# Lost in translation



## beri

Hi everyone, cunnichua!
My context is Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation
Is anyone here able to translate what the director of the Suntory Time commercial says? I'm just curious whether the interpreter skips 80% of the actual speech or whether the guy repeats 10 times the same thing in as many different ways.
Thanks!


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## tigerstripedcat

beri said:
			
		

> Hi everyone, cunnichua!
> My context is Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation
> Is anyone here able to translate what the director of the Suntory Time commercial says? I'm just curious whether the interpreter skips 80% of the actual speech or whether the guy repeats 10 times the same thing in as many different ways.
> Thanks!



You don' thave the text do you.  I know very little Japanese.  But I remember him saying hyaku which means faster, but I don't remember much else.  I would love to see that translation too.


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## beri

nope, I don't have the text, I only saw the film


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## erick

Hmm, Beri, how much do you want to know?  I have the dvd here and can tell you that the interpreter not just skips 80%+ of the director's instructions but also mistranslates.  I'll start from the top "Mr. Bob-san..."
This is my translation and transcription, it isn't 100% literal but it's faithful to the dialogue.

Director: You're sitting, relaxing, and on the table is Suntory Whiskey.  Understand, yes?  With feeling, and slowly, look at the camera and softly, as if you were meeting your old friends, speak ... as Bogie in Casablanca, cheers to your eyes (this was my first translation because it's literal, but now I recall the line, "here's looking at you, kid" as he spoke to Ingrid Bergman), Suntory time.
Idiot interpreter: "Um, he want you to turn, look in camera.  Okay?
Bob: That's all he said?
II: Yes.  Turn to camera.
Bob:  All right does he want me to turn from the right or turn from the left?
II: (To the director, in Japanese) For his part, he's ready, but should he turn from the left or right to the camera?
Director: Either side is fine!  It doesn't matter!  We don't have the time, Bob-san, ok?  So quickly/hurry (where you heard hayaku), heighten your tension, look at the camera slowly, passion ... (she cuts him off)
II: Right side and, uh, with intensity.  Okay?
Bob: Is that everything? i mean, it seemed like he said quite a bit more than that.
Director: You're not just talking about whiskey.  You understand?  As if you were meeting old friends, softly, gently, and from the heart, a building up tension.
II: Like an old friend, and into the camera.
Bob: Okay
Director:  Get it?  You love whiskey.  It's Suntory time!  Okay?
Bob: Okay
Director: Okay.  Hey, come on!  Ready ... start!
Bob (in commercial): For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.
Director: Cut-o, cut, cut!  Don't you understand? You playing dumb?  This is Suntory's Hibiki, it's the most expensive of all Suntorys.  Use a higher class emotion, this isn't an everyday whiskey.
Idiot: Could you do it slower and with more ... intensity?
Director: Suntory time.
Bob: For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.
Director: Cut-o, cut-o, cut-o.  Come on! ... (cuts to Charlotte looking at Tokyo subway map)

The interpreter does a poor job of translating, so the whole point is "Lost in Translation."  She does an even more pathetic job with the further instructions.

Speaking as a Japanese I must say, as a film Lost in Translation was very good (for its characters and themes), but as a film on Japan it's terrible, almost shameful.  The Last Samurai is much better in this regard, and impressive as a western production ... it's the only western movie I've seen that I think "gets it" about Japan.  If you're French then there's a film called Stupeur et tremblements with Sylvie Testud that's pretty entertaining.  It depicts the worst of Japanese work life (though is at least true) but I liked Stupeur's comical tone ...  If you're at all interested in films related to Japan, may I suggest the Akira Kurosawa films?


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## erick

PS  This might be of interest ... Akira Kurosawa made a similar commercial, where he was drinking Suntory Whiskey.  Francis Ford Coppola was a big fan of Kurosawa, eventually producing with George Lucas Kurosawa's "Ran" when Kurosawa couldn't get funding in Japan.  You can imagine from where Sofia Coppola got the idea.


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## beri

oh, terrific job Erick... thank you so so so so so much  :blush:
would it be exaggerated to ask you for the rest? :blush:  I'm just so curious


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## erick

Okay Beri, I edited my original post so that the dialogue's continuity is unbroken.  The translation is just for the commercial (advert) recording.  They cut to Charlotte looking at the map and she ends up at Nippori, an old section of Tokyo. I recognize the temple ... it's either Suwa-jinja (built in 1205) or Yokofuji.  I feel ambivalent about translating all this because it pains me to watch these cheap laugh scenes in Lost in Translation.  Like the scene where Bill Murray can't take a shower because the shower head is too low.  He slides the head up just a bit, when the pole obviously slides _all_ the way up ... and still struggles with its height.  Or the "lip my stockings" bit.  [diatribe] I'd say the movie is borderline racist if I hadn't read that Sophia actually loves Japan and spends much time there (she also has a clothing label only in Japan).  So instead I'd say she went for the cheap and sure laughs, knowing her audience.  And for this she won a best screenplay Oscar.  So please don't think that what you see in Lost in Translation has anything to do with what Japan is like ... it's the gaijin sucker's depiction.  As a film about alienation and dislocation it's a good piece of work, but Japan is just the backdrop (and shamefully misrepresented).  To think that many westerners get perhaps their only impression of Japan from Lost in Translation and sushi makes me cringe. [/diatribe]


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## beri

thanks again, you've been great
hope I can pay you back someday


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## suzzzenn

Hi Erick, 

Thanks for taking the time to give the translation. I loved the line that you offered ...cheers to your eyes....before "here's looking at you kid". It's a great example of something lost in translation. Was that your mistranslation or did Bogie "say" those exact words in in the dubbed version of Casablanca? Is cheers to your eyes (or whatever was said in the Japanese) a meaningful expression. Does it make sense in Japanese? 

Susan


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## erick

beri said:
			
		

> thanks again, you've been great


 Beri, je vous en prie!


			
				suzzzenn said:
			
		

> I loved the line that you offered ...cheers to your eyes....before "here's looking at you kid". It's a great example of something lost in translation. Was that your mistranslation or did Bogie "say" those exact words in in the dubbed version of Casablanca? Is cheers to your eyes (or whatever was said in the Japanese) a meaningful expression. Does it make sense in Japanese?


Wow, I'm happy that other readers have taken interest in my translation. What a good question Susan... Western movies are almost always subtitled into Japanese. Thankfully I've never seen an English movie dubbed into Japanese. (When I was living in Italy all the English films were dubbed into Italian, a terrible habit ; when I was living in Paris there was at least the choice of seeing films in VO - voix originale) In Japanese theaters and often on dvds there is no Japanese dubbing, only subtitles. Yet I am sometimes disappointed in the Japanese subtitles, which are often not the best translation or at times way off base. I went back to the LiT dvd and replayed. The director says, "like Bogie in Casablanca, 君の瞳に乾杯" -- kimi no hitomi ni kampai. 
kimi no = your
hitomi = eyes
ni = to
Kampai = cheers
So you can say, "cheers to your eyes" _literally_ though it makes sense in Japanese and one can understand how it was translated this way from, "here's looking at you kid," which wouldn't make sense if translated literally from English to Japanese. It's often difficult to translate 1:1 from Japanese to western languages. I can't confirm that Bogie "said" those lines in the Japanese subtitles, but I imagine that's the case since the director is clearly quoting a memorable line from Casablanca.


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## dstinejr

Hello! I stumbled upon this site and am hoping that I can get some help for a project I am doing.

I am a graphic designer enrolled at the Savannah College of Art and Design and I am making a bound book for the script of Lost in Translation. I want to convey the isolation and disconnect that the two main characters feel through strictly typographical design of the script.

I found this thread which is kind of similar to my question
forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=65052&highlight=suntory

Currently I have been using a free translator to get the actual kanji transcript of the dialogue but I am sure there are many holes in the translation. I am not confident with Kanji or the Japanese language itself, and I want my book to be legitimate and true so that if someone actually picked it up who could read Japanese they wouldn't laugh at it.


So basically I am wondering if anyone out there would be so generous as to help me out by posting the actual Kanji character transcript verbatim from the Suntory scene between the translator and the director. I would be forever grateful and put your name in the colophon of my book to give you credit. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

PS. I will be using the font Hiragino Maru Gothic.


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## almostfreebird

I saw the movie 4,5 years ago and I don't remember the dialogue.

erick's explanation is excellent here: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=65052&highlight=suntory


And this is the transcript: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/l/lost-in-translation-script-transcript.html

Good luck!


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## dstinejr

I actually was looking for the Japanese characters. I'm not too concerned with what the translation to English is. I couldn't find it anywhere but I'm looking for everything the director and the translator are saying in actual Japanese characters. Much of that part of my book will be displayed in Japanese so that the reader is as confused as the character in the movie


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## almostfreebird

I just can offer you these sites where you definitely can get what you want.
English version:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...n+suntory+time+translation&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk
Japanese version:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ト・イン・トランスレーション+サントリー&cd=9&hl=ja&ct=clnk&gl=jp


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## almostfreebird

By the way, one of them hold copyright on that, saying "No reproduction or republication without written permission."


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