They also show a bit of the forced camaraderie of foreigners in Japan. Not too much, as having too broad a group would run counter to the point of the story, but they hint at the way English speakers get pushed together across all sorts of boundaries. I didn't end up with any relationships as significant as what happens in the movie, but then I didn't hang around in a lot of high-end hotels. On the other hand, I did spend a terrifically entertaining evening drinking in Shinjuku with an Irish cook, a couple of crazy Australians, and the chef from the Belgian embassy. Not the sort of crowd I usually run with, but not unusual for Tokyo.

There's a lot that the movie gets right, but on the other hand, they blow it big time in two areas. First, Scarlett Johansson is shown visiting a bunch of different tourist sites-- shrines and temples and gardens-- and she's always completely and absolutely alone. I won't say that that never happens in Japan-- I did manage to be all by myself in a bunch of interesting places-- but it's unusual. The Japanese are firmly of the opinion that anything worth doing is worth doing in a group of ten thousand, and interesting tourist sites are usually jammed with people. The artificial emptiness is done to emphasize her sense of complete alienation, of course, and to show how important her connection with Bill Murray is, but it doesn't really ring true to the city.

The other major problem has a similar origin, but is even worse: Much is made of the language issue, with a number of situations relying on the lack of mutual comprehension for humor value. This is really badly exaggerated, not because Japanese is easy to pick up-- it's not, and written Japanese is hopeless for an outsider-- but because those few Tokyo residents who don't speak at least a little English would never be so rude as to leave a foreigner as baffled and stranded as the characters in this movie are.

When I was there, I never knew more than phrasebook-level Japanese ("Sumimasen, Eigo ga hanashimsu ka?"), but I had no trouble getting around. There were occasional moments of confusion, but they were navigated by means of sign language, broken English, and an incredible amount of good will on the part of the Japanese people I encountered.