One of the reasons I love Sofia Coppola is because she makes movies like they’re music videos. Her collaboration with AIR from The Virgin Suicides (1999) followed by Lost in Translation (2003), is the secret to the dream-like quality of her films.
What amazes me is how she manages to make a movie out of loneliness and sustain it for two hours. Tokyo, seen through the eyes of two very bored expats, is turned into a utopia amidst the quiet chaos of its central characters’ lives.
The city’s frenetic energy, with its kinks and quirks, is juxtaposed with the placid nature and boring lives of Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson).
And yet, Coppola makes us see Tokyo through their eyes… and so enticing it is.
Wan Phing Lim 