Japanese James Bond Poster Question

[Ari Agbabian]

Greetings!

I'm wondering if this poster for Dr. No is in Japanese and if so if it really translates into "We Don't Want a Doctor". I'm researching the phenomenon of cultural and semiotic shifts between Indo-European and Japonic/Altaic languages.

Here is the poster:

 

[Mike Cash]

It is Japanese and it doesn't translate to that.

How do you do your research when you don't know enough Japanese to recognize if text is Japanese or not?

 

[RickNZ]

It mostly translates as "blur blur JPEG artifact blur blur overcompressed blur". I can't read the small print but the large red txt is "Doctor No" written phonetically as close as possible in Japanese characters. I'm just a beginner, but as far as i know, the choice of characters used here (katakana) would make it obvious that the word is a foreign translitterated, i don't imagine a japanese reader would try get a meaning from it?

 

[Ari Agbabian]

Mike,

I made my introduction sound like my work is much more serious than it actually is. I'm not doing academic research but research for a television program. Thank you for your input however.

 

[Mike Cash]

Oh, in that case you can just make stuff up.

 

[Ari Agbabian]

This is incredibly true. But in some bizzare twist we are trying to find authentic examples of "Lost in Translation" type incidents in movie titles. I'm born and raised in Los Angeles and this concept of "not making stuff up" is still quite bizzarre to me. But I will figure it out eventually.

 

[Mike Cash]

Try the movie "A League of their Own"; it's exactly what you're looking for.

 

[BrianLewis]

I see the words "Sean Connery" under the gun, but the rest of the green is lost in compression.

 

[Ari Agbabian]

I tried to find a reference to "A League of their own" but couldn't find one. What was it retitled as in Japan?

 

[Mike Cash]

I tried to find a reference to "A League of their own" but couldn't find one. What was it retitled as in Japan?

Did you check IMDB?

They ignored the positive and respectful nature of the idiom in the English title and gave it the patronizing and condescending title "Pretty League" in Japan.

 

[Ari Agbabian]

Yeah. I did check IMDB but couldn't find any mention of the Japanese title. But thanks for the info again!

 

[RickNZ]

lost in compression.

Ha, could be called Lost in Fast Fourier Transformation. Someone get Sofia Coppola on the phone.