Re Hibari film title

[Stephen Cremin]

I think less than 10% of Japanese films produced have an "official" English title.  By "official", I'm being quite broad, including titles that have come into common usage as well as titles that can be perhaps "assumed": for examples, numbered sequels.  As Aaron points out, films have multiple titles over time.  There's the official export title at the time of release which my be different from the title on the subtitled print, which may be different again from the title used by critics and film festivals years later.  And now on DVD, sometimes Japanese films acquire new titles in Japan and abroad.  In the past, titles have been translated in academic books without any reference to the original kanji, so, for example, I've seen "Sazae-san no seishun" translated as "Spring on Mount Sazae" rather than "Sazae-san's Youth".

Given that 90% of Japanese films don't have official English titles - ignoring for the moment the need for official Korean titles, Chinese titles, etc - I think it would be useful if critics could work together more to agree on titles.  For example, if Markus is writing a book on a 1960s Japanese documentary filmmaker, perhaps he's in the best position to determine the best English titles in the filmography.  While Aaron is right in that one should be literal, one also needs to be familiar with the film to find the best translation: is "kyodai" best translated as "brothers", "sisters" or "siblings", for example.  I don't think there's ever a pure literal translation.

Stephen


On Thursday, April 24, 2003, at 04:24AM, Aaron Gerow <gerow at ynu.ac.jp> wrote:

>>When working on a film 
>>which has not yet been given an English translation for the title, how have 
>>scholars on this list been proceeding?  Just translate the title in a way 
>>you 
>>choose (literally, figuratively) to be appropriate?  Since once a title is 
>>translated the translation tends to take on a life of its own (e.g., Kamei's 
>>film 'Senso to heiwa,' which usually is referred to as "War and Peace" but 
>>which Kyoko Hirano insists should be "Between War and Peace").  I think this 
>>might have been discussed some time ago on this list but I would 
>>appreciate a 
>>reprise.
>
>This is an important question and it kind of continues some of the issues 
>we talked about during the discussion on romanization. Again, I would 
>argue that for the case of consistency, accuracy, and easy of use, 
>scholars should keep to some rules when dealing with English titles of 
>Japanese film. To me, they are the following:
>
>First, one must do one's utmost to determine if anyone has translated the 
>title before. This can be a real pain, but any real scholar must do it. 
>When I was editing publications for the YIDFF, I spent hours and hours 
>doing that. That means searching databases and existing publications in 
>English, some of which can include obscure festival catalogs. Stephen 
>Cremin has reflected some of this in his Japanese film database, so I use 
>that a lot. In the future, such databases of usable English titles should 
>be expanded. This should also remind us that research libraries must do a 
>better job of collecting film festival catalogs so that basic things like 
>titles can be searched. Most are woefully remiss about this, working 
>under the mistaken impression that film festivals are not part of 
>scholarship.
>
>Second, even when one finds an English title, one must approach it 
>critically. First, one must evaluate the source. For instance, the Tokyo 
>Film Festival is notorious for using bad titles for Japanese films in its 
>catalog. Since it is a weak festival that acts slavishly to the film 
>companies, if some ignorant hack at a film company gives some ridiculous 
>English title for an old Japanese film showing in the classics section, 
>the TIFF will obediently use that even though the English literature has 
>long used a different title (I once had this argument with a TIFF catalog 
>editor). Second, one must evaluate the nature of the title. Is it an 
>actual release title? Or just some translation someone made up? You have 
>to be suspicious of sources like the IMDB, where any fool can submit a 
>title. If it is the official release title, you are largely bound to it, 
>but if it is just a translation, I think you can voice an objection if 
>the translation is bad (while not forgetting to note that this bad 
>translation already exists in the literature). One problem that is 
>increasing is the fact that, with young directors increasingly trying to 
>sell their films abroad, a lot of non-English speakers are creating 
>English titles for Japanese films that are grammaticallly incorrect (for 
>instance, that are missing necessary "the's" etc.). But if this is a 
>release title, you are kind-of stuck with it. Third, you do have to note 
>occasional differences in titles: some films end up with several titles 
>depending on where they were released or who's been writing about them. 
>
>Third, when you know you have title no one has translated before, you 
>should try to translate it accurately according to the title's meaning. 
>There is the temptation, especially since some actual release titles are 
>different from the original title, to elaborate and come up with 
>something "cool," but since scholars are not publicists, the main 
>objective should be in transmitting to non-Japanese readers what the 
>actual title is (both in romanization and in translation).
>
>I'd like to hear from others what their attitude towards this problem is.
>
>
>Aaron Gerow
>Associate Professor
>International Student Center
>Yokohama National University
>79-1 Tokiwadai
>Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
>JAPAN
>E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
>Phone: 81-45-339-3170
>Fax: 81-45-339-3171
>
>
>