This one is for Katrina: Lost in Translation moments...

A few years ago, there was a movie out called "Lost in Translation". It was a great little movie, and showed the discombobulation that can come out of living in a culture that is not your own, in this case Japan. Bill Murray, as the male lead, plays an older actor who is filming a Santori whiskey ad for the Japanese market. Having seen the movie twice before moving here, including a few days before flying out the first time, its images of Asian fashions, all-nighters in Karaoke rooms, odd showers and 24-hour flashing neon seemed to be constantly in the back of my head as I experienced all these things firsthand, but in Korea.

The idea of US or British stars doing ads internationally is not a new one. Korea features people like Gwyneth Paltrow and David Beckham all over the place, and generally, their presence in an ad is not a jarring one. It's like "Oh, a celebrity... okay", and you may even pause to wonder if you're looking at an international ad (i.e. David Beckham for Motorola) or a strictly Korean one (i.e. Jessica Alba for a Korean skincare line).

But then came Wentworth Miller's French Cafe ads.... There's something very "Bill Murray in Lost in Translation" about Wentworth fixing the camera with a smoldering stare, holding up a disposable cup of instant coffee and saying "Enjoy the Premium, French Cafe". But, then... you be the judge: