Natsuko Toda under fire

[thomas]

Rings fans put 'subtitles queen' to sword

In a TV interview in Paris last month, Peter Jackson, director of "Lord of the Rings," dropped a bombshell on Japan's movie industry. He said he had received a flood of complaints from Japanese fans of his film over serious problems in the translation of its Japanese subtitles. It had thus been decided, he said, to fire the subtitles translator for the production of the second Rings movie, "The Two Towers." [...]

The announcement was a devastating blow to Natsuko Toda, one of the most powerful figures in the film business in Japan. Toda is known as Japan's "subtitles queen," the woman who translates -- or at least supervises the translations of -- many of the biggest foreign movies to hit these shores, including the first Rings movie. However, since the Japan release last spring of the first Rings movie, "The Fellowship of the Ring," she has come under intense fire from critics here. They accuse her of taking unacceptable liberties and of committing flagrant errors in the translation of the movie's subtitles, Sunday Mainichi says.

=> http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20030112tc.htm

[den4]

hard to translate in the fast medium of the video/movie arena....although I've seen some rather poor translations, too, I'd like to see them fanboys try their hand at translating for films or video....

on the flipside, if the translations are purely horrid, then until they get it right, I'd probably not buy the FOTR video or DVD....the amount of yen it costs for them is not worth it if the translations are way off...

den4