Japanese in Serenity movie?
POSTED BY: JuniperJayne
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 2, 2007 13:39
VIEWED: 11044
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Quote:
Originally posted by daveshayne:
but I don't see that as being an explanation for any particular Japaneseness in the movie.
I didn't mean the comic thing is as an explination for the Japaneseness in the movie, just for the comic book feel. But, combine the comic book feel with significant Japanese culture and you get anime.
Bah, I'm a little tipsy right now, so I'll see about re-reading you reply later.
----
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Quote:
Originally posted by JuniperJayne:
So my newly converted friend swears that he saw Japanese in Serenity along with the Chinese, but since I know neither language, has anyone else seen it? Not improbable if they were trying to include lots of different Asian cultures...
I don't think there is any actual Japanese in the movie Serenity. There is, however, a lot of gibberish in Japanese katakana characters and a lot of gibberish in Mainland China's simplified Chinese characters (most notably, the scrolling textbook of Young River and of Grown-Up River's dream and the stuff on the sides of cortex screens).
Someone wanted the movie to have a more multicultural look rather than just English and Chinese writing, so there is some Japanese script and a little Arabic and Hindi script.
Ying
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Quote:
Originally posted by stinkingrose:
My sister is working in Tokyo. She says the kanji are the same in meaning, but pronunciation is different due to having different languages. Japanese can read Chinese writing (since that's where they originally got it from) and get the general essence of the characters, but speaking it is another matter entirely. Of course she could be full of it, but I doubt that.
She's not full of it, but she's overgeneralizing. Japan has borrowed many words from China starting over a millennium and a half ago, and writes them in Chinese characters. But the words have sometimes changed meaning over time (even half-a-millennium-ago Shakespeare can be confusing for English speakers). The words have also changed meaning independently in the two countries. Moreover, Japan didn't get the words from Beijing; they got them from the dominant regions of the various times, and words mean different things in different dialect areas. Plus, both countries have created myriad new compound nouns out of Chinese word stems, but the meanings are idiomatic and not often shared.
In addition, while Japanese uses Chinese characters to write most of its native content words, grammatical words (and word order) are different. For example, both Chinese and Japanese have 会 (Ch. hui, J. au) for "to meet," but Chinese also uses it for the auxiliary verb "be able to." Japan has the native Japanese word dekiru, written with hiragana characters (or sometimes with phonetic Chinese characters). Japanese also have verb inflectional endings for negatives, written in hiragana. Chinese uses the word bu (among others).
So, Chinese and Japanese people can make out some words (as I can make out some Latin from English having borrowed so much), but they can't understand much of sentences in depth. A Chinese person has to know Japanese just to tell if a word is a verb or an adjective and whether the verb or adjective is positive or negative, past or present (Japanese treats adjectives like verbs). A Japanese person has to know Chinese to recognize the grammatical words and what they mean.
Then there's slang, idioms, different politeness levels for words...
Ying
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Quote:
Originally posted by SigmaNunki:
The problem with what you are saying here is that there isn't a small influence of Japanese culture, but a grand one. That is what make the contradiction with canon.
I think it's only a small contradiction of canon. Now there's some Japanese katakana strewn about, but we don't have everyone breaking into Japanese. Simon doesn't call River "River-chan." (There is no equivalent of "meimei" because "imouto" wouldn't be used to actually address a younger sister.)
Ying
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Quote:
Originally posted by Dancingneko:
..and Yes, there was also katakana (one of the other ways to write in the Japanese language)...it's one of the things that distracted me during the movie the first time I saw it...Check out the labels in the ship -- I think I saw "serra" or something next to the pantry door where they locked River in...
セリラ serira, which seems to be gibberish.
Quote:
Originally posted by Dancingneko:
I also think they had hiragana and katakana flowing along with the kanji across the screens in the 'classroom' (the characters flowing across the screens looked like nonsense, but don't hold me to that
They had Mainland China's simplified hanzi characters and Japanese katakana, but it was indeed just nonsense.
Ying
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Quote:
Originally posted by goat:
Another thing that reminds me of older Japanese culture is Inara's character. Contrary to what seems to be popular (western) belief, geishas were not simple prostitutes but entertainers (geisha roughly translates to artist or person of the arts) and could sing, dance and usually play an instrument. The best of the geishas were trained from a very young age (see the deleted scenes from TBDM) to become graceful, "proper" entertainers. Sometimes a geisha would have sexual relations with a client but it would be her choice, not her obligation.
(more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha)
Joss said that his wife told him to make Inara more geisha-like rather than just a high-class prostitute. However, whether Joss intended it or not, he created more of a 17th century and on Yoshiwara prostitute than a geisha. The legalized prostitutes were limited to Edo's (now Tokyo) closed-off Yoshiwara district. They had high social standing, chose their own clients, and I think even had tea on "dates" before they might actually have sex with the client. Just being a wealthy samurai wasn't necessarily enough for one to make the cut and be chosen by the woman.
Ying
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I figure you are right about what the guy in the Fruity Oaty Bars commercial was saying. He signed my F.O.B. sticker at the FlanThatAlmostWasnt in California in 2006 by saying, "Washie, don't be ashamed!" Until I read your thread reply here, daveshayne. Thankee for your words.
-Washie
Pic courtesy of KellyofLuthien
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Quote:
Originally posted by ItsaWash:
Thankee for your words.
You're welcome. I'm not exactly sure for what but you are welcome just the same.
David
"Not completely as well as the series of Firefly..." - From a review of Serenity at amazon.de
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