Brown Motion

Concluded an amazing trip into 'The Land of the Rising Sun'.  So named as its original name Nippon would suggest, the Chinese described it as such in their ancient texts going back 2,000 years where the sun rose before it did in China. The world's third largest economy by GDP it is an aging populace that is causing some anxiety in terms of how Japan might grow.  Their ministers are trying everything from increasing taxation to negative interest rates but impact seems to be minimal.  Unlike other countries in Europe we saw very little building going on - sort of consistent with no additional demand on the system.  Japan is also a monoculture in that it seems to have very little by way of migrant populations and is an island in its true sense. Perhaps this singularity makes them amenable to follow consistent processes, and be regimented and disciplined in all walks of life. Konichiwa is a standard greeting for many Japanese - and is in close approximation to 'Hi, ...

If anyone can be amazing being deadpan it is Bill Murray, and it is true in this film about two souls lost in Japan.  The protagonist is a film personality of some repute back in Hollywood and in Tokyo to promote a Japanese whisky played by Bill Murray. He meets another young and relatively newlywed American, a New Yorker played by Scarlett Johansson.  Much better to look at when the film was made circa 2003, the Oscar winning screenplay (by a daughter of Francis Coppola) gave equal screen time to shots of her (almost) naked butt as much as her face.  No problem there. Bill Murray's character is frustrated (as it is in most movies he is in) with life as a married man and tries to escape it literally by coming to Japan to do this commercial.  But when there he encounters through a series of challenges, that he is looking for something less complicated than his currents state and that frustrates him more.  He finds some solace when he meets the Scarlett chara...