{"id":201,"date":"2003-09-22T12:21:20","date_gmt":"2003-09-22T12:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.m3ntalcontraband.com\/?p=201"},"modified":"2020-11-11T13:50:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T18:50:14","slug":"translation_for_lost_in_translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":"translation for lost in translation"},"content":{"rendered":"

woot\u2026thanx to ny times<\/a> (directed to by the gothamist<\/a>) for translating the scene in lost in translation<\/b> where the director was instructing bob harris for the suntory whiskey commercial. with intensity\u2026suntory time!<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

> article<\/b> (with translation)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n


complete article<\/b>\u2026(originally from ny times<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t take much to figure out that \u201cLost in Translation,\u201d the title of Sofia Coppola\u2019s elegiac new film about two lonely American souls in Tokyo, means more than one thing. There is the cultural dislocation felt by Bob Harris (Bill Murray), a washed-up movie actor, and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a young wife trying to find herself. They are also lost in their marriages, lost in their lives. Then, of course, there is the simple matter of language.
Bob, who is in town to make a whiskey commercial, doesn\u2019t speak Japanese. His director (Yutaka Tadokoro), a histrionic Japanese hipster, doesn\u2019t speak English. In one scene, Bob goes on the set and tries to understand the director through a demure interpreter (Akiko Takeshita), who is either unable or (more likely) unwilling to translate everything the director is rattling on about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, Bob is lost. And without subtitles, so is the audience. Here, translated into English, is what the fulmination is really about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DIRECTOR (in Japanese to the interpreter): The translation is very important, O.K.? The translation.
INTERPRETER: Yes, of course. I understand.
DIRECTOR: Mr. Bob-san. You are sitting quietly in your study. And then there is a bottle of Suntory whiskey on top of the table. You understand, right? With wholehearted feeling, slowly, look at the camera, tenderly, and as if you are meeting old friends, say the words. As if you are Bogie in \u201cCasablanca,\u201d saying, \u201cCheers to you guys,\u201d Suntory time!
INTERPRETER: He wants you to turn, look in camera. O.K.?
BOB: That\u2019s all he said?
INTERPRETER: Yes, turn to camera.
BOB: Does he want me to, to turn from the right or turn from the left?
INTERPRETER (in very formal Japanese to the director): He has prepared and is ready. And he wants to know, when the camera rolls, would you prefer that he turn to the left, or would you prefer that he turn to the right? And that is the kind of thing he would like to know, if you don\u2019t mind.
DIRECTOR (very brusquely, and in much more colloquial Japanese): Either way is fine. That kind of thing doesn\u2019t matter. We don\u2019t have time, Bob-san, O.K.? You need to hurry. Raise the tension. Look at the camera. Slowly, with passion. It\u2019s passion that we want. Do you understand?
INTERPRETER (In English, to Bob): Right side. And, uh, with intensity.
BOB: Is that everything? It seemed like he said quite a bit more than that.
DIRECTOR: What you are talking about is not just whiskey, you know. Do you understand? It\u2019s like you are meeting old friends. Softly, tenderly. Gently. Let your feelings boil up. Tension is important! Don\u2019t forget.
INTERPRETER (in English, to Bob): Like an old friend, and into the camera.
BOB: O.K.
DIRECTOR: You understand? You love whiskey. It\u2019s Suntory time! O.K.?
BOB: O.K.
DIRECTOR: O.K.? O.K., let\u2019s roll. Start.
BOB: For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.
DIRECTOR: Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! (Then in a very male form of Japanese, like a father speaking to a wayward child) Don\u2019t try to fool me. Don\u2019t pretend you don\u2019t understand. Do you even understand what we are trying to do? Suntory is very exclusive. The sound of the words is important. It\u2019s an expensive drink. This is No. 1. Now do it again, and you have to feel that this is exclusive. O.K.? This is not an everyday whiskey you know.
INTERPRETER: Could you do it slower and \u2014\u2014
DIRECTOR: With more ecstatic emotion.
INTERPRETER: More intensity.
DIRECTOR (in English): Suntory time! Roll.
BOB: For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.
DIRECTOR: Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! God, I\u2019m begging you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview, Ms. Coppola said she wrote the dialogue for the scene in English, and then it was translated into Japanese for Mr. Tadokoro. The scene, she said, came out of her own experience promoting her first feature film, \u201cThe Virgin Suicides,\u201d in Japan. Whenever she would say something, she said, the interpreter would seemingly speak for much longer. \u201cI would think that she was adding to what I was saying and getting carried away, so I wanted to have that in the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the scene, Ms. Coppola said, Mr. Murray never did learn what the director was saying. \u201cI like the fact that the American actors don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on, just like the characters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly, it\u2019s not clear that even if Bob-san had understood what the director said, it would have helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Coppola said she purposely gave the director \u201clame directions,\u201d adding, \u201cHe wasn\u2019t supposed to be the best director.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

woot\u2026thanx to ny times (directed to by the gothamist) for translating the scene in lost in translation where the director was instructing bob harris for the suntory whiskey commercial. with intensity\u2026suntory time! > article (with translation)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cin3ma-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8703,"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/8703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m3ntal.halleytsai.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}