Isao Takahata

[Stefan Nutz / Nuzumakifilms]

we discussed this a very long time ago, but as i have good news regarding
the subtitels, i
thought to let everybody know.
finally an english and german "open source... not copyright protected"
translation has been found. the english titels arent perfect, but still
useful and understandable. i cant say anything about the german subtitels,
as i havent read them yet. as far as i know they were translated by the
original dialouge with help of the french subtitels.

anyway... i hope this can help you all.

here is the link where i have uploaded the SRT files onto my university
account.
http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0006909/avatare/Horus.rar

below you can find aaron's  sypnosis of the film.

best regards,

stefan nutz



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aaron Gerow" <gerowaaron at sbcglobal.net>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 3:07 AM
Subject: Re: Isao Takahata


> I always use the film when I teach animation, showing in the least some
> clips, but when I show the entire film to a non-Japanese speaking class
> I give the students a pretty detailed plot summary that I have
> prepared. For those who are interested, I attach it below.
>
> Prince of the Sun: The Great Adventure of Hols
> Director: Takahata Isao
> Year: 1968
> Length: 82 minutes
>
> English Synopsis by Aaron Gerow
>
> The boy Hols lives in the wild north with his father.  One day he is
> fighting the silver wolves of Grunwald when the Rock Man Moog awakes
> from his nap.  Not fearing him, Hols removes a sword stuck in Moog's
> shoulder and gets to keep it?the Sword of Princes?for himself.  Moog
> tells him that if Hols can master the huge sword, the rock man will
> become his servant and Hols will truly become the Prince of the Sun.
> When Hols returns to his home, the bear Koro tells him that his father
> is dying.  Before expiring, his father tells him of a devil who
> destroyed his former village by using the evil inside people.  The
> father says that to save the baby Hols, he had to leave the village to
> go to this remote region, but now realizes that that was a mistake.  He
> orders Hols to return to the populated land and bring people back
> together: "If people get together, they can defeat anything."
> After cremating his father, Hols and Koro head by boat towards the
> area where people live.  But many dangers await them.  The first time
> they land, they are attacked by giant birds, one of which takes Hols
> away to a distant mountain peak.  Hols uses his trusty axe to save
> himself from falling down a cliff, but when he reaches the top, he
> encounters Grunwald.  Hearing of Hols's feats, Grunwald offers to make
> him his brother, but Hols, knowing of the many people Grunwald has
> killed, refuses.  Hols vows to defeat this being who declares that the
> world belongs to him, but Grunwald throws him down the cliff into a
> river.
> Luckily, the village boy Flepp finds Hols floating in the water and
> takes him back home.  When he gets better, he hears that Flepp's father
> has just died trying to get rid of a monster barracuda that has eaten
> up all their fish.  Hearing the villagers' laments, Hols decides to go
> off on his own to kill the barracuda, which he succeeds in doing after
> a great battle.  The villagers are thrilled that fish have finally
> returned to the river.  Hearing the commotion, Koro approaches the
> village and is finally reunited with Hols.  Some villagers, however,
> are suspicious of Hols and his feat.
> It seems that the barracuda was a servant of Grunwald.  Angered,
> Grunwald sends his pack of wolves to attack the village, but the
> villagers, forming a united opposition, repulse their assault.  Hols
> chases after the lead silver wolf, but loses him in the fog.  He then
> happens upon a deserted village where he can hear a girl singing.
> Investigating, he finds Hilda, a sad but beautiful girl who tells him
> that no village will let her live with them.  Her own village was
> destroyed by Grunwald, but she survived by making a pact with him.
> Seeing his own loneliness in her, Hols invites her to the village.
> There her songs captivate everyone, so much so that they give up
> working. This seems to be part of her plan, for Hilda is in fact
> Grunwald's "sister."
> The villagers invite her to a wedding ceremony, but Hilda, deeply
> troubled, wanders off alone.  She steals the axe belonging to Hols, who
> is still hunting down the silver wolf, and then sends a wave of rats to
> attack the village.  When Hols returns, Hilda casts doubt on him for
> being the only one absent from the village when the rats attacked, a
> charge that is echoed by the evil villager Drago.  Nevertheless Hilda,
> earning the unquestioned love of the little girl Mauni, suffers a
> conflict of heart, one that is voiced in the quarrel between the
> squirrel Chiro and the owl Toto.  While Chiro expresses Hilda's desire
> to return to being a normal girl, Toto reminds her of the eternal life
> Grunwald has given her.  Almost out of self-hate, Hilda proclaims that
> she is indeed the sister of the devil.  Still, she remains deeply
> saddened by her position and laments the mortality of humanity.
> Hols tries to comfort her but fails.  He returns to the village and,
> when his missing axe is brought forward, is accused of trying to kill
> the chieftain.  Hols tells everyone he was with Hilda, but she refuses
> to back his alibi.  The owl Toto causes an illusion which makes it seem
> like Hols is trying to kill Hilda.  Hols leaves the village, vowing to
> show all of them who the devil really is.  He runs off but encounters
> Hilda, who asks him why he hasn't fought her.  "The girl who saved you
> is really your enemy.  You are just a poor human like Drago and the
> others."  Toto tells Hols that Hilda is Grunwald's sister, bent on
> destroying the human race, but Hols pleads with Hilda to tell him that
> is not true.  But she just takes out a knife, promising to show him her
> true self.  Yet Hols still believes that there is another side to Hilda
> that wants to be human.  She hesitates, but upon Toto's urging, pushes
> Hols into the Forest of the Lost.  Chiro, disgusted by that act, leaves
> Hilda to return to the village.
> In the Forest of the Lost, Hols encounters his own doubts about Hilda
> and himself.  In the meantime, Hilda, shocked by Chiro's words, tells
> Grunwald that people will eventually believe in Hols again.  She
> declares that she will go off and live alone in the icy north, but
> Grunwald asserts that unless he fights back, Hilda will be killed at
> the hands of Hols and the villagers.
> Grunwald then attacks the village using ice wolves that freeze
> everything.  Potem and the others decide to fight back using a huge
> fire.  Hols also escapes from the Forest of the Lost by realizing that
> the solution lies in uniting the people through the sword of the Prince
> of the Sun.  He encounters Hilda on the way back, and she tries to stab
> him, but he remains unwavering in his decision to take her back to the
> village.  She, however, refuses to go, but urges him to return to help
> the village.
> A huge ice mammoth is assaulting the village when the villagers set
> their fires.  The fire proves that the devil can be defeated.  Hols
> returns to tell them that it is the sword that can ultimately defeat
> Grunwald.  Meanwhile, Koro struggles back to the village with Flepp on
> his back but is caught in the storm.  Hilda finds them and gives them
> her "jewel of immortal life," but is then attacked by the ice wolves.
> The villagers reforge the sword, which Hols then wields to attack the
> mammoth and Grunwald.  Just then, Moog appears to declare his support
> for Hols and to destroy the mammoth.  Koro and Flepp arrive to give
> Hols the jewel, which allows him to fly.  With the jewel and the sword,
> Hols and the villagers chase Grunwald back to his lair.  With the sun
> behind him, Hols throws the sword and vanquishes Grunwald.
> Hols notices a crying Chiro, who says that Hilda has died.  But Hilda
> awakes in a meadow alive amongst the flowers of spring.  She returns to
> the village much to the joy of Chiro and Mauni.  Hols takes her hand
> and the two run off with the rest to the hills.
>
> Aaron Gerow
> Film Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures
> Yale University
>
>