I watch a lot of foreign language films, and read a lot of translated literature and I always try to imagine what I’m missing out on by not reading or taking in media in it’s original language.

In film, are there some significant mistranslations that has led non-native speakers of the language to interpret something different from the movie?

Thanks!

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    1 year ago

    Haha, oh awesome. Thanks.

    I’ve only watched a couple episodes of pokémon and just a few clips of sailor Moon, but now I’ll have to dive into the American incestuous cousins, that’s pretty hilarious. “Don’t make them lesbians, just make them cousins that hook up. Americans understand that.”

    Although I’m also surprised that Japanese anime had an openly gay couple. It seems like they give their artists broad license with respect to government and popular cultural sentiment , but it’s still such a conservative country, especially in terms of homosexuality, that I wouldn’t have thought Japanese networks would’ve allowed a lesbian couple to appear on popular anime.

    • Godort@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Oh yeah, Japan is a bit weird that way, or it might be more accurate to say that the west is weird.

      The anti-gay sentiment you see in conservatives in the west largely stems from Judeo-Christian doctrine.

      In Japan, Abrahamic religions are in the extreme minority so oftentimes homosexuality isn’t seen as a sin but rather just something that differs from the norm.

      However, Japanese society is also more intolerant to differences, so instead homosexuality ends up in this weird grey area where it’s used mostly for drama or humor in the media, but in real life it’s very much a case of “don’t ask, don’t tell”

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        1 year ago

        That’s what I meant by how conservative Japan was, they appear to give more license to caricatures and stereotypes in their arts than they would allow in society, but that does not leak into day-to-day life, the government and the public are extremely intolerant of the other in general.