MovieChat Forums > San wa (2005) Discussion > Comments on language?

Comments on language?

posted 18 years ago by roberto_mauro
2 replies | jump to latest

First let me say I enjoyed the movie, though clearly not flawlessly executed, and as "bakyspritz" said (www.imdb.com/title/tt0365847/board/thread/36808870) maybe two genres in one.

What struck me most though was the mix of (five) cultures and languages adopted for the movie characters and the casual switching between them.

I am European though living in Asia for many years now (presently in Seoul). I was fascinated by the switching from Cantonese to Mandarin (in fact JC jokes about this in the outtakes), then Korean (when Ok-Soo is hanging in the burning cart, and again surprisingly in the song "Endless Love"), then JC apologises in Hindi, finally some English here and there. None of the dialogues were dubbed, only subtitled. I loved it. It feels so genuine.

Clearly today it is unlikely this can be taste to all palates. I just saw "Memoires of a Geisha" yesterday, and though the movie is grandiose, having all those great Chinese (and Japanese) actresses/actors playing Japanese characters while speaking English simply feels... plain wrong.

[–] joseph1 16 years ago

"I just saw "Memories of a Geisha" yesterday,and though the movie is grandiose,haveing all those great chinese(and Japanese)actresses/actors playing Japanese characters while English simply feels...plain wrong. Now here is someone have spoke with a brain!!!

[–] residualflash 16 years ago

You missed one language, Malayalam. It is spoken in the southern state of Kerala in India. The man near the beginning of the movie, where jackie and his friend gets attacked in the temple, who gets knocked out by jackie's friend is speaking Malayalam, not Hindi... Though Hindi is spoken later in the same location... which is strange since the location looks nothing like Kerala.

I dont know why they chose to use this little known language when Hindi should have been used... maybe the actor who played that guy didnt know how to speak hindi...

Nevertheless, it was hilarious and strange seeing JACKIE speak malayalam lol. I speak it and it caught me off guard; never expected jackie to speak it