Thursday, January 4, 2018

Yojimbo, new subtitles


I signed up for a free trial with Filmstruck, a Roku channel that carries the Criterion Collection. I watched Yojimbo. I've seen it countless times but haven't watched in a few years. Last time I saw it, I was surprised that they changed the subtitles. I wasn't entirely happy with it. The old translation seemed better.

There was a scene early on Toshiro Mifune picks a fight with some armed goons who had been menacing him.

The old version goes:
Mifune: "Such gentle faces."

"What?"

Mifune: "Anger makes you look even sweeter."

They explain to him how tough they are, how they're facing execution if they're ever arrested.

Mifune: "You're all pretty tough then?"

"Kill me if you can!"

Mifune: "It'll hurt."

In the new version, Mifune says:
"You guys have such cute faces."

"What!?"

"You act so tough but you couldn't hurt a fly. Adorable!"

One shows him his prison tattoo and says he'll be crucified if caught. The others say they're wanted and facing execution.

Mifune: "Then you won't mind if I kill you?"

"Kill me if you can!"

Mifune: "It'll hurt."
I'm writing this from memory. It might not be exact.

I assume this new translation is more accurate and it is an improvement most of the time. But it bothers me that they keep referring to people as "guys".
"Idiot! I'm not dying yet! I have quite a few guys to kill first!"
Yojimbo was remade as A Fistful of Dollars and more recently Last Man Standing. Kurosawa was reportedly annoyed at Leone's unofficial remake but Yojimbo was itself inspired at least in part by Dashiel Hammett's The Glass Key and possibly Red Harvest. Leone said that he heard that Yojimbo was based on an American story and wanted to take it back to its original source, but he probably should have gone back to the original novels and made his movie less of a direct rip-off.


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