This evening my wife and I watched "Lost in Translation." Kazuko (my wife) said that she really liked it, I thought that it was alright. Maybe after a bit of reflection I will find that I liked it more and more.

The movie is about two people in different stages in their life, who meet by chance in a hotel in Tokyo. The male lead is dealing with issues of being a 50 year-old man amidst a midlife crisis. The female lead plays the role of a recent college graduate, married to a man who is too busy with his own concerns to appreciate her.

The two characters are placed in a foreign setting where they are given the opportunity to reflect on their lives and where they're going. By the end of the movie, it seems like both are at least mildly satisfied with how they're going to live their lives, even though it appears that not much has changed.

I suppose that I could really appreciate the unique mood that this movie brought. I also was happy with the unique sort of "closure" that the movie ended with. We weren't exactly sure how the two main characters felt at the end of the story, but I think that we know that they are happier at the end of the film than they were at the beginning.

While watching the movie, I really felt the urge to go to Japan. The movie made shaking-off jetlag in a hotel in Japan seem very appealing. As a matter of fact, my first week in Japan -in 1996- was spent in a hotel (not nearly as nice as the hotel in the movie, but a hotel nonetheless.) Hotel life in a foreign country is sort of a suspension of reality for a short time. It is a vague feeling that I think many people can connect with, but few can articulate.