. But I hope to participate often.

My first viewing of LiT was about one week after it came out on NetFlix. (The old NetFlix where they sent you the DVD in the mail.) When the credits rolled I just starred at the screen, total stunned by what I just saw. SunsetOdds talked about a punch-in-the-stomach feeling. I don’t know if it was a punch so much as a hollowing out. I turned to my wife and just said, “my god.”

I didn’t look at the film again for two years. I was hard to find the time to experience it the way I wanted to. It was on my mind constantly, but there was so much to think about I suspect I was a bit overwhelmed.

When I did watch it again, it hit me even harder. I suspect that knowing understanding what was happening to Bob and Charlotte from the start allowed the nuances began to emerge. Then I bought the DVD with all the extras.

The pace of viewing picked up. But I always wanted a viewing to be experiential and I wanted a gap between viewings so I could really think and reflect on any new perspectives I picked up. Now it is on my MacBook, but it gets treated the same way. With one exception.

I started traveling to Asia annually about four years ago. Delta has LiT on its Tokyo flights (although edited for content) and I always watch it both going and coming home. I travel on from Tokyo, but the layover always allows time to buy a bottle of 17 y.o. Suntory Hibiki at the Narita duty free shop.

Every evening when I am leading a student group in Asia they get an e-mail summarizing the day just past and highlighting the next one. I sip the Hibiki and have LiT running in the background on the MacBook while I compose my daily note. It gets sent out about 2 am most nights, which is when I finally finish. So naturally the title of the daily bulletin is “Are You Awake” and its masthead printed below is a screen shot clipped from Bob’s invitation card to Charlotte.


Image

I look forward to joining the thoughtful conversations that have been built over the decade plus.

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 11:38 am
by preciouswhile
Welcome. Glad you found us (better late than never). It's a bit quiet around here lately but there's always room for more. I've also been extremely grateful for this venue to discuss the movie with others who feel as passionate.