‘Kyoto’: Phoebe Bridgers’ reimagining of ‘Lost in Translation’
Escape, avoidance and estrangement in a Japanese city. That could be the blurb of Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation, her 2003 sophomore feature film starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, two lost Americans who cling to each other during a sense of displacement. It could also be the blurb of ‘Kyoto’, Phoebe Bridgers’ 2022 track, where the cinematic energy of a Coppola film floats into her own experience of isolation and internal conflict amidst a major culture shock.
Though years apart, it feels like ‘Kyoto’ could be the theme tune for either of Coppola’s protagonists. As Bridgers wanders through her “day off in Kyoto”, getting existential during some downtime from a busy schedule of shows and commitments, it feels reminiscent of Bill Murray’s Bob Harris, the fading movie star having a mid-life crisis during a work obligation. He’s in Tokyo because of work, which, for a lot of people, is a dream come true. But when he’s there flogging whiskey rather than doing ‘serious acting’, he’s spiralling out into a mid-life crisis rather than being able to look around and see how lucky he is.
In Murray’s character, Johansson’s role of Charlotte, who is in the city simply to accompany her photographer husband, and in Bridgers’ lyricism, there is a sense of emotional distraction fogging the present. More internal contemplations force them all into a state of disassociation as the busy scenes of the country’s urban hubs and its culture blur into an overwhelming fuzz surrounding them all.
Bridgers captures this neatly in her opening verse. “Day off in Kyoto / Got bored at the temple / Looked around at the 7-Eleven / The band took the speed train / Went to the arcade / I wanted to go, but I didn’t,” she sings, positioning her band as buzzing around the city, engaging with its sights while she is stuck still on the phone.
By the time the chorus rips to life, it tears through the hectic scenes of the verse to focus solely on Bridgers’ internal thoughts, matching the simple, punchy feeling of “I’m gonna kill you” with a simple and rockier instrumental to match. The fact that this keeps coming back around, constantly bringing the song back to this inner voice that is stuck in the internal conflict of anger and upset and forgiveness that these choruses grapple with, perfectly captures the struggle of wanting to be in the moment and engage with the place she finds herself in but realising that the one place she will always and inescapable inhabit is in her own mind and feelings.
That’s a frustration and a feeling that Coppola perfectly translates to film. Both Bob and Charlotte are caught in their own heads as the exciting experience they could be having, and feel like they should be having, in Tokyo is essentially robbed by their minds. Both are pondering their purpose, feeling a long way from where they thought their lives would be, with the cultural shock experienced in Tokyo seeming to act as a visualisation of that. Both are feeling so isolated that the feeling becomes claustrophobic and inescapable. For Coppola, she summed up the story succinctly as a tale about “things being disconnected and looking for moments of connection.”
It’s a similar story for Bridgers. When talking about ‘Kyoto’, she said to Pitchfork, “This song is about impostor syndrome. About being in Japan for the first time, somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, and playing my music to people who want to hear it, feeling like I’m living someone else’s life. I dissociate when bad things happen to me, but also when good things happen. It can feel like I’m performing what I think I’m supposed to be like.”
On stage, she’s previously dedicated the piece to dads and to people struggling with complex relationships with their fathers. In January 2023, Bridgers announced that her father had passed away. Previously discussing in interviews her difficult relationship with her dad, who struggled with addiction issues, she said, “I feel so much fucking empathy and so much fucking anger toward him,” making sense of the emotionally conflicting lyrics in ‘Kyoto’.
If Bridgers was transplanted into Lost In Translation, her story would match up perfectly. “Dreaming through Tokyo skies”, she’d be there knowing she should be excited, should be happy to be there and be achieving these things, but is too caught up in her thoughts and feelings to truly engage. No matter where you are in the world, feelings demand to be felt with no consideration for the tourist spots you might want to hit.
