1-20-03

Japanese Fan Power Triumphs
Tehanu @ 5:49 am EST
"It's me, Bunnyfoot from Tokyo again. According to reports by two leading members of the LOTR subtitle reform activities on the Internet, the movie trilogy's Japanese distributor, Nippon Herald Films, Inc., invited them to a private screening of TTT at the comapny last week and asked their views about the subtitles. With permission from the company, the two announced on Jan. 19 on their respective Web sites what they thought about the subtitling of TTT. To our great relief, they said it was remarkably better than that of FOTR, although they made some suggestions for further improvement. The company reportedly told them that it put forward their opinions to Akiko Tanaka, co-translater of the novel, for examination.

"The two also said that the people they met at the Nippon Herald were courteous and that the company, hitherto seen by the fans as unreliable and insolent, was perhaps being just slow and naive in responding to the audience's demand.

"So, at the end of the day, there seems to be a happy solution for the problem that even involved Peter Jackson. (He made a comment about the matter on NZTV at TTT's Paris premiere, as you know), although we must still wait and see until the movie finally opens here on Feb. 22. (Media previews are scheduled for this week, and there will be special previews for fans on Feb. 15.)

"By the way, Viggo Mortensen's visit to Japan on Jan. 22 seems to be more to do with promotion of one of his books than TTT. It was the Japanese publisher of the book that invited him this time. A huge number of his female fans are expected to queue up for tickets to get his autograph."