“We would go on location with my dad when he was making films so I lived in a lot of different hotels. I always thought it was fun. You’re away from real life, and you can run around and see interesting people and order room service. I still think it’s fun”, says Sofia Coppola (interview to Reuters,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sofiacoppola-idUSTRE6BL3IG20101222).
Her deep fondness for hotels is evident in how often the settings in her films are precisely there. For example, the characters in her famous film "Lost in Translation" (2003) meet at the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel. Just like in the case of "Somewhere," the hotel scenes were entirely shot on location. However, there is one nuance. In the storyline, Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray's characters stay in different rooms. In reality, we see the same suite where the film crew was allowed to rearrange things.
The hotel bar on the 52nd floor offers breathtaking views of Tokyo. However, if you're hoping for a quiet conversation over vodka and whiskey like Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and Bob (Bill Murrey), you may be in for a surprise. It is a vibrant Tokyo hotspot, always full of lively crowds of both locals and tourists alike. According to the contract, the Tokyo Park Hyatt is not allowed to use its appearance in the film for its own promotional purposes, but in the bar's menu, albeit in a cryptic form, there is a special signature cocktail based on sake called L.I.T.
The building in which the hotel is situated, known as Shinjuku Park Tower, was depicted as being destroyed by a UFO in the film Godzilla 2000. A version of this building was included as part of the Asian tileset in the city building simulation game Sim City 3000 and named as Futa-Ishii Plaza.
