Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) is littered with familiar signifiers for an unfamiliar Japan: streets ablaze with neon pictographs, bowing concierges bustling after guests in a high-tech hotel, pop-star hipsters with multicolored hair sporting synthetic fashions. Marketed as a comedy, the film prompts snickers of amusement from its Western audience.

Disney’s Silly Symphonies, Russian Ark, Harry Langdon, and part 2 of our Annual Film Book Survey. Plus reviews of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring, and Lost in Translation

READ: a review of Lost in Translation