Of the script greatly affect the film’s representation for Anglophone viewers. However, Miramax’s translation and adaptation Narrative is familiar yet new for a Western audience, rejecting the tired plotline of a young protagonist’s search forĪ romantic counterpart, alongside the gendered expectations that accompany it. His work is visually stunning and cinematically advanced for 1997 (as discussed by Rayna Denison Of several instances where the film’s international publicity relies on an adaptation that drastically alters the refreshingĪspects Miyazaki portrays. ( Mononokehime, Hayao Miyazaki, 1997), displays this even in its title, where mononoke (spirit or monster) is left untranslated, and the princess’s name left unsaid. Of Japanese media in Anglophone countries. Miramax and others wanted to retain what Biodrowski calls a ‘Japanese flavour in the dialogue’ – becomesĪ source of anxiety not only about this particular instance of translation, but about translating meaning at all.Īnxiety about translation is a cornerstone of discourse concerning representations If the film’s audience is Anglophone, and predominantlyĪmerican, are these details necessary, or do they detract? What begins as a question of preference – the extent to which Wine, can be served hot or cold, has a much higher alcohol content, and, while it is a specifically Japanese type of wine,Ĭan refer to the equivalent English word ‘liquor’. Make sure they receive a drink after their work is done. Way the word is more commonly used in English, Eboshi’s offer remains equivalent across the two languages: she will While sake is a particular kind of rice wine, different to ‘wine’ in the If the script had used sake instead, what would change? At first glance, any anxiety about the word’s translation seems unnecessary.
To the men making rifles, and promises to ‘have wine sent down later’.
Which had at once point been ‘warrior’, but that their script ‘lost “sake” “sake”īecame “wine.”’ The word is used in passing, once, in the scene where the Lady Eboshi apologises With Miramax’ about word choices in the translation, Gaiman responded that they ‘got to keep “samurai,”’ When interviewer Steve Biodrowski mentioned ‘issues Mononoke in dubbed English, author Neil Gaiman was interviewed about a particularly interesting aspect of his involvement In 2009, 10 years after the Miramax release of Princess