in article 421B5371.3E416AAC@yahoo.co.jp, Eric Takabayashi at
etakajp@yahoo.co.jp wrote on 2/23/05 12:44 AM:

> Ernest Schaal wrote:
> 
>> Okay, I will accept that you didn't mean your comments the way they
>> originally sounded.
>> 
>> I assume then that you agree that, while knowledge of the language is
>> preferable it is not essential.
> 
> I don't care where the understanding comes from. Yes, those movie and DVD
> magazines and TV interviews promoting films can contain useful information
> someone at home or in the theater would not get (unless included in some DVD
> extras). I have never seen anything like contained in the LOTR Extended
> Edition complete12 disc set. That plus reading the books will tell people a
> lot more.
> 
> Do you know what else I am doing when reading subtitles to watch some movie
> which I have already seen, or can follow the native dialogue of? I want to see
> what kind of spin they put on it. I just completed watching Mad Max: Beyond
> Thunderdome (1985) which includes I assume, dated Australian slang and
> stylized language for the film. It seemed the Japanese subtitlers had trouble
> with it or took the simple way at some points. Other points were rather
> interesting.
> 
> Now I am watching Devil in a Blue Dress, laden with racial tension, and on
> this DVD, like releases I have noticed in recent years, Japanese subtitlers
> avoid using derogatory terms and slurs. Little need for Japanese to learn
> those words, but it is more representative of what went on or how older movies
> were. [A pity what > I hear is happening to Sizemore these days.]

There was a great essay in one of the Japanese newspapers back thirty to
forty years ago about the nature of translations, and the example given was
a scene in a western were a cowboy comes to a ranch to look for work. In the
original film, the cowboy is very respective of the woman owner, but in the
translation it is the woman who uses the honorifics.
> 
> I am not going to read the rest of this; a lot of the bad blood was due to a
> misunderstanding. But me being more polite about it wouldn't have been much
> better.

Being more polite usually causes the other to be less suspicious when
misunderstandings do occur.
 
> Eric: Ernest, your Japanese is much better than you let on.
> 
> Ernest: What makes you say that?
> 
> Eric: Because you can understand those movies you are talking about.
> 
> That could have set you off anyway.
> 
> Something else I noticed fairly recently. If your DVD player is one of those
> that can play audio and video at double (or more) speed without distortion,
> you may be surprised at how well you can follow along and improve your
> listening comprehension.