Article: King Lear and Ran: identity translated and transformed.

In days when film subtitles were very literal, lines such as "Oh honorable Father sir, I beg you to look kindly upon me" gave American moviegoers the idea that the Japanese were painfully formal at all times. The stilted line above results from translating the word otoosan into its components (father+ Mr.+ sir) rather than its sociolinguistic equivalent in the given situation--"Dad" (Yamada 47). Subtitles, now, are considerably better, but "translation" in the larger sense is still problematic. The meaning of a film, like the meaning of an individual phrase, is not determined by content alone; it also depends on custom, relationships, expectations, and general cultural ...

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