本日より、オンライン英会話講師のJennifer講師が提供する
新シリーズ「The Language of Movies」が開始します。
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Jennifer O’Quinn – The Language of Movies, Intro
Sometimes language is not just the things that we say but also the things we do. There is a whole other world of communication based on body language and actions alone. Certain situations come about due to the fact that someone wishes to communicate a particular message without using words. Films often have a message that they want to tell the viewer, and within the movie itself there is communication between the actors based on their interactions. There has probably come a time in most people’s lives where they ask “Why?” whenever they cannot understand a certain thing or situation that seems to occur often in films from a particular country, culture, or region of the world. This could involve certain types of characters, movie themes, plot devices, acting style, or any number of other things.
There is something cultural about movies, even when the movie itself is not meant to be focused on culture or regarded as a “cultural film”. When someone slams a door, makes a face, or changes the tone of their voice, there is definite communication; it is up to the viewer to determine the meaning behind it. Sometimes the film director makes the meaning quite clear; other times the director leaves the message open to interpretation, meaning that the viewer must decide for themselves what it means. It is part of the appeal of films, in that viewers can be interactive by determining the meaning on their own. It is how films can become topics of debate and/or gain cultural significance. Some questions we end up asking about movies are: What does [it] mean? Why did [it] happen? What could have happened differently?
It is interesting to notice how the same genre (type) of film can be very different depending on the country it’s made for. For example, romantic films from the United States can be very different from romantic films from Japan. By this difference, the viewer can get an idea of the values and ideals from either country. Sometimes genres can be replicated (copied) from other countries but created with a regional flavor, meaning that an American kung-fu film can differ greatly from a Chinese one. Another example is Japanese-style horror created in the United States, even when created by the original Japanese director, as was the case of Ju-On, or “The Grudge” as it was titled in the U.S. Though the director was the same, some American fans who saw both the Japanese and American versions of Ju-On liked the American version better because the characters were Caucasian (thus, “easier for them to identity with”) and the situations unfolded in such a way that American audiences were more culturally accustomed to, by contrast to the Japanese version. Part of this has to do with what is seen as “scary” to either culture.
This is also the case with other American versions of Japanese horror films, such as Ringu, Chakushin-Ari, and Honogurai mizu no soko kara, Kairo, etc. There are several examples of re-making films and other media from Japan to make them “easier for American audiences to identify with”, such as the Dragonball and Tekken films. There are also rumors of live-action versions of the anime Cowboy Bebop, Akira, and Evangelion. Many die-hard fans of these anime series feel that in order for these films to be accurate (with the exception of Cowboy Bebop) the cast should be primarily Japanese. However, producers in some of the cases preferred to change the characters to Western actors instead of Japanese. Another example of this is Memoirs of a Geisha (called Sayuri in Japan), which featured Chinese actors instead of Japanese, despite the fact that it was set in Japan and is about geisha. This is not exclusive to the United States, however. Many countries take film plots or certain ideas from other countries and make their own versions. What is the cultural significance of this? Is there any cultural significance at all? How is language used differently in films based on the country of origin?
In this blog series, we will take a look at different film trends, stereotypes, plot devices, and other various things and examine the language of films and what they are trying to communicate via these tools.
Jennifer O’Quinn
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