Blog #2 Everyone wants to be found

For this assignment we were asked to analyze the cultural meanings behind a film that focuses on intercultural communication. Sara gave us a list of examples and one of them stuck out to me the most, Lost in Translation. The reason I noticed this one right away was because I had previously watched the movie before and I enjoyed the film and the main reason I picked the movie is because I am a HUGE Bill Murray fan. The man is probably my favorite actor, but that is neither here nor there. It is also a benefit because it is on Netflix, so that made it easily accessible. I know that this is not supposed to be a summary of the movie, but I want to give a little background on the movie just to pain the picture a little bit for the rest of this blog. Murray plays a movie star that has past him prime and flew to Tokyo to do an advertisement for a Japanese whiskey company and then fly back to the US. Long story short, Murray meets this woman in a bar (Scarlett Johansson) and they start to develop a relationship. The friendship eventually leads to the two of them sharing a kiss before Murray departs back to normality in the US. This is just a broad synopsis of the film and I will go further in dept about the different situations and scenarios of the film.

The film depicts a number of cultural patterns throughout it. The first one that I am going to discuss deals with the difficulty between communicating between two different cultures speaking two different languages. As I mentioned earlier, Murray is in Tokyo to do an advertisement for a whiskey company. During the photo shoot there is a lot of uncertainty on Murray's side as to what the photographer wants him to do. Murray has a translator with him during the photo shoot, but there is still a lot of confusion which eventually leads to frustration on Murray's part. When the translator tells Murray what the director is saying, Murray thinks the translator is not telling him everything that the director had said and this seems to add to the confusion and frustration a little bit more. Eventually though, Murray is able to figure out what is wanted by the photographer and the photo shoot is a success.

I have included the particular scene that I am referring to below to give a better understanding of the cultural miscommunication that I am trying to describe.

The next cultural pattern I noticed in the movie has to deal with sex. In one scene of the movie, Murray is in his hotel room when there is a knock at the door. He goes to answer it to find a Chinese woman standing there saying someone had sent her. She starts off by offering Murray a "massage." He denies the massage, but the woman tries again by trying to get Murray to rip her stockings. But, once again because of communication issues he cannot understand what she is trying to say. The scene goes on and she continues to seduce Murray to no avail. The scene of this movie is meant to be funny, and in the situation, it is kind of comical, but it brings up the point of sex between different cultures. In the scene Murray seems to be uncomfortable with the ways the woman is trying to seduce him. Different cultures have different fantasies and ways of seducing the opposite sex.

I included the scene I described in my previous paragraph. I included it to give you a sense of what I was trying to say and how cultures and communication can affect the seduction process. :)



The last cultural pattern I am going to describe can encompass a few different patterns in itself. In the movie Murray finds company with a woman (Johansson) he met a bar. Through the first couple of encounters the two have they come to find out that they are both in Tokyo for a short time, both from the United States and both married, you later find out that they are both un-happily married, but married nonetheless. I think that in this circumstance, one could make an argument that a multitude of cultural patterns are all intermingling. The two people are in a foreign land and connected by race, ethnicity and nationality. The same can be said that the two are both connected to one-another through sexual orientation and marital status. The combination of these cultural patterns brings both of them together to create a bond throughout the movie. During the beginning of the movie, before they meet, it seems that both of them are lost in a foreign land with nobody to talk to or console with. Murray is in the control alone on business and Johansson is in the country with her husband who is on business, so she is essentially alone as well. At the beginning of the movie Johansson is talking on the phone to one of her friends in America saying that she doesn't know who she married anymore and  later on in the movie Murray and Johansson are laying in a bed together (nothing sexual) and they discuss whether or not marriage become easier. They discuss quite a few things in the scene, from Johansson's life, Murray's kids, marriage and others. One of my favorite quotes from this movie comes from this scene in which Murray says, "The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you."  I am starting to get off topic, but, the point I am making here is that even though the two are in a completely new country, they find the company and consolation from a person that shares many of the same cultural experiences and viewpoints.

Again, I included the particular scene that I am trying to describe to you.

After watching this movie through the lens of cultural analyzation, I picked up on a lot of different things that I normally would have. I looked at this movie through, as our textbook describes, an interpretive approach. Where I looked to "understand and describe human behavior within specified cultural groups based on human experience and behavior" (Martin & Nakayama, 2012, pp. 60). There is an array of cultures that people judge and analyze based on what they see on TV. I hate to bad mouth a Bill Murray movie, but, in my opinion, this movie does not paint a very good picture of the Japanese culture. Like I said, if  I would have been watching this movie out of my own ambition, I never would have noticed the minor things about the Japanese culture I did. But, in certain ways, this movie paints the Japanese culture in a bad light. Or, maybe I am just over analyzing the situation...I tend to do that from time to time.

To wrap things up, cultural patterns are going to differ between different countries. This fact is what makes this world the place it is. Wherever we go on this planet, there are going to be different ways of living and different habits..that is what makes this world such a great and interesting place. Mahatama Gandhi said, "A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people", a country is defined by it's people and the way they live their life and the way people live their life is defined by their culture and its patterns.

References:


Bill Murray "You're Awesome" Picture. Retreived 2-6-2013:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thezooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Bill-Murray-Youre-Awesome-460x577.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thezooom.com/language/english/page/53/&h=577&w=460&sz=55&tbnid=fhDHqNdbJVtKuM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=72&zoom=1&usg=__E1Q4z48XLzTiZm_NOUnBK--PPt8=&docid=NCGnx5Tkpdej1M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wtMSUcGRK7Cl2AWr0IHgDg&sqi=2&ved=0CDUQ9QEwAQ&dur=205


Does It Get Easier? - Lost in Translation (8/10) Movie CLIP HD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNK7N3AwVFQ

Lost In Translation (2/10) Movie CLIP - Lip My Stockings! (2003) HD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPQ6VQzuyxU&list=PLF582B66D8845E3CF

Martin, J.N. & Nakayame, T.K. (2012). Intercultrual Communication in Contexts (6th ed.) Boston, MA: McGraw Hll.

Mahatma Gandhi Culture Quote. Retrieved 2-6-2013:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mahatmagan160857.html


Suntory Time! - Lost in Translation (1/10) Movie Clip (2003) HD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQnH450hPM&list=PLF582B66D8845E3CF

This has nothing to do with the blog....I am just a huge Bill Murray fan. :)