New Reference Book

[Mark Schilling]

Thanks to Stephen for his comments on his new reference work -- if it's
anything like "The Asian Film Library Reference to Japanese Film" it will
be must-own for anyone interested in Japanese film (now Stephen, about that
free copy...).

I'm currently wrestling with similar problems on my new collection of
reviews, essays and interviews, though my publisher, Weatherhill, has laid
down the law on most matters stylistic. We've decided to follow my practice
with The Japan Times and use the Japanese title, or a shortened version of
it, in the body of the review. We've also gone with standard English
capitalization and spelling, instead of the more creative versions dreamed
up by Japanese filmmakers and distributors. Thus "Picnic" and not "PiCNiC."
 The reason, I think, is obvious -- while the latter may look neater on a
poster or program, it becomes a thumb in the eye if you have to read it ten
times in an 800-word review. The same goes for "Shall We Dance?," which may
not be "faithful" to the original Japanese, but is the title millions in
the West who saw the film are most familiar with.   

What about "Otobai Shojo"? I'd leave it as is -- "autobike" is just going
to confuse readers who are not familiar with the mysterious ways of
Janglish. 

I would say, though, that in transribing Japanese titles, completeness is a
virtue. Thus "Zenpen" and "Kohen" instead of Part I and Part II. 

Determining the 'official" English titles can be, as Stephen mentioned, a
bloody nightmare, especially if, like me, you are reviewing or writing
about films before they go into international distribution. Very often the
distributors will assign a working title that gets changed in the course of
the film's life, from first festival screenings to the video shelf. I would
say respect the distributor's latest title, even if it strikes the native
ear as odd or ungrammatical, though I think it's also perfectly fine to
suggest a better (i.e., correct) translation. 

Stephen deserves an enormous vote of appreciation for doing such
frustrating but important work. I intend to ask him to vet my list of
titles before they go into print!

Mark Schilling