I have yet to see "Lost in Translation," but I know one thing: Its story would probably be a non-starter if its two principals were Japanese. At least that's the conclusion I reached after observing how Japanese studiously avoid compatriots not in their group at big-city hotels abroad.
In any case, the makers of "The Hotel Venus" were wise not to set their ensemble-drama, featuring a Korean and Japanese cast, in a too familiar locale like Los Angeles or Honolulu. Instead, the film, which is based on a Chaplinesque Korean character on late-night TV (played by Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), transcends the barriers of language and nationality in fresh and original, if fantastic, ways. The result has been a crowd-pleasing success, showing again that Kusanagi, who starred in last year's surprise hit "Yomigaeri (Resurrection)," has a magic box-office touch. It has also jump-started the career of Hirota Takahashi, a director of TV dramas, commercials and music videos here making his feature debut.
"The Hotel Venus" would probably never survive a Hollywood pitch meeting, though. First, all the characters, even those played by Japanese actors, speak Korean. This sort of linguistic cross-dressing is easier to imagine in a Hollywood movie now, thanks to Mel Gibson -- but still, it's a stretch. Second, the film is not set in Korea, but an unidentified city (it was actually shot in Vladivostok) that serves as a melting pot and point of no return. Again, a tad too strange for Hollywood, which prefers its foreign locales to be identifiable (though it is all too happy to substitute Prague for London).
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