May 18, 1991
For my birthday, M2 and I went to see Dances With Wolves which opened today in Oita-shi. We were worried that the Lakota dialog would be subtitled only in Japanese, so we cheered when the first English subtitles appeared on the bottom of the screen (the Japanese subtitles were written tategaki, vertically down the right-hand side).
The movie was hilarious; we laughed and laughed and laughed. We loved it when Keven Costener tried to communicate and the Sioux looked at each other as if he were crazy ("Eh?"). We rolled on the ground when he rode into camp and old women and young boys stared at him with mouths agape (Gaijin da!) We commiserated with him when the hunter, in deference, handed him the raw heart of the buffalo to eat. ("The eyes of the fish are a delicacy we are giving to you because you are our honored guest.") We knew how he felt when, being unable to make conversation, he was reduced to smiling and nodding like an idiot. And, finally, during the big party, we remembered our first enkai where everyone else wanted to hear the story of our latest intercultural gaffe just one more time.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
May 18, 2002
Share Your Thoughts
The eyes of the fish are a delicacy we are giving to you because you are our honored guest.