Ataahua writes: Tomorrow night New Zealand time (Thursday September 26, 8.35pm, TV1), news programme Assignment will take an in-depth look into the state of the New Zealand film industry. The programme includes an interview with Peter Jackson, who says the industry is in a sick state.
Month: September 2002
Japanese LOTR fans have been relieved to see that a lot of the mistranslations that spoiled their experience of FOTR in the theaters have been repaired on the DVD version of the film. Apparently the fans’ petition had an effect. [More]
Boromir, No Longer a Liar
Anxious days of waiting are finally over for the fans in Japan.
On the release of the video and DVD on September 21st, they found the “fatal mistranslations” in the Japanese subtitles on the FotR movie are not as they had seen in theaters.
“About 85% of the most serious errors are repaired,” says one of the leaders in the movement for better and proper subtitles for FotR, “though it is regrettable some of them are still there.” He is the one who sent a petition with 1281 signatures to Nippon Herald Films Inc., the Japanese distributor.
After such petitions and criticisms from the audience, a notice was posted on the official site in June. It did not contain a single word of apology for mistranslation, and nowhere was expressed any intention to correct the errors, but merely mentioned that the subtitles in DVD/VHS will be revised ‘because the number-of-letters restriction is less strict in these media.’
This traditional euphemism to “save face” of the company and the subtitler made some of the fans very angry and gave others hope. It has turned out that the persons responsible are not blind after all. Frodo in DVD no longer calls Boromir a liar. And Denethor of Gondor is not dead this time.
Still, when you see FotR with revised subtitles, ‘the air is poison gas’ in Mordor, and Boromir on the verge of death says to Aragorn, “I am ashamed” instead of “You did what I could not.” Do you find these translations acceptable?
Now fans in Japan are looking forward to seeing TTT, just as any other fans in the world. But their anxieties wear different colors. (If you are interested, you can find more examples of bad translation here )
written by Herbalist
Maria writes: We’re a small but very loyal band of LOTR Fans representing Lyndhurst, NJ and Bethlehem, PA. There were 8 companions when we started our celebration of Bilbo and Frodo’s Birthday this past Saturday evening. [More]
Lessa sends us news she found in NEWS FROM INDIAN COUNTRY, about Viggo Mortensen’s current film project, a story that requires him to learn another language, this time Lakota. [More]
Thanks to Lessa for this news she got from NativeCelebs.com. Looks like Viggo’s doing another fascinating and unusual film project, and it looks like it’ll show off Viggo’s love of languages, his horsemanship, and his sympathy for other cultures. Seems like there will be lots of beautiful horses and dramatic spacious landscapes as well (like LOTR, huh?) so if you’re like me, you’ll think this is a film project to watch! – Tehanu
From Natalie Noel’s THE GLITTER REPORT (originally appearing in NEWS FROM INDIAN COUNTRY. Editor Pat Calliote:
John Fusco’s HIDALGO has been shooting all over the place: Hollywood, Montana and now Morocco! David MidThunder, one of the on-set Lakota dialect coaches to Viggo Mortensen (who plays half-breed Lakota, Frank Hopkins) says of Viggo, He’s doing really well. He is very concerned with speaking the Lakota properly and is working very hard. He is patient and diligent, but what’s really cool about him is he’s really humble. He’s the star of the show and he’s really cool!
Sonny Richards is the other Lakota dialect coach to Viggo Mortensen. A Pine Ridge Oglala, Sonny is the ceremonial advisor for HIDALGO. He will orchestrate the Ghost Dance sequences which will be filmed in South Dakota this November. A long time advisor to Fusco (they worked together 10 years ago on THUNDERHEART and recently on DREAMKEEPER), Sonny is his Pine Ridge relation.
Floyd also makes an appearance (fresh from the Calgary set of DREAMKEEPER) and his buddy, Darryl Standing Elk, is his on-set dialect coach. Rod Rondeaux, the best darned Indian Cowboy in the business, not only handles all the Native horsemen and their stunts, he is the only Indian dude traveling to Morocco where he’ll race Arab guys across the desert in the re-creation of the famed 1890 Arabian Desert Challenge. Good luck to all in the sands of North Africa and keep me posted!
THE GLITTER REPORT, NEWS FROM TRIBE HOLLYWOOD: Writer Natalie Noel can be contacted at goddess-2@msn.com