A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Wind Rises -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

I've been a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's work for quite awhile.  His films have been represented here in the Colonies by Disney, where they've received incredible support, which is proper, as he's considered the "Japanese Walt Disney."  

Much of his animation art has been available on Blu-ray, but now, in a way, latching on to the coattails of his latest work, The Wind Rises, we can now view Princess Mononoke (1997) and Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) on Blu.

In the case of The Wind Rises, you'll find that there is a message that rings true as you enter Mr. Miyazaki's incredible animated world, in this case a place otherworldly magnificence.  While the story (at least in a basic way) concerns Jiro Horikoshi, a designer of Japanese fighter planes during WWII, including the Mitsubishi Zero, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I cannot recommend Mr. Miyazaki's work too highly.  If you've not experienced his form of animation, you've been missing out on one of the great wonders of the cinema.  

A magnificent Blu-ray experience.

Highly Recommended

RAH

Mark Walker said:

It is a shame about the most accurate subtitles not being included. If a smaller company like DiscoTek Media http://www.discotekmedia.com/can get all the dubs and the best subtitles, then Disney can, too.

I am glad Miyazaki's Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro is in Discotek Media's care and release schedule for Blu-ray in 2015.

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Mark Walker said:

It is a shame about the most accurate subtitles not being included. If a smaller company like DiscoTek Media http://www.discotekmedia.com/can get all the dubs and the best subtitles, then Disney can, too.

I am glad Miyazaki's Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro is in Discotek Media's care and release schedule for Blu-ray in 2015.

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Bryan Tuck said:

Wait, does The Wind Rises also have dubtitles?

I know Mononoke does, and apparently Kiki uses the same Streamline script it always has for US releases, but did they mess up Wind Rises, too?

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Mark Walker said:

Bryan,

My understanding is that The Wind Rises is fine. It is just the fate of the other Miyazaki films being released as part of this burst of Disney-released Miyazaki that are suffering from dubtitles.

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Bryan Tuck said:

Well, apparently, the subtitles on the Kiki Blu-ray are something else. They are definitely a different translation than was on the 2003 DVD. They seem to follow the English dub for the most part, but then every once in a while, something will be phrased differently.

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haineshisway said:

Wait a minute - are you saying that when one watches the Japanese version of the film that the subtitles are using the English DUB of the film? Is that what you're saying, because THAT makes not one iota of sense, since the dubs frequently change the meaning of certain things and add their own stupid things - like all the Phil Hartman Jiji crap.

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Edwin-S said:

Miyazaki didn't direct "Grave of The Fireflies". It was directed by another great Studio Ghibli film maker Isao Takahata. Takahata has a film that GKids is presently releasing in theatres on a limited basis: The Tale of The Princess Kaguya. It looks like it is going to be another great film. Too bad, I won't be able to see it in a theatre, any more than I could "The Wind Rises".

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EddieLarkin said:

Princess Mononoke, unlike the Japanese and UK Blu-rays, uses dubtitles. These match the Neil Gaiman English dub for the most part, but there have been a few changes to eliminate the more egregious errors in translation, so are an improvement on the old DVD dubtitles (though that DVD came with a separate literal subtitle track, so it's a huge step down in that regard!)

Kiki's Delivery Service is more complicated. No DVD or Blu-ray anywhere in the world uses a literal subtitle track like what you'll find on the Japanese Princess Mononoke Blu-ray. The "official" subtitle translation is merely dubtitles that match the old Streamline dub, meaning they're totally different to the current Disney dub, but not technically translating the Japanese dialogue (though for the most part, the Streamline dub was a good translation in and of itself).

For the Japanese Blu-ray (and I'm guessing the UK Blu-ray), these Streamline dubtitles were revised in the same way Disney have revised their Princess Mononoke dubtitles. Some of the more egregious errors have been fixed, to bring them closer to an accurate translation (though the Hindenburg "Oh the humanity!" comment remains!).

The US Blu-ray on the other hand uses Disney dubtitles that match the Disney dub (though remember, that dub was later revised to remove the ad libbing and changed ending). Like the Princess Mononoke dubtitles, these have been revised to remove some errors, but for the most part match word for word what is being said by the dub actors.

For reference, here is an accurately translated version of the original script:

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/kiki/script_kiki_en.txt

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