MovieChat Forums > Tonî Takitani (2005) Discussion > Translation of the movie.

Translation of the movie.

posted 19 years ago by arexkun
5 replies | jump to latest

Did anybody who saw this subtitled with Japanese language notice that the translation really sagged?

I remember most of the movie Tony refers to his father as "o/Tou-san", the usual word for "dad/father", however, when they go to see him play, he calls him "his oyaji" infront of his wife, which is more translated as "his old man", yet the subtitles said "father." I thought this was an important part that the translation just left out.

Also, when his wife dies, and he comes home from the funeral with her urn in the box and her photo, I knew what they were from just anime. However, my dad, who doesn't follow the series, had no idea what it was, and didn't realize till I told him later. I felt like there should of been a footnote, somewhere.

[–] seanaka17 19 years ago

Oyaji is a way of addressing parents in a real informal way. I don't think he meant is as disrespect to his father when he said it in front of his wife. It could actually be a sign of more initmacy with his father...but he wasn't really close with his father. I guess he did mean to say something along the lines of old man. Well, anyways, in a general sense it is not odd for japanese men especially boys to call their fathers "oyaji" or mothers *beep*

The translation for the film was very good. It would be pretty disruptive to put any footnotes during this film.

[–] adjameson-2 19 years ago

Footnotes are a wonderful idea. Subtitlers should assume that viewers aren't aware of foreign cultures, and add glosses to every scene, explaining what's being shown.

There should also be a few paragraphs at the end, explaining what you've just seen. Or at the beginning, explaining what you're about to see.

And if there's an important action in the background, an alert should pop up--maybe an arrow, or a blinking exclamation mark--pointing out anything subtle, so that viewers don't miss it. Because people get distracted when they go to movies, digging around in their popcorn buckets, and chatting on their cell phones.

[–] Timo_Styles 18 years ago

There were subtitles with footnotes to explain certain Japanese terms on the "Incident at Blood Pass" dvd. I was really impressed with them, they even color coded the subtitles to differentiate between the dialogue of the different actors.

-Timo

[–] rsheppard-1 16 years ago

Footnotes aside, the subtitles I saw were almost verbatim from the story I read (translated by a man named Jay Rubin, printed by Vintage).

I think from the context it was fairly clear that his wife had died. Even if one doesnt realize that there are ashes in the box, does it really affect the understanding of the entire plot? When watching a film that is foreign to us, certain things are always bound to be lost in translation.

there's no place you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.

[–] Myliecad_the_apotropaic 14 years ago

My subtitles actually did the old man translation though.

Also, when his wife dies, and he comes home from the funeral with her urn in the box and her photo, I knew what they were from just anime. However, my dad, who doesn't follow the series, had no idea what it was, and didn't realize till I told him later. I felt like there should of been a footnote, somewhere.

I felt that the urn was fairly obvious. People are cremated throughout the world; even in the West, it's not a completely novel manner of handling bodies now. Of course, though I don't watch anime/read manga, I'd read the book before and was well aware that Eiko had died and been cremated.

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