Yamato

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

As most of you are aware, following military history and all, the Yamato was the largest battleship ever constructed. I just saw the 2005 film of the same name. It has been a bit hard to get here in the U.S. If your into monster battleships not doing much during most of the war and then blowing up, you might want to see this one. This thing lists at $79.00. I found a copy for $12. This is about 5 bucks an hour watching time. The translation leave much to be desired. All american aircraft are refer to as "jet fighters", and when the Yamato's magazine blows up a petty officer looks up from all the bloody body parts around him and says: "This is unacceptable." Also, there were no "Revenger" dive bombers. I get the impression that th ecopy I found (on E-Bay) was probably a grey market copy where sombody in China who did know Japanese or English as well as he should, did the translating, so something is literaly lost in the translation. This was one of the highest grossing films in Japan of 2005, and up for all sorts of awards, so the dialog was probably stronger than what I wound up with.

Ralph

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

I have it here at home my friend and it sure is a great film!

Though my Japanese friend did not agree fully, he said i should read the book for the entire story... in Japanese.

Apparently they made it into a slightly too patriottic story and especially the love story sucked big time according to him...

otherwise, it is very watchable !

He actually was also fond of letters from Iwo Jima, which is a class apart from the horrendous flags of our fathers

BTW i had the same problem with the Kurosawa box i got from China... Hilarious translations!!

M.VIB.M.

[Ron Andrea]

There's a subtle lesson there for all of us who depend on translations to read ancient documents. Much is literally lost in translation. Sometimes it's the best and most important stuff: how people actually felt about what they were writing about.

[Nathan Ross]

when the Yamato's magazine blows up a petty officer looks up from all the bloody body parts around him and says: "This is unacceptable."

:lol:

Thanks - that's the funniest thing I've read all week!

[Magnus]

Agreed. That and the movie reviews in the other thread of Channing Tatum's acting in "the Eagle".

[Forty-One]

when the Yamato's magazine blows up a petty officer looks up from all the bloody body parts around him and says: "This is unacceptable."

As funny as the Dutch subtitles to "Gladiator". According to the subtitles, general Maximus rides up to his waiting men and addresses them as "patres!" - "fathers!" (in the English dialog he actually shouts "fratres").