Movies Seven Samurai

Hi all (long time no c.) today I was at the video store and bored so I rented Seven Samurai, the best and most famous Japanese film (not including anime of course.) Thing is that yhea I've seen it before but not only was it very long ago, at the time I didn't know crap about Japan or Samurai. I didn't understand it very well and I grew bored and confused. I saw it before I saw The Magnificant Seven and I compared them, and of course I thought the western was better.
However I've certainly changed since then. I just finished watching it a few minutes ago and for some reason it made total sense and had to be one of the best movies I've ever seen. I know a whole lot about Samurai now and about Japan, but I still had plenty to learn. It's a film that can be watched many times and it's differant each time.
But I have one problem. I rented it on DVD but the only version is old and crappy. The subtitles are disgusting (they don't bother to translate less then what they do translate) and there's no dubing option, or any special features at all except some commentary I found totally useless to help understand the few gaps in the film I still have. It also dosn't say how long it is on the box or disk, and it's definitly not a movie you stop watching and pick up some other time. I had no idea it was nearly 4 hours long (I think.) I swear I started it 5 hours ago and I stopped for an hour(to catch Cowboy Bebop and Lupin III). Now it's unimaginably late.
Is there a special edition? Does it have dubs (imho dubs rule) or at least better subs? I have a feeling it was translated in Japan and it was 5 decades ago so it's pretty bad. Lots of out-dated expressions and some that make no sense. Once in a while I heard a few Japanese words I actually know translated very badly (for the context.)
Still, I think it's a movie that can be watched even if you don't understand a word. I really hope there's a special edition or at least a re-release later then 1998.

-Sarah of Borg

 

Well, there is some 'Criterion Collection' thingy, head over to Amazon.com and search for info it.

 

Personally i think that it would be a terrible idea to dubb that film (if it's not already done). It' a film that has to be watched in japanese or not at all.

 

I can almost guarantee you that you will never see a major dub of a Kurosawa film. Many of Kurosawa's hardcore fans are huge film buffs, and just about all of them consider dubbing a movie into another language a cardinal sin. Furthermore, the acting in Seven Samurai is brilliant, so replacing it with lack-lustre voice acting would just be stupid.
By the way, Rashomon is probably more famous than Seven Samurai. Both are, of course, fitting tributes to the wonder named Akira Kurosawa.

 

I'm a dubbing fan. I think that when you're reading subtitles you arn't listening to a word of what's going on and it's hard to watch it while you're reading. I'll settle for a better transaltion even in subtitles though. However, I find that subtitles tend to vaguely summerize what some one is saying because you can't read as fast as you can listen. It's worse in this translation because they seemed to purposely make it so you read exactly as fast as what is said, which means that words flash by the screen way to quickly to be read or understood (even worse when there's occaisional bad grammer.) Plus, it means they leave out like 20% of what's actually being said.
Like I said, I found the translation revolting. The first time I saw the movie I think I had a harder time understanding it more because I couldn't understand what was written than because I didn't know anything about the culture.

-Sarah of Borg

 

How good's your Japanese? If you're at a level where you can rightfully complain about the translation, you probably don't need subtitles.
Really, watching a subbed movie is a skill that develops over time. I'm a terribly slow reader, but I never have any trouble watching a subbed film, probably because I've watched so many over the years.
Anyway, there are always bound to be errors in a Japanese-English translation, as the two languages are so freakin' different. And if you ever want to see a REALLY bad translation, grab WHD Rouse's translation of The Odyssey.

 

Well I've seen a lot of dubbing and this sure isn't the very worst but it's pathetic for such a great film. If anime can be translated and subbed and dubbed so well (Cowboy Bebop for example) then why not something 200 times as important?
"My Japanese" is non-existant. I know maybe 20 words and their definitions (I can hardly count to 10. I know the order but I'm not sure, without using my fingures, what's what.) I took 3 years of Spanish and I'm still bad at it. However, I do martial arts and that's something where I know a few useful words when it comes to Samurai (every now and then in this film I say "hey I know that move! I've done it!! It's called katatatori-tenchi-nage-ikkyo-ura-or-somethin, which I'm sure is a valid name for something.) They translated the word "swordsmanship" to "fencing." They translated "teacher" or "master" as "sir" which totally confused me for a while. I had no idea that whats-his-name had become a student of whats-his-name except for the fact that he kept calling him sensei (teacher.)
I'm sure if I actually knew Japanese I could have spotted much more.
I read at a fairly average speed but seriously some lines as long as this sentance lasted no more then a third of a secound on screen.

-Sarah of Borg

 

I agree that sometime's the subtitles move to fast and that ehy can be hard to read. And also the fact that when you're reading them that you can miss what's going on, on the screen.
BUT, there are some movie's that should just not be dubbed cause they'll lose part of the thing that make's them great. I wouldn't want to watch the Seven Samurai with a bad dub over. That wreak the whole thing. So i say leave it as it is :anime: .

 

I was digging/weeding through some of my old old files and found something I had written but never posted anywhere. It was unfinished. I started a cross-over fanfic involving the movie The Seven Samurai and the modern cartoon Samurai Jack. It was pretty good but at the time I hardly understood either the show and the movie. I hadn't even finished watching the whole movie when I wrote the story. I'm going to go over to the fanfic board and try again

-Sarah of Borg

 

Dear Lord, that sounds like one of the ... "oddest" ideas I have ever heard, to put it lightly. Of course, at the end of the film pretty well everyone's dead. Kind of makes you wonder how the adaptation The Magnificent Seven had a sequel ...

 

personally i see it as an almost historical movie...and quite frankly dubbing such a movie would completely ruin it...personally im not a fan of dubbing...there are only 3 shows that i ever liked dubbed...that was Cowboy Bebop, Tenchi Muyo and Lupin the Third. other than that i pretty much refuse to watch dubbed anime...but i also speak the language fluently which makes a major difference...

 

take it no ones seen the anime there making of this?

 

There's gonna be an anime version of Seven Samurais. Hopefully it will turn out good.

The movie is incredible, and it will lose it's charm while dubbed. Wonderful camera work, absolutly stunning movie. Akira Kurosawa at his finest.

- Teddz

 

ya-huh, as a matter of fact samurai champloo looks the most exicting samurai title for next year(whilst were on the topic of samurai), directed by watanabe, slick animation and a hip hop type soundtrack - looks ssssoooooo awesome, i cant wait! :anime:

 

If you like to see more action movies from Kurosawa, try watching Ran (1985)

AKira Kurosawa's Database