February 01, 2004
My (subtitled) Hero
One thing I'm seriously looking forward to when I go back to Australia, is being able to watch foreign films (particularly Japanese) at the cinema again.
I know I've had a whinge about this before, and cinemas in Japan shouldn't have to justify why they don't provide English subtitles on Chinese, Japanese or European etc. films, but jeez, it would be, you know, nice.
Most foreign language DVDs have an English subtitle option of course, but our local video store still lurks in the dark ages of video so its a risk to get a movie out.
We thought we'd be safe renting a film with Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi in it, but nooooooo, 75% of "Heaven" was in Italian. I watched the whole thing without English subtitles and I must say my Italian has improved markedly. But it was h.a.r.d. w.o.r.k. Man, I studied film at Uni, and I'm sick to death of films being hard work.
We had to return "Double Vision" the day before because it was half Mandarin, half English, with all the crucial bits in Mandarin. Dumb-arse Kinki assumed that any movie featuring Brett Climo had to be in English. Won't be making that mistake again.
BUT last night, we finally watched "Hero" on DVD and it was beautiful. Awesome cinematography. They showed "Hero" with ST at Roppongi Hills for a while last year, but who the hell wants to trek into Roppongi to see a movie?
And while we're on the subject, does anyone else out there have a bit of a thing for Jet Li? Never got into martial arts films before I came to Japan and saw "The One" but I'm a serious convert now. Jet Li's just got, I dunno, some cheeky shit going on there.
...a version I'm guaranteed not to understand
Just rented this to watch tonight! Yea!
If you're a Jet Li fan, I recommend renting Once Upon A Time In China 1 and 2 when you can get access to a subtitled version.
Just posted some nice pics (taken on my phone camera hence the low quality) of Iceland in the midwinter sun...thought you might like ;-)
Love, Gunnella.
Agreed, Roppongi Hills isn't an option for me either, and the lack of English subs on most Japanese DVDs sucks. I often find my choice limited on the days that I want subs.
Another option is to order DVDs or VCDs from Hong Kong which all seem to have English subs (AND Chinese, so the screen is a bit crowded with subs in the case of VCDs), and at the same time are dirt cheap. Quality varies though...!
Mmmmm, I think DVDs in Japan are slowly getting better, but not with Japanese movies certainly.
I've already bought a few DVDs of "keepers" - movies I really wanted to see, but who wants to buy a DVD of a movie that 1) you may only watch once and 2) may be total crap anyway?
Yep, its one thing I am looking forward to doing in Oz.
We watched Hero at the weekend and it was fab, have to agree with you there, superb use of colour, really vivid and exciting. But I don't have a thing about Jet Li though...
Got to second Andrew's comment up there. I didn't give much of a damn about Jet Li until I saw #1.
I can only say you guys are lucky to have got to see Hero at all. Still waiting for a uk release date...
Any of you people over in Japan seen Lost in Translation yet?
Saw Hero about a year ago. Really did love the film, enough so to call it the most artistically beautiful films I have ever seen. Right there with Crounching Tiger as the most cinematically beautiful film and In the Mood For Love which happens to be the best of both worlds.
As for seeing Japanese films subbed, in America we have as much a problem. In fact most films you can't find with subs unless you find a HQ boot (which happen to be gaining steam). It's a shame really seeing how incredible a lot of the movies out of Japan actually are. And not all of them have to be Takashi Miike directorial efforts (which seem to be the only films that get subs over here in fact.)