海外大学字幕プロジェクト

The 8th Session of the GUSP program has started at Ghent University, Belgium. A film called Tanuki Project (directed by Chiueh Yu Hsin) was chosen for the translation work this time. The film tells the story of a woman that came to Japan in search of employment. In Japan she starts using an illegal drug, TANUKI, which allows her to transform into a Japanese person.

The lecture started with a discussion of the key lines and the representatives of six groups of students delivered the lines that they thought crucial for the understanding of the film. One group chose the following one, spoken by Yuka, the protagonist’s co-worker: “Aren’t foreigners cool?” This line along with a number of others, reveals the double-standards Japanese people have towards foreigners. Such lines emphasize the difficulty of becoming an integral part of the Japanese society. That is the main difficulty that the protagonist is facing.

The discussion of the key lines was followed by the discussion of the English subtitles that the students prepared as their homework. One could see the effort they put into their translation in their elaborate choice of English expressions for the lyrics of the song that the members of the TANUKI group are singing in one of the scenes. Discussing the translation also helped to approach the film from different points of view and deepen the students’ understanding of the plot.

In addition, the students also participated in the seminar by actively sharing their translation ideas in the chat, thus sharing their creativity. The work on brushing up the subtitles is now in progress!

During the second session the students continued to brush up the subtitles according to the instructors’ feedback.

There were well translated subtitles as well as the subtitles that were still to reflect the nuance of the original lines. For example, “Sumimasen!” that one of the character shouts to the izakaya staff is not necessarily translated as “Excuse me!” When the instructors suggested that a certain line can be better translated if one is to consider the personality of the character that the line belongs to, the students responded instantly and offered many alternatives in the chat.

There was a long debate about the scene where the Vietnamese hero who is pretending to be Japanese eats spring rolls with her co-worker Yuka. Some argued that "Nyokumam" should be translated as it is, some opted for the "fish sauce". The students learned the importance of choosing the words with the viewer in mind and the importance of having various perspectives when making a judgement regarding how to treat the idea behind the dialogue.

The students are actively expressing their opinions and gaining a new awareness in order to improve the accuracy of each subtitle and create a translation that is well-phrased and easily understandable.

At the final seminar the students brought the subtitles close to completion thanks to the active discussion and the instructors’ advice.

The first instruction was regarding the line breaks. The students have learned that even though the nuances of the original text are important, the high quality subtitles also need to be easily readable.

The opinions were actively shared regarding what sort of information needs to be preserved in the scene where the audience is shown a prescription for the drug that plays the key role in the film. The students were able to thoroughly think about how to reflect significant information that provides an important hint.

However, the students were given more freedom when it came to the translation of the song lyrics. One could really see their professional growth: the students were able to translate the song choosing the right words that mirror the whole story instead of opting for a direct translation.

The subtitles are nearing completion, but they will be brushed up event further until the next month when they will be screened at the world's largest Japanese film festival, Nippon Connection!