Fansub FAIL

I’m cursed for some reason. Whenever I try to watch the movie Paprika, I’m always interrupted. I’ve made it halfway through several times, but inevitably something comes up and I’m forced to pause it, promising to finish at a later time. Last night I only made it 15 minutes in before I realized I would have to bail. That was still enough time to see this fansub failure:

Sure, it’s an accurate translation from a certain point of view – it is what comes out of her mouth (the line in Japanese is 「イッツ・ザ・グレーティスト・ショータイム!」) – but clearly the film is referring to the Ringling Brothers’ famous slogan “The Greatest Show on Earth,” so I think a better translation (that takes into account the philosphy underlying my inequality posts) would be “Time for the Greatest Show on Earth!” Or, if you don’t want to trample on the Ringling Brothers’ intellectual property, “Time for an amazing show!” “It’s the greatest show time” is a failure of English.

I must finish watching this movie soon. I’ve vowed to finish watching it before I see Inception so that I can figure out if it inspired any of the movie. And I should probably see Inception before school starts. So in the next week or two.

8 thoughts on “Fansub FAIL

  1. ohhhh my gosh. I implore you to go give Paprika one more chance. The movie is pretty crazy, and a leeeeeetle bit creepy in some parts, but the sub-plot with the police dude and his dream about the guy running in the hallway… it’s just so awesome. We were watching it in club a few years back and at that part, everyone stood up and cheered. It was so great. And the main plot is really cool too.

    We saw Inception a couple nights ago. Offhand, I don’t see any super-strong correlations between Paprika and Inception, beyond the basic ‘ability to dive into the dream world’ element. Paprika is more about going into dreams that already exist in order to get something important out of them, and Inception is more about … (tries to make it not spoilery) more about input, and less about out-taking.

    They’re both good movies, but I guess if I had to choose, Paprika is just…. cooler. X D.

  2. The only things that are remotely similar are the concept of dreams and Ellen Page’s character. That’s about it. It’s crazy to see fans get so angry when it comes to comparisons between the two movies. I hope you see Inception soon. It’s a good movie, though Paprika is a bit better.

    I actually posted my thoughts on the “Hollywood stealing ideas from anime” debate and more. Feel free to read them at:

    http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/875442822/inception-paprika-pt1 (part 1)
    http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/893440300/inception-paprika-pt2 (part 2)

  3. So I finally watched Paprika, and to be honest, I thought the story was pretty crap. The visuals and art style were great as always with Satoshi Kon, but the story was pretty silly. Oh well, maybe I’m getting too old to enjoy (poorly plotted) sci-fi.

    Didn’t realize that people were getting mad about Inception. It’s too bad people didn’t get more up in arms about The Departed. That was a blatant rip-off AND it was poorly done.

  4. Durf – Actually I thought the rest of the translation was pretty good for the most part, although I guess there is a legal FAIL attached to any fansub.

    wah – I’m pretty sure this is a fansub – got a hold of it a long time ago, I think before the US release. Took me 3+ years to finally watch!

  5. To echo what Wah said, it may have been a fansub, but I am pretty sure the actual DVD has the same thing. It may have all blurred together though.

    Still, Paprika is worth watching. I think I still prefer Perfect Blue story-wise.

  6. Never seen this one…the animation style looks nice, though – from the picture you put up it looks similar to Metropolis.

    By the way, are you finished with How to Engrish? After you started it up, I had recommended it to my (Japanese) girlfriend, but you haven’t updated in ages.

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