Transnational Mobility: Reading Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation as a Tourist Romance

蘇菲雅‧科波拉的電影《愛情不用翻譯》(2003)在許多評論者的眼中是部異國愛情劇，說的是兩個美國分別已婚的男女暫待在日本這樣的異國，與當地文化格格不入之感油然而生，他們的相遇後來發展成婚外情。多數影評常解讀男女主角不適應異國文化轉而在彼此身上尋找熟悉感，這樣的解讀恐怕是把此部電影當作一齣「存在主義式」的都會愛情戲，將這對主角的關係簡化成他們的相知相惜是為了一起克服在異地所遭遇的疏離與異化。因此，本文欲提出不同的閱讀觀點，將這部電影視為「旅行羅曼史」(tourist romance)，並放在全球化的脈絡下討論兩個重要子題：跨國流動與旅行／家園的辯證關係。唯有如此，我們才不會陷於東方主義式的批評，認為這部電影偏頗地呈現日本的「他者性」以凸顯美國主角的「相同性」。本文隨後將分析主角做為旅行者在東京有何種的空間經驗，並指出主角在東京城市這樣的「接觸地帶」(contact zone)並不見願意進行跨文化的交流；相反的，他們是透過會說英語的當地朋友來理解東京，而且這種理解礙於他們是旅行的過客，所以是非常有限的。

關鍵字

旅行羅曼史；旅行／家園辯證關係；跨國流動；接觸地帶

並列摘要

Sofia Coppola' Lost in Translation (2003) is often interpreted as a ”romantic comedy” which explores the unlikely encounter between the two married Americans in Japan: the two feel so dislocated and disoriented that they develop a nearly adulterous relationship. Such an interpretation, however, simplifies the film, seeing it merely as an ”existential” drama in which the characters try to overcome their alienation in an Other-ized environment. This essay aims to reread the film as a ”tourist romance” within a global context, where the travel-versus-home motif and the issue of transnational mobility must be addressed. Only in this way can we avoid categorizing the film only as an orientalizing Western text which falsely represents Japan's Otherness in order to highlight the Western protagonists' sameness. Thus here I will analyze the main characters' ”tourist experience” within Tokyo's cityscape, and show how Tokyo serves as the ”contact zone” where they shape their own perspectives on Japan by way of limited communication with a select group of (partly) bilingual Japanese.

並列關鍵字

tourist romance ； home-versus-travel motif ； transnational mobility ； contact zone

參考文獻

Allsop, Samara.(2005).“More than This: Sofia Coppola‵s Lost in Translation”.Cinetext.

Google Scholar

Amter, Charlie.(2007).“A Real Find: Tokyo of Lost in Translation”.(SFGate.com).http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/29/TRG0355C011.DTL