I watch a lot of foreign language films, and read a lot of translated literature and I always try to imagine what I’m missing out on by not reading or taking in media in it’s original language.

In film, are there some significant mistranslations that has led non-native speakers of the language to interpret something different from the movie?

Thanks!

  • @[email protected]
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    21 year ago

    Oh yeah, Japan is a bit weird that way, or it might be more accurate to say that the west is weird.

    The anti-gay sentiment you see in conservatives in the west largely stems from Judeo-Christian doctrine.

    In Japan, Abrahamic religions are in the extreme minority so oftentimes homosexuality isn’t seen as a sin but rather just something that differs from the norm.

    However, Japanese society is also more intolerant to differences, so instead homosexuality ends up in this weird grey area where it’s used mostly for drama or humor in the media, but in real life it’s very much a case of “don’t ask, don’t tell”

    • @[email protected]OP
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      41 year ago

      That’s what I meant by how conservative Japan was, they appear to give more license to caricatures and stereotypes in their arts than they would allow in society, but that does not leak into day-to-day life, the government and the public are extremely intolerant of the other in general.