Читать книгу A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors - Alexander Jacoby - Страница 6

The Japanese writing system is arguably the most complex in the world, and transliterating it into Roman letters is itself a difficult task, while producing readable translations is even more so. Since the same character can have multiple readings, and the correct reading is not always clear from the context, even Japanese readers sometimes stumble. In order to establish the correct readings I have worked with two native speakers, Maiko Miyoshi and Etsuko Takagi, to transliterate titles from original Japanese sources, and wherever possible have tried to confirm our readings by consulting sources which give a phonetic reading, whether in Japanese kana or in Roman script. The sources I have consulted are listed in the Bibliography. However, I have avoided relying wholly on previously published filmographies, as mistakes have sometimes been made by one writer and then perpetuated. Also, most published filmographies in Roman script do not indicate the lengths of most vowels. Because of this, I have transliterated wherever possible from scratch, and then compared my readings with other published sources.

I have transliterated according to the Revised Hepburn system, which is the most widely used system of Romanization. Thus, in native Japanese or Chinese-derived words, long vowels ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’ are indicated by a macron, long ‘i’ by ‘ii’, and long ‘e’ by ‘ei’ (as in ‘geisha’). In words taken from foreign languages other than Chinese, and thus written in Japanese in katakana, I have followed the convention of using macrons to lengthen all vowels (so Yoshimitsu Morita’s Family Game is “Kazoku gēmu,” not “Kazoku geimu”). I have made an exception for a few titles where the original katakana depart from this convention. Syllabic ‘n’ is always represented as ‘n’; thus, I depart from some previous scholars of the Japanese cinema in referring to swordplay films as chanbara rather than chambara. Where a vowel or ‘y’ follows a syllabic ‘n’, I use an apostrophe to avoid confusion; thus, the author of The Makioka Sisters is Jun’ichirō Tanizaki and the director of Tetsuo is Shin’ya Tsukamoto. I have transliterated titles using loan words exactly as spelled in kana: thus, the Japanese language title of Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale is given as Batoru Rowaiaru. Where the original credits of the film give the title in Roman script (an increasingly common practice nowadays), I have of course reproduced it as spelled.

In listing Japanese-language titles in the filmographies I have adhered to the Revised Hepburn system strictly, so that they are transliterated as accurately as possible. In the body of the text, however, and in supplying English translations of the titles, I have departed from Hepburn in the case of naturalised English words or names. Thus, I write Tokyo not Tōkyō and refer to Noh theater not Nō theater. I have considered the names of production companies and historical periods to be naturalized words for this purpose. Where personal names or place names occur in film titles, I dispense with macrons in the English translation, since official English-language release titles never supply them; thus, for instance, I give Rashōmon (with macron) as the Japanese-language film title, and Rashomon (without macron) as the English-language one.

I have endeavored to supply a translation for all titles, except where the title is the name of a person or a place, or an untranslatable set phrase. Where films have been released abroad, I have used the official release title; if a film has been written about elsewhere and thus has a semi-official title, I have used that unless I judge it to be in error. If the film is widely known under more than one title, I have supplied two or several, although where alternative titles are basically variations on the same idea, I have not listed every possible permutation. I have usually listed the most frequently used translation first, except where I consider it misleading. If the most commonly used translation is not the most lit­eral one, I have indicated which title is most literal. Where the only previously used titles are not literal, I have where possible supplied a literal translation in parentheses, particularly where the literal title suggests aspects of the film which standard translations do not.

Where the title of a film has not previously been translated into English, I have devised my own. In general, these titles have been kept at literal as possible, even at the risk of sounding ungainly in English. However, where titles use descriptive words such as maki (“reel”) to indicate different episodes, I have dropped these in translation if the result sounds impossibly convoluted.In a few cases, too, I have opted for a translation which seems truer to Japanese usage—for instance, where an idiomatic phrase has a direct parallel in a different English idiom. Where a title might have several possible meanings, I have tried to choose the most accurate translation by seeking information about the film’s content. Sometimes, however, particularly in the case of lost films, information about content is not readily available, and in these cases I have had to make an educated guess.

The issue of name order is a thorny one. When the Japanese write their name in their own language, they put surname first, as do the Chinese, Koreans, and Hungarians. Scholars of Chinese almost invariably preserve Chinese name order: thus, the maker of Farewell My Concubine is Chen Kaige, not Kaige Chen. On the other hand, writers on the Hungarian cinema do not usually talk about Jancsó Miklós. In the field of Japanese studies, convention is somewhat divided; most scholarly books favor the Japanese name order; books aimed at the general reader generally give Western name order. I have decided to opt for Western name order because when films are distributed abroad, the credits invariably follow Western name order. I have made an exception if a film has been distributed abroad under a title which includes a personal name and preserves Japanese name order: thus, I translate Noboru Tanaka’s Jitsuroku Abe Sada as The True Story of Abe Sada and A Woman Called Abe Sada because these are titles which have been used in foreign screenings and DVD releases. Another exception is the name of the writer Edogawa Ranpo, because it is a pseudonym which derives from a pun on the name of American author Edgar Allen Poe. Naturally, in the heading of each entry, I also put surname first, as this is the usual convention of encyclopedias in Western languages. This has the advantage that the Romanized name in the heading appears in the same order as the Japanese name in kanji, which is supplied along with it.