Re: I'll Give You One More Chance

1

"I've been trying to write a serious post about "mommy blogging" (yeah, I'm sure you can't wait) all day,"

As a matter of fact, I want to see what you have to say... and I imagine Unqualified Offerings would be interested too, since we've been "on about that" today.

horizontal rule
2

I hope to get to it by tomorrow.

horizontal rule
3

I liked that movie a lot when it came out, but I think I've cooled considerably since then.

horizontal rule
4

A technical question. Isn't there a way to link to a NYTimes article so that even when it goes behind their pay-to-play archive wall after a week or so the link will still get you to the full article and not the descripiton + price information page? I seem to remember that being mentioned or discussed on Unfogged at some point.

Another question. What's the name for a bleg on somebody's blog not one's own?

horizontal rule
5

a way to link to a NYTimes article

Here.

a bleg on somebody's blog not one's own

A bleech?

horizontal rule
6

Cool. On both counts.

Any other archives out there with a similar function?

horizontal rule
7

A friend of mine recommended Lost in Translation to me, saying "This is the kind of movie you love". Net result: I thought it was drawn out, dull, and not v. good. Perhaps the appeal of the movie lies in some kind of Japan voyeurism.

horizontal rule
8

I think I would have liked it even if it were set in Kansas. My guess is that if you identify with the characters, it's great, if not, not.

horizontal rule
9

I think Lost In Translation was totally amazing and I don't care what anyone says.

horizontal rule
10

That's the spirit!

horizontal rule
11

When did i become a "popular" blogger?

Also, I lived in japan for several years. There are some things about Japan the movie gets 100% right. Many things it gets wrong.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't hate the film. But, academy award? top 10? top 50?

horizontal rule
12

The most common complaint I have heard about Lost In Translation is that it was inert and slow. (Some people call that "boring." I think a very busy movie can be boring.) The art of it is in its inertia, its atmosphere, the way Sofia made you feel like you had jet lag too and you couldn't really make heads or tails out of everything but that it seemed like a good idea to go along with it. I fail to see how that isn't just as bold and determined a vision as Peter Jackson's take on LOTR. Can she help it if her movie is beng compared to movies about the ultimate survival of a civilization?

FWIW, I find the racial/cultural complaints about that movie awfully tiresome. Japanese people make movies too. If you want to see a movie that gives an honest portrayal of Japanese people, go watch one of those. This movie was about American people!

horizontal rule
13

I'm an old China hand, with limited experience of Japan (although I've lived with Japanese students in the States and had quite a few Japanese friends in Shanghai), but I thought the movie did a very fine job of capturing the strange mixture of disorientation, alienation, anomie, fascination and exhiliration you feel when you're in a very different culture and away from friends, family and community.

horizontal rule