Nakashima Tetsuya's debut

[JORDAN ANTONY SMITH]

Hi Jasper,

I'm not sure, since I haven't seen the film, but hanoji usually refers to the old punctuation mark, kind of like a comma, used as the basic shape in some kamon (family crests). 

The film title writes it はの字 as you note, but if it's the same word I'm thinking, it would be written 巴の字, in this case, a much older reading of 巴（ともえ）, another word for that mark. 

So it doesn't quite seem like the abbreviation theory would apply (if it did, it would be like saying "the L-word" or "the F-word", right?); instead, does the film emphasize a break with or forgetting of the past or family inheritance, heritage, tradition, or something along those lines? 

Don't know if that helps or hinders translation choices, but anyway, for what it's worth...

Take care,

Jordan 

 

 

On Today 9:30 AM, jasper_sharp at hotmail.com wrote: 

 Hmmm. The plot thickens. A Japanese friend told me "Normally の字 relates to the word comes before that, and taking the first letter of this word and say like ほの字, this ほ stands for ほれる（in love), or someone says she is きの字 means she is crazy because き is first character of きちがい(crazy). Also if you say おんの字 means greatful. So if you don't know what は stands for in the film, you only can translate "Forgetting HA". HA could be the first letter of someone's name or the first letter of an object"

Neither make a huge amount of sense!


Midnight Eye www.midnighteye.com



Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:25:55 -0400
From: herlands at umich.edu
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: Nakashima Tetsuya's debut

 It's an interesting title, Jasper. "hanoji" is about going round and round in circles… Perhaps a title of “breaking the cycle” would work? Good luck.


Jason



On Aug 3, 2009, at 11:50 AM, Jasper Sharp wrote:


Dear Kinejapanners,
I'm really trying to work out a decent translated title for this first jishu eiga by Memories of Matsuko director Nakashima Tetsuya:
Hano ji wasurete (はの字忘れて, 1981). (see: http://pff.jp/jp/old/award/1982.html#hanoji)

I don't know if this film has appeared in any of his official english language biographies, and I am certain it hasn't been shown anywhere outside of Japan. The Japanese seems to be intranslatable, or at the very least, ambiguous.

Can anyone help at all?

Jasper Sharp



Midnight Eye www.midnighteye.com


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