Lost in Translation is Sofia Coppola's 2003 film about Bob Harris, a fading American actor in Tokyo to promote whisky, and Charlotte, a young woman stuck in an unhappy marriage, who meet at a hotel bar and form a bond. Coppola wrote it after staying in Tokyo's Park Hyatt, and she let Bill Murray improvise much of his dialogue on a small crew and short schedule. The film won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and became a standard for quiet, unconventional romance. It also drew criticism for its portrayal of Japanese people, and the debate about that is part of its legacy.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.