MovieChat Forums > Kansen (2004) Discussion > The Japanese REALLY need an American edi...

The Japanese REALLY need an American editor

posted 18 years ago by submachine
17 replies | jump to latest

Dr. Akai, Dr. Akiba, names that sound alike, characters that look alike, etc.

Come on, this is film-making 101, at LEAST let the audience KNOW the characters so they can REMEMBER the characters.

But it still would have been a GOOD movie, up until the last 15 minutes when it became a STUPID movie.

The Japanese have skills but no talent. Go watch The Sixth Sense, go watch The Devils Backbone, you know gore, now learn suspense, learn how to pick a twist, and how to show that twist.

[–] NickiDrea 18 years ago

Ummm it might have been hard for an American to follow because we're not used to those kind of names, and because many Americans seem to think that people from other races "look alike," but I'm sure that Japanese audiences had no problem telling the characters apart.

I love this movie, I even think it makes sense.

I survived the PA and NJ Bar exams, July 25th, 26th, and 27th 2006!!

[–] encyclopedic-ace 18 years ago

Well, I'm not Asian, and I didn't think Akai or Akiba looked alike at all, apart from the fact that they both looked Asian and like men. I didn't get their names mixed up or confused with the other, and I don't even speak Japanese, well, at least not fluently. Also, this film was made for a Japanese/Asian audience, so they would be used to the names. Anyway, I'm sure there have been some American films that have had similar looking characters, and/or characters with similar names.

[–] bag48192 18 years ago

I hate it when people say that most asian films make no sense and for an example the first post about the film needing an american writer. These films are a part of asian culture so there are gonna be at leat a few things that we wont completely understand. Just like someone living far outside the US watching an american film. The problme with american films nowadays are they fully explain everything. For the most part there is no thinking involved and when there is people complain that the movie is stupid and makes no sense.

[–] iHeymbit 18 years ago

well I think the problem with asian films is that they don't explain enough. Also, common, an American editor? Where your from doesn't count. I didn't get the characters filmed and I don't know any Japanese at all. Although, they could've explained the ending to this one a little better. Took me 3 watches before I got exactly what happened. And as for american films explaining everything, have you seen the movie Darkness, The Ring, or more? In darkness, I had no real idea what happened in the ending, and as far as darkness goes it made no sense that no one spoke spanish in spain, except for the guy with the fake accent. As for the Ring, you really dind't fully understand how to stop the ring curse until you saw the second one.

[–] NickiDrea 18 years ago

As for the Ring, you really dind't fully understand how to stop the ring curse until you saw the second one.

I disagree with that. At the end of the movie, Rachael says "what did I do that he didn't do?" (talking about Noah). Then you see her eyes shift to the tape under the VCR, and she says "I made a copy." You see Rachael and Adian copying the tape (she presses his finger down on the "record" button, so he is actually copying it himself). Then at the end of the movie, Aidan says "but what about the person we show it to?"

I hadn't seen Ringu before I saw The Ring, and I understood that to survive the curse, you had to make a copy of the tape and show it to someone else. The American version (as always) completely spelled out the movie for you.

I'm worried that they'll do that with Kansen, which would suck because part of the fun of the movie is debating the ambigousness of some of the scenes, and the ending in particulat.

I survived the PA and NJ Bar exams, July 25th, 26th, and 27th 2006!!

[–] DisturbedPixie 16 years ago

Okay... movie with confusing character name

1) Rules of Attraction- Lauren and Lara, why do that!? It it to confuse the other main character Sean? is he supposed to confuse them with eachother? It wasn't like that in the book! Her name was like Janet or something...

I hate how IMDb signatures look like part of the post.

[–] Canrae 18 years ago

Most Japanese Horror movies have been way better than any american movie I have seen. American horror movies lately have been stupid. It was rather simple to keep that characters apart most of the time, the only probelm I had was with the nurses.

"And what's the real lesson? Don't leave things in the fridge." - Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop)

[–] hontsi 17 years ago

@OP You didn't just imply that all Japanese look alike did you? Maybe american studios need a Japanese editor. And just because you couldn't follow doesn't make the MOVIE stupid.

hontsi

[–] Dragon_Kisses 17 years ago

Yeah! I just watched it tonight and thought it was highly original! I love it when in movies they don't tell you everything. Because every time they do that they make me feel stupid, like I can't figure it out myself. The Japanese are more experienced when it comes to horror films. They know what's good, and what's not.

[–] kittybaebi 17 years ago

I thought the Doctor I idea was pretty original :3
The U.S. seems to just replay things over and over again, japan has a whole new theme each time for the horrors

[–] kittybaebi 17 years ago

akai or akiba, your just not used to the japanese culture, its like us calling someone dr john and dr jordan...not much differnt now is it? The japanese are fine with what they do =P, we just aren't used to it, personally i'm used to it and think they make great horror films <3

We always take the movies lately from them and form them into our own, I wish somewhere in the title japan could get some appreciation and be labeld as a remake or something...

movies are movies though, some suck and some don't it really all depends on THE WATCHERS point of view

[–] JpopFan 17 years ago

You are racist ...

[–] submachine 17 years ago

You are racist ...

I'm trying to HELP the Japanese film-makers, stupid

\\\ TheMovieGoer.com ///

[–] UberNoodle 17 years ago

Dude you are just being narrow minded. Akiba and Akai are VERY different names, the problem is that you were READING the names.

Akiba
Akai

These two names have 4 common letters (in english). The different between each name, in terms of letters used and not ordering, is the solitary letter "b".

The way the bairn raeds is dffirernet to the way taht it lsitens. It doesn't really need to process the word fully or exactly in order to recognise it. It certainly doesn't process the letters as sounds. In that way, Akiba and Akai are just symbols. On to these symbols are attached the identities of the two characters.

When listening and reading at the same time, it is very easy to tune out the sounds being heard and focus more on the words being read. The problem for the OP is that in the process of reading the names, two names which appear to be quite similar, he got confused.

Trust me, as someone that lives in Japan, the names Akiba and Akai sounds VERY VERY different. Japanese has perhaps the most homonyms (words that sound same) in its language than any other. for this reason the Japanese are quite sensitive to pronunciation. They would have no problem discerning the two doctors' names, and since the film is made for Japan, we can't really complain.

[–] Rvrgm 16 years ago

THAnK YOU! I'm so sick of this automatic respect any J-Horror movie gets just because of the one or two stand-out movies like AUDITION or JU-ON!

The truth needs to be told - the Asian horror genre is EXACTLY the same as the American horror genre, in that nine out of every ten of them SUCK!

In other words, just because it's Asian don't automatically make it better than American!