YMMV / Lost in Translation (2003)

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• Aluminum Christmas Trees: This trope applied for a short window of time after the film's release. When the film was made, it was still a dirty secret that A-list celebrities would go to Japan to hawk local merchandise because there was little chance of their embarrassing ads getting back to the western world. In modern times, however, it's become quite normalized for even the biggest celebrities to appear in ads.
• Americans Hate Tingle: While the film was very well received by Westeners overall, many Japanese people as well as Asian-Americans bristled at what they felt was an insensitive portrayal of Japanese society.
• Award Snub:
  • Some feel this was robbed of the Best Picture Oscar by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and chiefly attribute that movie's win to the previous two installments also getting nominated for the same award but losing. Or else, if they'd prefer that one of the other Best Picture nominees that year had won instead (Mystic River, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Seabiscuit), they feel that those films and Lost in Translation were in a class apart.
  • For more than some, Bill Murray's loss for Best Actor to Sean Penn for Mystic River was this, along the same lines as Mickey Rourke's loss to Penn five years later.
  • Scarlett Johansson wasn't nominated for Best Actress.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Alone In Kyoto" by Air is a wonderfully dreamlike electronic piece that plays during one of the scenes. It was beautifully placed.
  • The splendidly melancholic, but hopeful, "Just Like Honey" by The Jesus and Mary Chain, as the closing song.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Given how hard it can be to explain the movie's plot, most people usually remember this movie because of how often Scarlett Johansson is seen in her panties.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Charlotte's troubled relationship with her husband is based, at least in part, on Sofia Coppola's relationship with her then-husband Spike Jonze. She and Jonze divorced shortly after the film released.
• He Really Can Act: If you still had any doubts about Bill Murray's acting talents...
• Heartwarming Moments: Many, but particularly the conversation in bed ("You're not hopeless"), their reconciliation after the fire alarm, and the ending farewell, which also counts as a Tear Jerker.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: When Charlotte is riding the subway, she looks down at a man who is reading Ghost in the Shell. Scarlett Johansson would go on to star in Ghost in the Shell (2017).
• Values Dissonance: Alienation from the foreign Japanese culture around them is a major part of what drives the characters' journeys. Certain depictions of Japanese culture, however, stray close to negative stereotypes. Most notable is the unrequested prostitute who begs Bob to ravish her, riffing on the stereotypes of Japanese people as repressed perverts with funny accents.
• The Woobie: Bob and Charlotte, two lonely souls drawn together in a land and in lives where they feel shut out. The film invites audiences to relate to them as such, as Ebert states that the film is "an exercise in empathy."

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