by Huma Rashid

Created on: August 15, 2007

Karaoke functions in several different but equally important ways in Sophia Coppola's "Lost in Translation," starring Scarlett Johansen as neglected newlywed Charlotte and Bill Murray as wizened and cynical actor Bob Harris. The art of karaoke serves as the juxtaposition of something exotic and something familiar an Oriental pastime that is also popular in the Occident, or the West and provides a source of comfort and fun for the two dislocated characters that suddenly found themselves in Tokyo for professional reasons. It also serves as a way for these two characters to relate to each other despite the radical disparity in their ages and life experiences. And finally, the art of karaoke is perhaps the most salient illustration of the postmodern presence in Coppola's Oscar-nominated film as it illuminates notions of identity and self and love that the director and the characters clearly struggle with throughout the entire picture.

Karaoke is a collision of the Occident and the Orient: a form of Eastern activity that is also popular in the West. There are karaoke bars in the States and in European countries, and they are very popular among certain age groups. These bars are a great place for people to congregate over food and music and display some of their own talent. This is precisely why the inclusion of this pastime in "Lost in Translation" is so brilliant: both Charlotte and Bob are Western, but have found themselves in Tokyo. Insomniac Charlotte is lounging around a swanky Tokyo hotel because her new husband is a band photographer; the restless Bob Harris is there filming commercials for a popular brand of whiskey. Both characters found the trip rather spontaneous and do not seem to be overly enjoying themselves: Charlotte cries and listens to self-help tapes while Bob drinks copiously and struggles with frustrating sexual encounters while receiving faxes about floor treatments from his wife at the most inopportune times. When they meet up at the karaoke bar with friends, viewers are able to see another side of Bob and Charlotte that had been successfully hidden for much of the film up until that point. The characters let loose and have fun singing along to old American songs with their Japanese friends. They grin, they laugh, they tease, they sing off-key, and they pose and gyrate. It is exhilarating, casual, and heart-warming.

The first thing viewers notice about the male and female leading characters in this film is their drastic difference in age and

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