A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo is a amazing story line of the Scarlet Johansson starring “Lost in Translation”.
So, here are some if it’s behind the scenes. Which will be interesting to know.
Sofia Coppola wrote a lot of the film based on her life. The character of John was loosely based on her then-husband Spike Jonze. Rumor has it that the character of Kelly was based on Cameron Diaz, who worked with Jonze on Being John Malkovich (1999). Coppola denied the connection in an Entertainment Weekly interview.
When Charlotte is riding the subway, she looks down at a man who is reading a comic called ‘Ghost in the Shell’. Scarlett Johansson would go on to star in a film adaptation of the comic in 2017.
The film’s Spanish title in South America, “Perdidos en Tokio”, Chinese title “Mi Shi Dong Jing”, and its Hebrew title in Israel, “Avudim be-Tokio”, all mean “Lost in Tokyo”, meaning that the titles themselves were literally lost in translation. The reason is probably that “Lost in Translation” sounds like a discussion on translation in other languages. The title got lost in translation in other versions as well: the title in Portuguese translates as “Love is a Strange Place”; the title in Polish translates as “In Between Words”.
Bill Murray had a Japanese phrase book called “Making Out In Japanese” in which he would go around to sushi restaurants and ask the chefs if “they had a curfew” or if the would mind if he “used protection.” He even mentioned on the Graham Norton Show that he had learned a phrase along the lines of “Who do you think you’re talking to?” and would mention it to the fear of others.
The conversation between the two men in the Sauna (near the end of the film) goes something like this: – “I can hardly eat papayas anymore!” – “At first I was really happy … at first, I thought … well I thought…” – “At the beginning, yes.” – “In Germany, I was looking forward to it, but in the meantime…” – “Yeah. Now, something German…” – “Hmmmm.” – “After this, we’ll go out and get something German to eat here!”
