[music playing, slightly distorted by VHS degradation]
[Narrator] As commercialism expands across the globe with companies competing for your wallet,
advertising has become the norm.
Marketing departments employ all the tricks, like using super star actors, well known public
figures and other persons of interest to encourage spending.
Since the turn of the second millennium, it’s not strange to see megastars like Leonardo
DiCaprio in foreign marketing campaigns,
[music playing]
But in the past, an advertising job was far from prestigious in Western Culture.
It signaled a dying or already dead career.
In the early 1960s, making a rise after World War II, Japanese firms started using Western
film stars in various marketing campaigns.
But it wasn’t until 1970, when Charles Bronson, Il Brutto himself, starred in an ad for
Mandom cologne, that celebrity endorsements took off.
[Mandom theme music playing]
[Charles Bronson] Mmm…
Mandom.
[Narrator] The use of American super stars, even if they only said one line, guaranteed
profits for Japanese firms.
They found a formula, and it worked with other Western film stars such as Paul Newman and
Clint Eastwood.
This isn’t necessarily a new formula.
Hollywood has always used star power, from the days of Charlie Chaplin to Bruce Willis.
[speaking in Japanese]
[Narrator] I started to wonder why so many
Hollywood stars were promoting foreign products and when did it start?
Online Video has helped liberate some edits of these ads,
but there must many be more.
The reason I say this is because many of the actors had provisions in their contracts
to limit the impact of their side game on their deals with the majors back home.
Even though, I’ll never know the truth.
The situation reminds me of a character in a film I find very interesting,
Bob Harris
in Lost in Translation.
[music playing]
Upon a third or fourth viewing of Sofia Coppola’s 2003 film,
I noticed many similarities between Harris, played by Bill Murray, and the career
of Charles Bronson.
Just as Bronson, in the film Harris lands a high paying gig in Tokyo towards the end
of his film career selling a commodity that fans back home would never see.
[Bob Harris] For relaxing times,
make it Suntory time.
[Narrator] I started to look for more connections in the film, but soon started to focus more
on what I think the film is really about.
While some may see the film as exploiting racial stereotypes…
[Woman] Lip them…
Like this.
[Bob Harris] Hey!
Lip them, lip them, what?
[Woman speaking dramatically] Oh no no no no…
Mr. Harris! Oh my god!
Mr. Bob Harris!
[Narrator] Taking a scene out of context, can easily lead you to this conclusion.
However, I don’t believe this was the intent
and the scene alone hardly represents the entire film.
[Takahide Kawakami] I understand.
[Narrator] To me: this film is about finding yourself in a sea of the unknown.
Near the film’s opening, Mr. Bob Harris takes in the vistas of Tokyo....
in as much the same way he communicates with his seemingly estranged wife and kids,
oblivious...
[Bob Harris] Which one’s burgundy?
[Narrator] ...and stuck in the status quo.
[Bob Harris] Hey, you know, those carpet samples… you were right about the burgundy.
Wasn’t even close, blows the others away.
[Narrator] During his Tokyo story, he meets Charlotte, played by Scarlett Johansson and
after sharing a drink they find comfort in each other’s discomfort.
As the story unfolds, they develop feelings for the other, but without being said,
agree the relationship will never progress past platonic.
Sometimes, these types of relationships can become the most treasured and sacred of them
all and reveals much of what it means to be human,
to connect.
In the end, when Bob goes to reconcile with Charlotte before leaving Japan, we now know
that he has grown emotionally.
Though Bob’s journey is over, he has changed and maybe this is proof he’ll be able to
improve his relationship with his wife and children upon his return to the states.
Humans are social creatures.
[Charlotte] Bob, this is Charlie Brown. [Charlie Brown] Nice to meet you.
[Bob Harris] Hi. Nice to meet you.
[Narrator] It’s literally ‘only human’ for us to want to make connections with each
other and share experiences.
The ubiquity of mobile phones and the internet has given us the ability to communicate efficiently
with vastly more people than our ancestors.
But, have we been effective?
[Director speaking Japanese]
[continues in Japanese]
[Ms. Kawasaki translating] Could you do it slower...
[Director continues in Japanese] [Ms. Kawasaki translating] ...and with more intensity.
[Narrator] But, there is a disconnect that allows for information to be misinterpreted
and keeps us at the superficial level.
[Bob Harris] Is that everything?
It seemed like he said quite a bit more than that.
[Narrator] Never diving under the surface.
[Director in english] Suntory time.
[Narrator]In the end, Bronson could have just wanted to pay for new carpet in his study
and took the next job he could get, or maybe he was looking for his own kind of happiness.
After all this time the answers are still Lost in Translation.
[Mandom theme music playing]
Lost in Translation earned Coppola three Academy
nominations, seizing the award of Best Screenplay with Best Picture and Best Director going
to “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Peter Jackson.