Seven Samurai - 3 Disc Edition - 5/9/2006

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 08 Nov 2006, 18:43

I thought she was in her 60's

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 08 Nov 2006, 18:52

Seriously? Umm, ignore my previous post then.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 08 Nov 2006, 20:05

Shingster wrote:IIRC you don't speak Japanese do you Lourdes, does that mean you've found a thread somewhere that goes into the mistakes in the new translation? Should be an interesting read, and one that should be rammed down Criterion's throat at the next HTF group chat they set up.

I was watching it with a Japanese friend who's very into old Japanese cinema. I brought it up by constantly "wtf'ing" at the rewriting of even simple words and phrases.

I have seen dozens of other films she has translated accurately, this one was just so off even aside from the modernised BS (which you can't really find in other scripts she's done).

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 08 Nov 2006, 22:30

Here we go, an article on Linda Hoaglund where she discusses her translational approach to the theatrical Kurosawa releases she was commissioned to do. Never More Than 80 Letters

She talks about Seven Samurai last. and discusses her reasons for straying from a direct literal translation at certain times during the film.

Oh and there's a picture of her included for you Bisc.

Lourdes wrote:I was watching it with a Japanese friend who's very into old Japanese cinema. I brought it up by constantly "wtf'ing" at the rewriting of even simple words and phrases.

I have seen dozens of other films she has translated accurately, this one was just so off even aside from the modernised BS (which you can't really find in other scripts she's done).

After reading up on Hoaglund since my original post in this thread, it seems clear to me that her track record stands for itself and should be held as a standard that proves she would not be erroneously translating this film.

I mean seriously, after accurately translating hundreds of Japanes films, would Miss Hoaglund decide to erroneously translate the highest profile releases she's ever been given? Surely this is just a case of Person A: who demands an exact, literal translation, disagreeing with Person B: who tries to artistically translate to convey the nuances of one language in the form of another?

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 09 Nov 2006, 03:17

In creating characters and setting tone, not to mention conveying humor, I stray brazenly from literal translation. My goal is to reproduce the Japanese experience of film as faithfully as possible by not bogging down a Western audience with unfamiliar locutions.

'nuff said.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 09 Nov 2006, 03:33

I'm reading the Crit forums now. Loads of complaints about her other translations being akin to dubtitles.
Might have to check how many of her scripts I've actually seen. Could be that a lot were for R1 releases of films.

I can't have been using the previous Crit script with the R3K either as that was done by her yet the script I used didn't feature the horrendous lines people there were referencing. I'll have to find out where it came from.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 09 Nov 2006, 08:21

I don't see much problem with what she says there TBH.
Is Japanese humour like Western humour? No.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 10 Nov 2006, 02:15

Lourdes wrote:I'm reading the Crit forums now. Loads of complaints about her other translations being akin to dubtitles.
Might have to check how many of her scripts I've actually seen. Could be that a lot were for R1 releases of films.

I assume they're talking about her other Kurosawa translations? That would make sense because she was commissioned to approach a number of Kurosawa titles the way she approached Seven Samurai.

I think Criterion have shot themselves in the foot by not included the old subtitles alongside the new interpretation. A lot of people are very attached to them.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 18 Nov 2006, 20:34

Lourdes wrote:I'm reading the Crit forums now. Loads of complaints about her other translations being akin to dubtitles.
Might have to check how many of her scripts I've actually seen. Could be that a lot were for R1 releases of films.

I can't have been using the previous Crit script with the R3K either as that was done by her yet the script I used didn't feature the horrendous lines people there were referencing. I'll have to find out where it came from.

Could you post a link to the discussions of the Crite subs Lourdes? I need to decide whether to get the Criterion release or the r3K while the Crite is going cheapish at DeepDiscount and would like to read opinions on the new translation. I've searched criterionforum.org and couldn't find more than one comment asking if the new translation was ok.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 18 Nov 2006, 21:57

A lot of the colloquial speech originates from Mifune's character, who always speaks out of order.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 18 Nov 2006, 22:00

Bugger?

Mifune's character is crazy/wild, I wouldn't have a problem with him using colliqual language, wouldn't the peasants have spoken in the language of the "street" as it were?

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 18 Nov 2006, 22:50

It's a difficult film to translate and I am usually against horrid dubtitles.

But I'm not losing my boner over this new Criterion 3 Discer.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 18 Nov 2006, 23:45

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 19 Nov 2006, 00:25

grim_tales wrote:Bugger?
Mifune's character is crazy/wild, I wouldn't have a problem with him using colliqual language, wouldn't the peasants have spoken in the language of the "street" as it were?

No, they'd be more like country bumpkins, Mifune's character was a farmer IIRC. Strange word to use on an American release though, I know they use the word, but much less than we do

.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 19 Nov 2006, 07:33

Shingster wrote:Could you post a link to the discussions of the Crite subs Lourdes? I need to decide whether to get the Criterion release or the r3K while the Crite is going cheapish at DeepDiscount and would like to read opinions on the new translation. I've searched criterionforum.org and couldn't find more than one comment asking if the new translation was ok.

I was referring to discussion of previous Hoaglund subs.

Having a HTPC is the best thing ever for foreign films, seriously. I can use whatever script I want in whatever font, size, colour and quality I like.

jimmyscab · Post by **jimmyscab** » 19 Nov 2006, 10:13

Lourdes wrote: Having a HTPC is the best thing ever for foreign films, seriously. I can use whatever script I want in whatever font, size, colour and quality I like.

How do you do that?

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 19 Nov 2006, 13:55

jimmyscab wrote:How do you do that?

Extract the subs myself (and then OCR them if I want a text script) or grab from one of the many websites out there. Then use any good media player.

I so cannot stand the idea of using the horrible looking subs full of errors you find on most discs.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 19 Nov 2006, 19:54

Lourdes wrote:I was referring to discussion of previous Hoaglund subs.

Oh, sorry. Will do a search on Hoaglund.

Having a HTPC is the best thing ever for foreign films, seriously. I can use whatever script I want in whatever font, size, colour and quality I like.

Yeah I wish I had the money to afford a HD projector, as I built a good, quiet PC about a year ago but I'm stuck with my 32" Philips CRT.

jimmyscab · Post by **jimmyscab** » 19 Nov 2006, 21:26

Lourdes wrote:
jimmyscab wrote:How do you do that?
Extract the subs myself (and then OCR them if I want a text script) or grab from one of the many websites out there. Then use any good media player.

I so cannot stand the idea of using the horrible looking subs full of errors you find on most discs.

But how do you play custom subs with DVDs? I can only get them to work with Divx/xvid

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 19 Nov 2006, 23:49

Clickathelink jimmy.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 20 Nov 2006, 00:51

Don't need DVDSubber, I only use that on the rare occasions I have to retime something. If you can play subs with downloaded stuff then you can do the same with DVD's, go to the main title then load the subs in VSFilter/your media player.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 20 Nov 2006, 13:49

And when you don't have a HTPC you go the hard way (like me): http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t219535.html

Edit: actually it's very easy, just takes a little time
Edit 2: actually it doesn't take that much time either, it's the timing of subs that takes time
Edit 3: I'm gonna shut up now...

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 20 Nov 2006, 19:09

Piss easy to author a DVD with subs and no menus. The bastard is when you want to keep them menus

.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 20 Nov 2006, 19:20

Menus are over-rated

Saves time and effort when you leave them out... they don't make the movie any better...

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 20 Nov 2006, 19:41

Keeping menus is just as easy as not, if you know your way around real authoring tools. But I always ditch them on movies anyway, and for series I make a simple optional menu. I hate menus, logos etc with a passion.