Lost in the Translation

When I was flying from Doha to Houston in a 16hr flight, ‘Lost in the Translation’ was in the flight movie menu so I watched the movie. The movie was unique. It seemed like a movie that girls would like. To my masculine mind, it seemed something was off about the movie. The underlying premise of the relationship was ambiguous.

There are three characters in the movie. A young couple and an older man are westerners staying for a shortwhile in a hotel in Japan. The hubby leaves his wife in a hotel room everyday to work on his business assignment. The older guys works like little and is free the most of the time and so an uncanny friendship develops between him and the young wife of the couple.

Throughout the movie, their relationship status is ambiguous. There are some scenes where there appears to be a latent urge for sensuality, but there isn’t an explicit outward manifestation.Then at some other scenes it appears that the young wife and the older man have developed a father-daughter relationship where sensuality has not role at all, for example in the scene where the both sleep over a his place and they sleep in the same bed but there isn’t much of any physical contact except for, if I remember right, a bit of affectionate caressing of the back of the palms.

The movie rolls on with them becoming more comfortable with each other. One wonders where this ambiguity is leading to and hopes that they don’t do something stupid to undo the beautiful father-daughter part of their relationship. Just then, the work assignments complete and it is time for them to leave the hotel and go back to their separate lives.

Naturally, there is a yearning deep within them for each other, more so for the guy. After all, to give up the beautiful father-daughter relationship can be really painful. So they part with an mild hug. And all is well? You would think... but 'No'. The old man gets into his cab and feels restless. You would naturally think that he regrets missing the beautiful little girl and time they shared together. I wouldn’t blame you.

The cab goes down the busy streets, the guys gets more restless and stops the cab and walks out ‘searching’. He finds her and runs to her. May be you are expecting him to give her an affectionate hug and get her phone number or something. Or may be even go down on his knees and propose his love for her. After all what is wrong in falling in love with a girl half ones age, that she is married posses different problem.

But this dude does something much worse. He takes her face in his hands gives her a French kiss, full on her mouth. They remain lip-locked for quite a bit. Just as I was about to think that this movie was not bad after all, I felt a revulsion, because all along, beneath the father-daughter gimmicks, there was a potent sensuality which for some reason hadn't manifested at all. If the whole experience had to have the satisfaction of being truthful, the long repressed emotions had to manifest itself in some form. The father-daughter embellishment was a sugar coated lie that had to be exposed so that one can redeem oneself by truthfully seeking the sensual satisfaction, that had been latent all along in the relationship.

I remember C.S.Lewis' words in "Four Loves" where he says that a man and a woman cannot really be 'just friends' unless they were madly in love with someone else or had a physical revulsion for each other. All that appeared to be good about the movie's depiction of the relationship was undone in the last few seconds. It was in those seconds that the reason why I thought something was off about the movie.