Last night, I watched "The Samurai of Ayothaya" in a rather unorthodox way.
The cast is speaking in Japanese and Thai, and I know neither language. Neither do I understand the English subtitles that came with the DVD because it was written by a JB pirate who is not English literate. Or it could be a translating machine. A very bad one.
(Presumably the original script): “Khing, do not overturn that pot of medicine meant for the injured samurai”
JB pirate’s translation: Small Ginger, no touch burn drink sick man
The Chinese subtitles, on the other hand, is pretty decent but since I don’t read Chinese, I ended up watching moving pictures while The Man, who can read Chinese, translate the movie for me – but alas, in his own kok version.
For your background, the movie is about Yamada the Samurai who was turned against by his own people. (I don’t know why, though. My ‘translator’ didn’t tell me). Yamada was rescued by a bunch of gentle natured but powerful muay thai warriors (the King's guards) who gave him shelter. Yamada saw how graceful and formidable the art of muay thai is and asked the head monk to teach him. This is the conversation between them, as translated by The Man:
(Presumably the Chinese subtitles) Monk: “I cannot teach you muay thai because you are a foreigner:
The Man’s translation: (in Thai accent) “You cannot learn muay thai. You are not Thai people.”
(Presumably the Chinese subtitles) Yamada: “But I have nowhere else to go. Siam is now my adoptive home. I will live and die for Siam”
The Man’s translation: (in Japanese accent) “Hai! Thailand is my honba. I will harakiri for Thailand.”
You see, The Man don’t believe in translating verbatim - in his normal voice. He thinks if he does the accent, I will understand better who is speaking – the Japanese or the Thais - even though I told him I can clearly SEE whose mouths are moving. Also, he just have to add in his own rendition to the script. Even when there is no script.
(Presumably the Chinese subtitles) “………….” (Nothing. The Thai actor is not saying anything. He just finished a round of muay thai in the hot sun and is taking a rest by the temple, staring pensively into space.)
The Man’s translation: “Wah. Today very hot.”
(Presumably the Chinese subtitles): “………….” (Again, the Japanese actor, who was playing the samurai chief, is not saying anything. He just received bad news that Yamada has escaped and in his fury, he took a sword and started slashing about in the air by himself.)
The Man’s translation: “BAKA!!! I AM ANGRY- DES!!!!”
Pretty soon, he was rewriting the script altogether:
(Presumably the original script) The child actress was trying to get Yamada to eat betel nut leaf: “This is tasty! This is tasty!”
The Man’s translation: “This is better than sushi! This is better than sushi!”
I am surrounded by foolery, I really am.
Anyway, despite me not understanding what was being said, the movie is quite entertaining. I found the official trailer on youtube and it has the PROPER ENGLISH TRANSLATION. The muay thai scenes are fantastic. Check out the moves!
The cast is speaking in Japanese and Thai, and I know neither language. Neither do I understand the English subtitles that came with the DVD because it was written by a JB pirate who is not English literate. Or it could be a translating machine. A very bad one.
(Presumably the original script): “Khing, do not overturn that pot of medicine meant for the injured samurai”
JB pirate’s translation: Small Ginger, no touch burn drink sick man
The Chinese subtitles, on the other hand, is pretty decent but since I don’t read Chinese, I ended up watching moving pictures while The Man, who can read Chinese, translate the movie for me – but alas, in his own kok version.
For your background, the movie is about Yamada the Samurai who was turned against by his own people. (I don’t know why, though. My ‘translator’ didn’t tell me). Yamada was rescued by a bunch of gentle natured but powerful muay thai warriors (the King's guards) who gave him shelter. Yamada saw how graceful and formidable the art of muay thai is and asked the head monk to teach him. This is the conversation between them, as translated by The Man:
(Presumably the Chinese subtitles) Monk: “I cannot teach you muay thai because you are a foreigner:
The Man’s translation: (in Thai accent) “You cannot learn muay thai. You are not Thai people.”
(Presumably the Chinese subtitles) Yamada: “But I have nowhere else to go. Siam is now my adoptive home. I will live and die for Siam”
The Man’s translation: (in Japanese accent) “Hai! Thailand is my honba. I will harakiri for Thailand.”
You see, The Man don’t believe in translating verbatim - in his normal voice. He thinks if he does the accent, I will understand better who is speaking – the Japanese or the Thais - even though I told him I can clearly SEE whose mouths are moving. Also, he just have to add in his own rendition to the script. Even when there is no script.
(Presumably the Chinese subtitles) “………….” (Nothing. The Thai actor is not saying anything. He just finished a round of muay thai in the hot sun and is taking a rest by the temple, staring pensively into space.)
The Man’s translation: “Wah. Today very hot.”
(Presumably the Chinese subtitles): “………….” (Again, the Japanese actor, who was playing the samurai chief, is not saying anything. He just received bad news that Yamada has escaped and in his fury, he took a sword and started slashing about in the air by himself.)
The Man’s translation: “BAKA!!! I AM ANGRY- DES!!!!”
Pretty soon, he was rewriting the script altogether:
(Presumably the original script) The child actress was trying to get Yamada to eat betel nut leaf: “This is tasty! This is tasty!”
The Man’s translation: “This is better than sushi! This is better than sushi!”
I am surrounded by foolery, I really am.
Anyway, despite me not understanding what was being said, the movie is quite entertaining. I found the official trailer on youtube and it has the PROPER ENGLISH TRANSLATION. The muay thai scenes are fantastic. Check out the moves!
2 comments:
so funny i laughed out loud.. and came back again to read it to lighten up my usual lunchtime dreary boredom.
Just had to write to tell you.
Thanks for sharing :) Always happy (and somewhat surprised) when someone gets my kind of humour!! Haha!
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