Japanese movie titles

As I had written before, it used to be that Japanese movie titles were completely different from the original movie titles. Japanese movie distribution companies renamed movies to be more relatable for Japanese audiences.

“The Notebook” is “きみに読む物語: A story is read for you,” “Sister Act” is “天使にラブ・ソングを: A love song for an angel,” “The Mummy” is “ハムナプトラ: Hamunaptra,” “Billy Elliot” is “リトル・ダンサー: Little Dancer,” and “Bonnie and Clyde” is “俺たちに明日はない: We don’t have tomorrow” etc… Recently, the number of movies getting title changes has been decreasing. It still happens from time to time.

There is a Hollywood star known as the MAN OF SILENCE in Japan. Actually, he isn’t well known as a man of silence, but as a strong old man, OYAJI (オヤジ) in Japanese. He has played a starring role in many Hollywood films. Do you know who he is, and why?

He is a major action star, Steven Seagal!

 

Many Seagal movies were renamed to “Something of Silence.” Even though, the original titles and stories aren’t related with the silence. He is famous as an OYAJI in the “Silence” series in Japan.

Take a look at the list below, and compare Japanese titles and the original ones. These are movies starring Seagal.

I lined up only the titles that changed into “something of silence” in Japan. If you look at only those Japanese titles, you may think they are the part of same series, but basically each movie is independent of one another. Why they continue to use the word, “silence”? A movie company believes if they rename his films to “something of silence,” the movie will become a hit easier than not using it. Well… maybe it’s true. When many people hear the symbolic title, “Steven Seagal” and “action movie” will pop up in their minds. Last year, one movie company publicly held a contest to find the Japanese title of the movie, “Driven to Kill.” And more, according to a web site, Steven Seagal chose the title from lots of applications personally.

If you are interested in it and want to know the result, you can watch his interview on the URL below. He speaks English, but the web site is written only in Japanese.

Seagal interview is here!

There was a case where from the second movie, the Japanese title was used. It is a very famous series, starring Sylvester Stallone. The original movie title is “First Blood.” The movie is about a man whose name is John Rambo, played by Sly Stallone. When the movie released in Japan, the title was changed into “RAMBO.” Then, the American movie company used the title, “RAMBO” for the sequels.

Maybe you will find many movies that have undergone the same conditions as the “silence” or “RAMBO” series. When you have lots of free time, comparing movie titles could be a good time killer. Not just comparing, you should enjoy imaging the stories of it from the 2 completely different titles. If there is a big difference between them, you can enjoy the movie several different ways: compare the titles, image a story from the difference, watch the movie, and figure out why the movie companies chose those titles… then select which has a better fit.

By the way, the MTV reality show, “Jersey Shore” is called “New Jersey life of Macaroni Dude (マカロニ野郎のニュージャージー・ライフ)” in Japan. The Japanese call spaghetti westerns, “macaroni westerns,” that’s why MTV Japan used the word, “Macaroni” for their TV show.


Naming, it’s very deep.