A number of times we hear his character speak what I'll have to assume to be japanese, and I'm just wondering if he really is or if it's just some gibbrish? And just how good is his speech in terms of dialect & pronunciation etc?
"Never finish what you can't start!" ;)
Yes, he is really speaking Japanese and it's not too bad, either. I used to teach Japanese.
Although I'm 1/4 Japanese , I'm afraid I only know the Japanese curse words my Jewish grandmother used to yell at my Japanese grandfather when she got mad at him!
--However, I can tell you that my Japanese uncle was so astounded by Brando's performance: his dialect, gestures and movements, that he went back and saw the film a second time--he was not at all offended by a Caucasian actor playing the part--which some people find politically incorrect today, but when it's done as well as Brando did it, it's a compliment---
Campwyf
<<Although I'm 1/4 Japanese , I'm afraid I only know the Japanese curse words my Jewish grandmother used to yell at my Japanese grandfather when she got mad at him!>>
LOL!!!
One thing Brando perfected, and this may sound trite but it's not, was being able to crouch with both feet on the flat on the floor! Western society is so chair-bound that the calf and ankle muscles are too tight to crouch like that. When he went into that pose it was one thing I was watching for to see if he could really do as a Japanese or Chinese person would. And he did!
I'm a fountain of bloodshare
In the shape of a girl
That crouching position is known as "the Asian Squat" - I kid you not. Here's a fascinating (and funny!) article on said subject:
http://www.8asians.com/2011/06/03/the-science-and-history-of-the-asian -squat/
(read the comments section, too... some hella funny comments! lol)
Brilliant article (and comments), thanks for posting. Brando was pretty fit in his yuth so I reckon he practised the squatting ahead of filiming, if he couldn't achieve it already.
I'm a fountain of bloodshare
In the shape of a girl
It's not just an Asian thing. I knew many people in West Africa who could crouch like that for hours.
Innsmouth Free Press http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com
Thank you for the link, and the blog site called 8Asian. Truly entertaining.
shareThe bigger question is, if the story is set in immediate post-war Okinawa with Okinawan natives, why is anybody speaking Japanese?
The Okinawan dialect is quite different from Japanese. The structures of the two languages are the same. Okinawan is considered a dialect of Japanese. But their vocabularies are quite different.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
[deleted]