Lost in Translation is, quite simply, a masterpiece, so it’s sad to see that its Oscar hopes may be scuppered by the ‘activists’ over at Asian Mediawatch, who claim that it ‘mocks the Japanese people.’ This is so dumb that it’s difficult to know where to begin. The movie is a comedy, and like many comedies it satirizes, mocks and emphasizes the absurd, and when that film is set in Japan and, at least partly, is about the failure of different cultures to understand each other, it’s no surprise that here and there, ‘Japaneseness’ (yes, yes, I know that’s not a word) is at the receiving end of a few jokes (as are blonde starlets, middle-aged white guys and numerous others). That anyone could find that humor somehow racist is yet another reminder that we live in a culture of complaint and victimhood run amok.
Message to ’Asian Mediawatch’: Get a life, guys.