For Relaxing Times, Make It Suntory Time

Above, a Suntory whiskey advertisement at Shinagawa Station in Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While doing something else, it dawned on me that next year will mark 20 years since the release of the Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson movie, Lost In Translation. 

Filmed in Japan and directed by Sofia Coppola, here's a summary of the film from Rotten Tomatoes:

A lonely, aging movie star named Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and a conflicted newlywed, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), meet in Tokyo. Bob is there to film a Japanese whiskey commercial; Charlotte is accompanying her celebrity-photographer husband. Strangers in a foreign land, the two find escape, distraction and understanding amidst the bright Tokyo lights after a chance meeting in the quiet lull of the hotel bar. They form a bond that is as unlikely as it is heartfelt and meaningful.

Lost In Translation was released on September 9, 2003.

It is interesting that many people don't "get" the movie, yet it scored a 95% on the Tomatometer and 85% Audience Score at Rotten Tomatoes.

I enjoyed the movie after seeing it two years after my first visit to Japan in 2001 and before my second with G-TOUR in 2004. In fact, some of the locations used in the movie were visited by G-TOUR. I enjoyed seeing the sights and sounds of Japan as well as the soundtrack. 

Since next year marks 20 years since the movie's release, I guess I'll have more to say about it then.

Why the photo of a Suntory whiskey advertisement at top? The Bill Murray character was in Japan to make commercials for Suntory Whiskey with the catch line, "For relaxing times, make it Suntory time!"