Setting
“Strong sense of place is a necessity in a movie about dislocation: The city knows for sure who it is; it’s the people moving through it who are riddled with doubt and uncertainty.” – Salon.com Park Hyatt:
- Combination of cultures - It's silence is a contrast with the busy Tokyo - A symbol of “the camaraderie of foreigners”, a place where travellers unite Tokyo - The city is vibrant and busy. It is open to continual change. - Both characters arrive disenchanted and lacking direction in their lives and leave more aware of the possibility of change. How are the characters alienated/disconnected from their environment? - Their status as foreigners heightens pre-existing emotions and forces confrontations with their particular crises. - Coppola ensures the characters are entirely removed from their daily routine through changes in space and time - They cannot speak the language and experience severe jet-lag and insomnia - The protagonists' dreamlike viewpoints are also those of the filmmaker who is equally lost in this environment.
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How does the film focus on the place of an individual within a high-tech modern world in which consumerism and materialism dominate? How is the film intimate despite its setting?
While this text is about the individual within a setting, it is also about relationships, loneliness and companionship.
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