When I saw this on TV there were no subtitles for Toshiro Mifune who speaks in Japanese for the entire film.
Is there a version of the film that has subtitles? If not, I can understand why Boorman did this, to mirror the confusion that both characters experience in trying to understand each other.
I suppose if the film was shown in Japan there would be no subtitles for Marvin.
However I think the film would have been less frustrating if subtitles were included.
This has been asked lots of times before. You are right, there are no subtitles, and the film would be just as effective for a Japanese monoglot.
I think we can make a pretty good guess as to what the Captain is saying, most of the time!
Kambei of the Descending Gormful Bedafter Gumi.
It's a pity the film has such a dreadful ending...
I'm sure that it isn't what Boorman originally intended. The fact that the film is frozen one one frame and then the picture shook around does indicate that an explosion was planned NOT for when they shot that scene.
There's lots of threads about this, too - read down. There is at least one alternative ending.
There could hardly be a happy ending, could there?
Kambei of the Descending Gormful Bedafter Gumi.
It could have ended with the two of them having a joke and laughing like at the start of the drinking sequence.
If the film ended there then the personal relationship between the two men would be resolved but the audience would be aware that it would be a friendship that would be difficult to maintain.
That's putting it mildly. As soon as they made contact with either army one of them would be dead or a prisoner of war and the other would probably be court-martialled for fraternisation.
I think the friendship is doomed anyway as soon as they get cleaned up and shaved; they sit down together and look at each other and hey, there's the enemy.
Kambei of the Descending Gormful Bedafter Gumi.
The English subtitles on the MGM dvd do translate Mifune's dialog
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