This is a trailer for a movie released in Japan in 2009. Set in modern day Osaka, the plot is very loosely based off of Shakespeare's Hamlet, but more interesting than the plot is the portrayal of the character of Hamlet. Here, Hamlet is split into three brothers: Masashi, Yukio, and Hiroki. Politics are completely removed from the story. I translated the trailer below. In order to keep my own translation from being colored by my personal interpretation of the movie, I tried to keep the translation as literal as possible (which makes some of the lines kind of awkward). One interesting fact that is not reflected in the translation is that the actors are speaking "Osaka-ben" which is a Japanese dialect quite different from what is known as standard Japanese ("Tokyo-ben"). There is also a website for the movie, which is in Japanese but also has lots of pictures.
TRANSLATION
Mom: Dad? DAD!! [referring to her husband]
Hiroki: One day, my dad suddenly died.
“Osaka Hamlet”
Uncle: Welcome home.
Yukio: What’s up with that uncle?
Masashi: Think about it on your own.
Yukio: You were bad-mouthing me, weren’t you?
Teacher: All I said was that you’re like Hamlet.
Yukio: Yamaguchi told me that Hamlet is another word for hamster. Do I look like a hamster to you??
Hiroki: I want to be a girl. I’m serious so please don’t make fun of me.
Teacher: This is the new teacher, Akashi Yuka.
Yuka: I know that one week is a short period of time, but yoroshiku onegaishimasu [idiomatic phrase, means something like “please regard me kindly”]
Masashi: People tell that I act like a middle aged man but…
Yuka: I like people like that.
Mom: Wow! You look pretty!
Hiroki: Don’t look at me!
Yukio: Between this book and the book you’re reading, which is more intelligent?
Girl: I guess that one.
Yukio: What is this?!
Hiroki: Time passed for us brothers, each wrapped up in our own troubles.
“Everyday life while dealing with troubles”
Mom: I’m pregnant
Punk kid: [???]
Yukio: Don’t put me together with that wishy-washy, wishy-washy spoiled kid! [Hamlet]
Hiroki: If the two of them get married, our uncle will become our dad right? If that happens, I wonder what our dad will become. Will it be like he never existed?
Uncle: I’m not confident that I’m right for this family.
Masashi: What is “dad”?
Yukio: Why does Hamlet say, “To be or not to be, that is the question”?
Yukio: It’s that people can’t just go on laughing all the time. That guy Shakespeare was pretty interesting huh?
Hiroki: Whether you’re troubled or laughing, as long as you’re with your family who will accept you as you are, no matter who you are, you can come to like yourself.
Hiroki: Osaka Hamlet.
“As for whether (you) should be or not be, as long as (you’re) alive that’s enough.” [No actual pronoun in Japanese, ambiguous]
Uncle: I bought these for all of you. They’re brand-name!
No comments:
Post a Comment