Comments on: Corporate rock still sucks

By: HP

HP — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:07:56 +0000

Hmm… Just watched the flash. I don’t find it baffling at all. I kind of see it as a passive-aggressive slam on the whole corporate anthem thing. There’s something playfully ludicrous about turning your corporate anthem into an homage to Ultra-Man and Power Rangers. And therein lies the appeal to the average Japanese listener. Personally I think you risk underestimating the capacity of the Japanese to respond to the subversive quality, because we’re blinded by this whole “Japan is reflexively conformist” stereotype. I mean, 1000+ years of rigidly enforced conformity gives a culture plenty of practice in subtle subversion.

By: Adam Rice

Adam Rice — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 06:13:33 +0000

I believe that I am the first person in history to point out that Japanese culture can appear somewhat baffling.

As Jeremy Irons, portraying Claus von Bulow, said in Reversal of Fortune (responding to the observation that he is a very strange man), "You have no idea."

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 23:17:36 +0000

Dammit, I’ve had that nihon bureeku kougyou song stuck in my head ever since I heard it. I usually like Eurobeat JPop better than other types, but the English Eurobeat version isn’t the one stuck in my head, it’s the Japanese version. And everyone quit carping about Lost in Translation. It’s SUPPOSED to be eurocentric, it’s about eurocentric gaijin doing dumb stuff in Japan.

By: Morvern Callar

Morvern Callar — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:40:52 +0000

…they actually made us sing that song in elementary school. Same here!

By: Morvern Callar

Morvern Callar — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:37:55 +0000

Ah, yes, that Coca Cola song has got to be the most famous instance - and don't forget the spin-offs, legal ones included: The song's melody was later used as the basis of the song Shakermaker by the rock group Oasis. They were successfully sued for the unlicensed use by The New Seekers and had to pay out $A500,000 (Australian dollars).

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 19:07:09 +0000

I’d like to remind you all of “I’d Like to Teach the World To Sing,” by the New Seekers, which was a Coke jingle with the words slightly altered. See Robert Christgau’s classic review. I’m just barely too young to remember it from then—they actually made us sing that song in elementary school. The Japanese song sounds like it has better lyrics, though.

By: Gamer

Gamer — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 18:06:47 +0000

Am I the only one here who is trying to put those lyrics to the tune of “Go, Go, Godzilla”? I think I’ll go slink off to my nerd hovel now.

By: nolo

nolo — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 16:03:24 +0000

I think the only way for anyone to derive a real answer to the question is to spend some time playing “Sonic the Hedgehog,” and trying to figure out just WTF is up with the Chao.

By: Morvern Callar

Morvern Callar — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 14:55:37 +0000

Funny that, I was more interested in the characters and the story and the acting than how Japan was portrayed in Lost In Translation. Maybe I missed the point of watching movies…

By: WillieStyle

WillieStyle — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 14:30:18 +0000

My old girlfriend is Chinese American, and helps to run our East Asian Studies program and working on ethnic identity. She loved Lost In Translation, and she’s not really Eurotrash. Mind you, she is Chinese.

Don’t mean to be impolitic here, but suggesting that a movie about Japan isn’t bigoted because a Chinese American liked it, is like saying a movie about France isn’t unfair because it’s loved in Texas. Of course this says nothing about the merits of LiT or your old girl friend; just that the anecdote is hardly compelling.

By: jimbo

jimbo — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 14:24:36 +0000

OTOH she hated hated hated Pearl Harbor. And she cringed at The Last Samurai. Yeah, but that probably has more to do with the fact that both those movies sucked than any “racial” reason… When I see the few Japanese TV shows we get over here, I always wonder: does this not make sense because it’s an alien culture, or is “not making sense” part of the culture?

By: Graham

Graham — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 12:16:57 +0000

Heh. Flash thingy accompanying the song.

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 11:20:34 +0000

That last comment was edited to produce bad syntax.

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 11:15:06 +0000

My old girlfriend is Chinese American, and helps to run our East Asian Studies program and working on ethnic identity. She loved Lost In Translation, and she’s not really Eurotrash. Mind you, she is Chinese. OTOH she hated hated hated Pearl Harbor. And she cringed at The Last Samurai.

By: andrew

andrew — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 10:03:41 +0000

Do they find us ‘scrutable?