Japanese in Heroes - Part III

Posted on October 12th, 2007 in Customary Drivel, Media, Unsolicited Commentary, Video, 日本語 by Deas
このビデオの内容はネタバレになる可能性があるので、ご注意ください。
This video may contain SPOILERS. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

7 - Kaito Nakamura (George Takei : 9)
8 - Kimiko Nakamura (Saemi Nakamura : 9.5)

So, we’re only going to take a look at 2 characters today. The family of Hiro Nakamura - Kaito and Kimiko, Hiro’s father and older sister. Both characters speak exclusively in Japanese throughout the first season. (In Season 2, as I mentioned in a previous comment, Kaito speaks English for at least one scene. Hiro also swaps out into English in Season 2 for at least one scene where Japanese would have sufficed. I’ll say no more at this point.) George Takei was born in America, but is fluent in English and Japanese (and Spanish, actually, but that’s sort of unrelated). Saemi Nakamura was born in Tokyo, but is an American now as far as I can tell. She’s also fluent in English. I had difficulty choosing which clips to use, but wound up going with the two longest ones. As a result, you don’t get to see Kimiko speaking in reverent Japanese. That’s too bad - her honorifics influenced her score in my eyes. Anyway, what I’m curious about is how on earth the director managed shooting these scenes. Without knowing Japanese, choosing when to pan, zoom, etc. - not to mention that he couldn’t coach the actors to sound less rehearsed… I’m also curious about who translated what. Masi Oka claims to have translated all his own lines - but did they use translators for the other parts? Anyone have any thoughts on that? I left the parts with Hiro and Ando speaking in, as promised. Ando has really weird intonation at the beginning, in my opinion. It’s one of his “ah…he doesn’t know Japanese, does he?” moments. Hiro’s speech sounds pretty American to me, in this clip more than in the previous clips. Listen especially to his ん＋です sentences. Anyway, considering that Hiro’s family is pretty tied up in the whole genetics / powers affair, I’m curious about how Season 2 will pan out…more or less screen time? Hmmm… If you’ve got anything to say or ask, feel free to do so in the comments!

Already covered:
1 - Hiro Nakamura
2 - Ando Masahashi
3 - Boss at Yamagato Industries
4 - Detective Furakowa
5 - Charlie Andrews
6 - Kaito’s Assistant

Coming soon:
9 - Noah Bennet
10 - Claude Rains

Come back for the final entry, Part IV, soon!