A Tolkien fan in Japan did some enquiries into how much awareness there is of LOTR in Japan. Why am I beating this story to death? Because my mind boggles imagining what the LOTR movies are going to do in a big, powerful culture that is so unaware of Tolkien and yet so apparently ready for him! [More]
Day: June 8, 2001
We got this from “A frustrated (American) Tolkien Fan in Japan,” who’s really looked into the LACK of a ‘LOTR craze’ in Japan. Seeing how things stand at present, it’s possible that this country will go absolutely wild when they see LOTR after having had [apparently] no access to a good translation in print, which is what I’m learning. I’m very curious to see what that could lead to. Here is what our correspondent wrote:
“Regarding the “relative lack of popularity and awareness of LOTR” in Japan, after recovering from my shock of having to wait 3 extra months, I queried several of my co-workers here in Tokyo.
Most are male, Japanese, techie/engineering types, mid 20’s to late 30’s. Most have heard of the name (the old name is “Yubiwa-Monogatari”, The Tale of the Ring; the movie site is pushing a phoenetic version of “Lord of the Ring”, which sounds much cooler), but none of them have read it and none of them knew anything about a movie being made. Role-playing games are huge over here, and translations of Harry Potter crap are all over the place. I have no idea what’s up with Tolkien’s works.
A quick check of Amazon.co.jp lists several printings of LoTR (1972, 1977, 1992), various Hobbits, a Silmarillion (1981), and a couple other works by Tolkien. Just about all of them were translated by one or both of the same two people.
For whatever reason, there is bad market penetration in Japan for LoTR”.
Over at
That MovieLine poll yesterday that had ‘LOTR’ votes removed did so for a reason. Somebody from Movieline explains:
” I had to remove all those entries because most were entered by the same person and also because Lord of the Rings doesn’t come out until this fall, Not this summer. Rest assured I did not remove any votes for movies valid for the poll. I will have a poll for the fall movies, in the fall. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.
Thanks, Al”
And thanks to Eowyn for that news.
Note from Calisuri: Okay, okay – this would be my fault! Don’t worry folks, we’ll get the next web poll! heh :’P
Why did they change that? Whenever there’s a change to the storyline in the films, thousands of sharp minds start guessing why those changes exist. Here’s some insights and best guesses. !SPOILERS! [More]
Whenever there’s changes to the story we know, thousands of sharp minds get involved in the speculation game. Why did they change that? Here’s some of the best answers that have come in.
Tengwar wondered who we saw battling Lurtz in the trailer – Aragorn or Boromir? He makes a strong case for the former:
“This is just a guess, but I would bet my bottom dollar I’m right. Lurtz is going to kill Boromir and then Aragorn is going to kill Lurtz — a’ la Qui-Gon being killed by Darth Maul who is in turn killed by Obi Wan. Not that I’m suggesting that’s where they got the idea, but think about it: They have to end this movie on some sort of victory. They can’t make it all the way to Helm’s Deep [in the first movie] like Bakshi did so they created a character Lurtz who could be a villain Aragorn could kill. They couldn’t use Ugluk because they need him for the The Two Towers. This would be the only reason to make up a new character (ie to kill him as a climax to this film). I’ll bet you a hundred bucsk I’m right about this. It makes perfect sense. When I thought about it, it soothed my anger about Jackson creating a new character for this movie. It’s necessary because Fellowship ends so anti-climatctically. “
As for the Sword that Wasn’t Broken that Strider wields on Weathertop, Nick Friend agreed that Strider would need to carry a usable weapon for normal foes (why a sword, though?) but he also said something else very interesting:
“It occurs to me that Aragorn’s decision to carry no sword but broken Narsil is symbolic more than anything else. He is an incomplete man, as it is an incomplete weapon. When he is revealed as the heir toIsildur and is prepared to make open war against the East, he knows it’s time to reforge the sword and carry it whole for the first time. It’s a bit of chivalric posturing, much like the English knights of the 14th century who would put on an eyepatch before leaving on campaign (even though they had two very good eyes), while taking a vow not to remove it until they had done some deed of valour dedicated to their lady. Or something like that.”