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Michael Kerpan wrote:Well -- if you get a copy of the (translated) novel -- "Rough Living", I can always lend you my unsubbed copy of the Japanese TV broadcast (assuming I can find it and that it still plays).

artfilmfan wrote:Thanks for the lending offer, Michael. If you find it, please let me know and I'll PM you my address.

I'm used to watching movies without subs. I usually try to read about the films as much as I can in advance so that at least I understand the story. Although I don't understand everything, it's still better than not seeing the films at all. The latest example was Gan. Reading the imdb user reviews in advance really helped.

There's a TVRip of this with English fan subtitles available online that can be found with Google.

I finally watched Nobuhiro Yamashita' A Gentle Breeze in the Village (Tennen Kokekko, 2007) which has been on my "to watch" list for several years. Just like its English title suggests, it's a slow-paced and charming little film with a simple story and beautiful cinematography which reminded me of the works of Hirokazu Kore-eda and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It's worth seeing if you're a fan of the works of these two other directors. The Japanese DVD has good English subtitles with the exception of one thing: whenever "thank you" or "thanks" is said in the film, the subtitle shows up as "Ta." I don't know why they chose to show it this way.

artfilmfan wrote:I finally watched Nobuhiro Yamashita' A Gentle Breeze in the Village (Tennen Kokekko, 2007) which has been on my "to watch" list for several years. Just like its English title suggests, it's a slow-paced and charming little film with a simple story and beautiful cinematography which reminded me of the works of Hirokazu Kore-eda and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It's worth seeing if you're a fan of the works of these two other directors. The Japanese DVD has good English subtitles with the exception of one thing: whenever "thank you" or "thanks" is said in the film, the subtitle shows up as "Ta." I don't know why they chose to show it this way.

exclamation
British informal

Thank you:
‘‘Ta,’ said Willie gratefully’

Ta, gratefully I say, Jack!

Ta finds very common usage in Britain, particularly "Ta mate", but I'd say it's way too informal to be used in place of every single instance of "thank you" in a Japanese language film. Even to someone who uses the word themselves every single day that comes across as peculiar!

If you've seen A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles basically only use this instead of the more formal "Thanks" or "Thank you". I didn't know this prior to watching the movie though.

Gentle Breeze is set in a small village located in a very rural area in western Japan. Maybe the person who created the subtitles wanted to convey the informal way that people in this area speak. But, since it is used in every instance, now thinking back, I think some of the times it does not fit well with the rest of the dialogue.

I don't remember the "ta" usage -- but I haven't watched the DVD since it first came out....

Strange.

Since I remember roughly where I first noticed the "Ta" usage, I've just checked. It's around 20 minutes and 15 seconds into the film.

I probably just thought it was a typo.

This sounds like another example of a translator trying to represent colloquialisms and simply getting it wrong, which is unfortunately not uncommon. Just because a word is colloquial and means basically the same thing doesn't mean it would ever be used in the same way. In general, I think it's much better to just err on the side of neutrality, and let the delivery and context of the original convey whether or not characters are speaking informally or in dialect. On Artificial Eye's recent release of Wild Tales there's a grotesque instance in the second story when the city slicker calls the grizzled rustic roadhog he's pitted against a "chav" in the subtitles, which is not just phenomenally tin-eared but hilariously wrong on a basic semantic level.

At first, I also thought that it was a typo. It also crossed my mind that maybe there was some kind of problem with my DVD player that blocked part of the word. So, I backed up and re-watched the scene. I thought, OK it was just a typo. Then, it came up again later in the film. I didn't keep count, but I think it was used three times.

I watched this BluRay the other night and yes, it's a weird affectation of this translation, in which "ta" is used in place of "thank you" or "thanks" in every single instance, regardless of context, so we end up with "Ta [for mending my jandal]" alongside "Ta [for saving my life when I nearly got run over by a train]." It's particularly jarring because the rest of the translation isn't particularly colloquial at all.

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who felt that the use of Ta doesn't seem to fit the rest of the translation. Now that I know what it means, I think the first instance was OK. The subsequent usages, however, really seem out of place.

Some news from the Japanese front...

1) In November, a Blu-ray box set of Kon Ichikawa Collection will be released. It includes three films restored in 4K: Enjo (1958), Her Brother (1960), An Actor's Revenge (1963).

2) The crowd-funded 4K restoration of Late Spring has just finished and a Blu-ray is planned for this December.

3) A Blu-ray of Mizoguchi's The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums will be issued in January, 2016. The 4K restoration was just shown in Cannes 2015.

A restored Late Spring! Wonderful news! Thank you!

andyli wrote:Some news from the Japanese front...

1) In November, a Blu-ray box set of Kon Ichikawa Collection will be released. It includes three films restored in 4K: Enjo (1958), Her Brother (1960), An Actor's Revenge (1963).

2) The crowd-funded 4K restoration of Late Spring has just finished and a Blu-ray is planned for this December.

3) A Blu-ray of Mizoguchi's The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums will be issued in January, 2016. The 4K restoration was just shown in Cannes 2015.

Thanks for this. Hopefully these are English-subtitled.

Ozu's Equinox Flower was restored a couple of years ago. Has that restoration appeared on Blu-ray anywhere in the world?

EDIT: Nevermind, I think I answered my own question.

"Late Spring" is next in line for a BD release in Japan, coming in December 2015
http://www.shochiku-home-enta.com/shop/ ... id=1791795" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

According to the Shochiku website, the Late Spring Blu-ray will have English subtitles. I'm not surprised, given that the five earlier Blu-ray releases have them. Wonderful news, indeed!

The campaign to get any English-friendly release of his work continues (please Arrow!), but a few months ago new HD remastered DVDs of Shinji Somai's Piss Rider, Moving, Tonda Couple and The Friends were released. The Catch is out on Blu-Ray next month.

andyli wrote:1) In November, a Blu-ray box set of Kon Ichikawa Collection will be released. It includes three films restored in 4K: Enjo (1958), Her Brother (1960), An Actor's Revenge (1963).

I received an email from Kadokawa earlier today regarding English subtitles and unfortunately there won't be any.

Maybe Arrow, BFI or Eureka comes to our aid then.

Not film related this time but hope I can post it here.

I have heard rumours of a CD compilation of songs sung by Sonny Chiba and Shintaro Katsu for example. If such a CD exists, I'd very much would like to purchase one. Could someone perhaps provide with some information like the name of the compilation and such?

L.A. wrote:Not film related this time but hope I can post it here.

I have heard rumours of a CD compilation of songs sung by Sonny Chiba and Shintaro Katsu for example. If such a CD exists, I'd very much would like to purchase one. Could someone perhaps provide with some information like the name of the compilation and such?

You might be talking about the Ginmaku Rock discs, there's one called Ginmaku Rock and another called Zoku Ginmaku Rock: Ikitaiyouni Ikite Shine which features tracks sung by Chiba, Katsu, Bunta Sugawara, Meiko Kaji, Testuya Watari, Tomisaburo Wakayama, and others. It's basically classic 70s Toei movie tracks. Chiba is only on the Zoku Ginmaku Rock disc, though (CD Japan says it's out of print, but Amazon Japan still has it in stock). Katsu is on both. They're both worth getting if you like that type of thing (which I do, I have them both).

J Wilson wrote:You might be talking about the Ginmaku Rock discs, there's one called Ginmaku Rock and another called Zoku Ginmaku Rock: Ikitaiyouni Ikite Shine which features tracks sung by Chiba, Katsu, Bunta Sugawara, Meiko Kaji, Testuya Watari, Tomisaburo Wakayama, and others. It's basically classic 70s Toei movie tracks. Chiba is only on the Zoku Ginmaku Rock disc, though (CD Japan says it's out of print, but Amazon Japan still has it in stock). Katsu is on both. They're both worth getting if you like that type of thing (which I do, I have them both).