Phoebe Bridgers Kyoto

Slouching in front of a lo-fi green screen image of a temple in Japan, a platinum-blonde white woman in a skeleton suit sings the opening lines to her song: "Day off in Kyoto / Got bored at the temple / Looked around at the 7-11."

A dear friend of mine once described "Kyoto" by Phoebe Bridgers as a "millennial indie song remake" of Sofia Coppola's 2003 film entitled Lost in Translation. A "hallmark of American indie cinema" that portrays Japan through the white gaze and imagination, Lost in Translation is essentially about two white people (played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson) who fortuitously cross paths and navigate their feelings together in Tokyo. Despite the film's non-American setting and backdrop, the entire film is centered around the pair's (white, American) feelings and interiority.

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