Thousand Leaves 2.0

This post has stayed in my drafts box for quite some time, and I don’t seem to spare any extra time to get it done. Leave it there means it will be left forever. I am not sure if this worth the publish, or does it help me to understand something more, my mind keeps wondering. Anyway, got to clean up my drafts. Let’s give it a shot.

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The other day when I tweeted one news headlines that I overheard from the TV, Pete told me that if he were me, he would omit the information mentioned in Japanese, and leave it untranslate.

News: [...] A 72-year-old jobless male killed a female blah blah” What does this country expect an old man to do at his 70s? Keep working?

The information which it would not go into English here would be “jobless.” It’s not important for the English reader to mention a person’s social status in news, whereas in Japanese it is, cultural wise, it is quite often they will categorise whether you work (for any organisation) or not-working. TWO big categories. I want to know the attitude behind the usage. Sounds like I just arrived in Japan, huh? Yeah, I am an alien in this country, that’s for sure.

I am no professional when come to translation. I am just trying to get it translated to get understood. Not a good idea, but if there is something I should know, very naturally I would expect the information to be passed on as well. Not professional way, thought.

I just watched the DVD “Things We Lost in the Fire” the other day. Directed by Susanne Bier. With Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, David Duchovny on parade. The Japanese title is translated as “Until Sorrow Runs Dry.” Both are good titles. Each has its meaning on its own.

I think this movie has quite a few scenes which are rather metaphorical, and it’s hard to squeeze all into 2 hours for further digest in another language, may be. I do know that I can’t think of anything original to write about the movie, but there are a few things which it is about the interpretation of the inner world of the personalities and characters, which I found it may have lost through the subtitle translations.

In terms of subtitle translation, I know that there are limitation of words and timeline, and translator sometimes has to go around to shorten its sentences due to visual limitation as well. There are many “s/he has had no way but to” do the bending. I am sure they get around the bend as well.

There is this one scene when Brian (David Duchovny) drives the family back to their house, his wife Audrey (Halle Berry) looks at the backseat at the two kids who fell asleep, and says to his husband, “Don’t let them grow up.” Brian keeps silent and looks at her wife then both they carried the kids back into the house. The Japanese was translated into, “Don’t wake them up.” I can’t imagine if there is any mistranslation her, let’s take the credit as it has been checked. I understand that there may be something like it might spoil the flow of the mood if things were to put into more sophisticated situation, but originally here it carries the meaning of Audery as a parent how she wants her children to be, how the parenthood might mean even after her husband Brian shocked dead later where she has to live on by herself to take care of the two kids, and it strengthens her thinking — kids are kids, they will never grow up, and they need parents to bring them up –, which we can tell if we catch this scene. I think her struggle as a widowed mother presented here as well.

Anything lost in between here? Let’s say if the Japanese translates it into as the original, what would happen? It would seem odd if the husband says nothing in reaction, may be. Simple conversation, but the culture we need to understand perhaps need more exposure before we really get to where it lands.

I need more time to write this, keep this under my to-do list for future.

“Do accept the good, then it helps you to accept the bad.”

I watched Sleuth (2007) the other day. It’s typical theatrical, as it supposed to be originally. Having two actors running the whole story, that’s fantastically challenging, and how both play psychological games on and on, it’s indeed breathtaking, I would say.

Rented the DVD Shadowboxer yesterday. As always, watching a movie without any background knowledge helps me enjoy the movie in a purest way. A female assassin who realised she can’t live long, decides to do her final assignment with her lover cum stepson. When she faced with her target, who is pregnant, suddenly water breaks, and assassin started to help her to deliver the baby. Thing started to get complicated, as a movie should be. The “client” who wanted her pregnant wife to be killed because he thought she is having affairs with some other guy. So, for those who are related are to be killed.

One thing interesting here is that, the assassin is assigned to kill those who are chain-related. Killing always has a reason behind, and it is always not out of the daily life, it must be related. In fact, all the assigned targets, actually are almost one-line related from the start to the end. It shows that business is like that, and real life is like that too, don’t you think so? People will do business with those they know instead of unknown, assassin will get business from the same people always.

I got a friend who thought Hong Kong is save and never imagined that it has such gun fighting in real life – except in movies. When she lived in Hong Kong for a while and found that the underground gansters were gun shooting each other at their working hours, she was shocked. When she told that story to her Hong Kong friend, she was told,

“Don’t worry, unless you are related, you won’t be involved.”

Isn’t it sound so lively? That humans have a real life taking place, not without a reason. I like it so much.

Call me sick, but I believe life is beautiful.

I mentioned I wanted to have the DVD of The Holiday, somehow after watched Music and Lyrics, I decided to pick up the latter. Now, I enjoy the songs — or the lyrics — very much.I don’t know if this is related, having Hugh Grant sings the spell of it, it seems become so full of impact. He has turned the character so lively and desperate. A person without such background can be hard to express it well. He is good, as usual.

I would love to watch the movie again, but kids had spoiled it. Now I need a surface-grinder, if you know what I mean, to polish up almost all the DVDs that I have at home.

Music and Lyrics

Well, just one word, I think I am going to buy the DVD and put it on my love-movie-to-watch-when-I-get-old list. From the web, it seems that there are lots of mistakes of its continuity and factual errors, but there are few sceens with good lines. Don’t be too fussy. Let’s continue with our real lives.

I tried to read John Arving’s The fourth Hand, but never get to finish it. I do like his sentences. As most of the people do, I think I know him only through movies, not through his books.

The only book that I finished was The World According to Garp, which I used it for my website quite some time ago. The World According to Ken Loo. I read it in Japanese version though.

From my local library, I found a book of his, in Japanese again, A Widow for One Year. The first few pages came to me as a surprise, the sceen where a girl heard the noices while her mother having sex with someone, not her father. Though I didn’t manage to finish the book, the sceen keeps spinning in my head for quite a while.

When I picked up the DVD of The Door in The Floor, I have no idea that it in fact was from the above-mentioned book. When I saw the “sceen,” it struck me, and I looked at the details, then I realised, oh dear John, there you are!

The title comes from the picture book in the movie, which is very impressive one. A scary one too.

Those hero/ine’s in Irving’s movie, make their decisions that come from a deep thought. It is of course the best solution for them after all, but it leaves a sense of hopelessness behind the determination. I am not sure you could call such a sadness, perhaps not. It is a kind of final decision from a thorough thinking.

If you want to know the answer, open the door yourself. But, you got the bare the consequences.

I should have watched this movie first before I watched the Hollywood version, The Lake House. Well.

The original idea of, having two persons communicating between two different time only through a post box isn’t new, but the arrangement is refreshing. From the Korean version, it seems to me Korean or Asian, there is a kind of naive or pureness thinking to have a way of expressing loneniness. Only focus the hero/ine. I don’t know, it makes the movie sort of boring sometimes. That’s the culture, may be.

The Lake House gives better entertainment elements, for a movie goer. Oh, the marketing imperial! Never mind, never mind. That’s how hollywood movie is like. There is no good or bad, but preference.

Hard to compare though, for story line and the loneliness — as the standalone house means —, I would prefer the original one, especially the ending. It doesn’t end there, rather it keeps the audience with a continuity of the tales. This feeling reminds me like I am reading a novel. Whether a movie should be this way or not, it doesn’t matter here.

Whereas for The Lake House, I don’t know why, it seems to give me a feeling that it wants the audience to feel secured to fall back on reality before leaving the cinema. Letting audience go doesn’t mean the story ends though, tale ends perfectly. Life goes on.

The Japanese title of Birth is translated as The Thorn of Memory. Sounds good, but not the content.

The process of finding the truth, whether the man one loves is really incarnated into a 10-year-old boy is good, but the ending spoils everything.

This reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan with his The Sixth Sense, of all the expectation came his second movie Unbreakable, trying to entertain the audience of the process but with a lousy ending, hardly convincing, but this is what all the new director might need to go through.

Anyway, the fundamental concept of the reincarnation is hardly acceptable here — I mean Birth. That’s why the ending tries to land back into reality, which makes the whole movie fails to convince the audience anything about reincarnation. It tries hard to land on a 10-year-old boy’s love for a widow. Somehow, it’s too fragile.

Watched Kinky Boots last night. Not so complicated, very British, it has some similarity in handling human feeling like the Japanese, that makes it a worthy watch, to my standard. Perhaps it lacks of some more details as those “men’s need” for preference of boots. But, I guess the point isn’t about the boots, so I shouldn’t be too fussy on that.

It could be entertaining, if you just want to spend your weekends for a laugh.

The rental shop that near my area has a very bad selection of DVDs. I don’t know, may be this is under some sort of control by district or what, it definitely can do better. Need to check it out how the system works in Japan on the distribution.

The next comedy that I chose was Monster-in-Law. I know I am so back of time. But, these are the selections in sight, what to do?

Anyway, Jennifer Lopez, she acts quite naturally. I am not sure if she is good in acting, looking at her, you wonder what talent one needs to be in entertainment. A chance, and some wit? Not that she is not good, you wonder how the industry works. Is this all about marketing? It could be.
What happen to her now in reality, I wonder.

On Golden Pond

Jane Fonda. I can’t remember when I started to know her name. It could be On Golden Pond. I just bought the DVD the other day, before I watched Monster-in-Law, which I will watch again when I get old, or on a lazy weekend. 
On Golden Pond