I giggle too at what is supposed to not be comedy, during the Indiana Jones scene at the falling stairway. Aragorn and Frodo guiding in the falling ruin by "leaning" with it is a little much for me... and why on earth would Frodo be the LAST one helped across anyway? Penny1 saw the film with me again yesterday, and we (affectionately of course) laughed out loud about that, ALA Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Was it subtitled in Japanese then? (As opposed to being dubbed) The subtitles would not be necessary for you I suppose except for the parts where they are speaking elvish. Is the film well recieved over there? - Are the books popular?
Yes, that was certainly one scene that I didn't recall from reading the book...even fantasy has to have some degree of realism!
Was it subtitled in Japanese then? (As opposed to being dubbed) The subtitles would not be necessary for you I suppose except for the parts where they are speaking elvish.
LOTR is actually being shown in both subtitled and dubbed versions here -- Harry Potter was the first example of this I know -- and naturally I went to see the subtitled version; I might watch the dubbed version someday when I purchase the LOTR DVD.
I'll have you know I'm fluent in Elvish, too (and I think Arwen needs to work on her pronunciation), so I didn't need the subtitles there, either. :-) The parts where Elvish was spoken were subtitled in both Japanese and English for non-Elvish speakers.
I did read the Japanese subtitles as I watched the movie the second time (to make sure I could discuss it with my Japanese companion afterwards -- you'd be amazed at how different the story seems when the dialogue is in 4-second bites), and I felt sorry for the Japanese viewers who missed so much of the nuance.
Is the film well recieved over there?
The movie has only been out here for two weeks, but it's been No. 1 at the box office both of those weeks (followed by Monsters Inc. and Oceans 11 -- forgive us, we're a bit behind the times here; Harry Potter is still at No. 7!). Glancing through some of the viewer reviews on Yahoo Japan, it seems that opinions are extreme. Those who like fantasy and/or who like Tolkien's work generally gave the movie five stars, while those who gave the movie one or two stars complained that the movie was an overly-long film strictly for Tolkien fans and that they were unable to follow the story line. Overall, though, the movie has been received quite well here.
Are the books popular?
The entire LOTR series, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and books about Tolkien and the movie are prominently on display in most of the book stores I frequent, but I don't know how well they're selling. I did pop over to Amazon.co.jp (our local Amazon.com) and saw that the first volume of the nine-volume paperback version of LOTR is ranked 98th in sales; not bad for an author who was essentially unknown in Japan a couple of months ago. I've got two Japanese friends started on the series, so I'm doing my part to get the word out.