The Cinema Snob
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.


Pierre Kirby Approved.
 
HomeLatest imagesSearchRegisterLog in

 

 Review: Uzumaki

Go down 
4 posters
AuthorMessage
UnknownKadath

UnknownKadath


Posts : 392
Join date : 2011-02-16
Age : 34
Location : I live in my namesake, of course!.. Okay, in real life - Japan.

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyWed Feb 23, 2011 1:27 am


Review: Uzumaki Uzumak10
Uzumaki
AKA: Spiral and Vortex
Reviewed by Kadath J.B.
Directed by Higuchinsky
Written by Junji Ito, from his Manga of the same name.
Starring Eriko Hatsune, Ren Ohsuge and Fhi Fan
Year of release: 2000
Running time: 90 Minutes
Viewed: A long time ago in Japan

Score: Review: Uzumaki Skullsymbol100Review: Uzumaki Skullsymbol100Review: Uzumaki Skullsymbol100

I'm not exactly one for comics but there are a few exceptions. One of said exceptions is anything written by the ingenious Japanese author, Junji Ito. In 1999, the very first film adaptation of a Junji Ito comic came to the big screen: Tomie. Sad to say, it was bad. In fact it wasn't just bad - it was horrendous. Tomie was a massive disappointment, and an awful movie - but I'll cover that in another review. Uzumaki came only a year after, and was based on Ito's ongoing manga of the same name. Chie & I were in a bit of a stink after Tomie, and were worried that Uzumaki would end up like it. It also wasn't positive that they had made the movie a bit early - afterall, Ito's comic was far from finished when the film was made. While this is reflected in the final product - the good news is, Uzumaki came out to be a surprisingly fun and entertaining movie; and even with what flaws it has (And it has many) it keeps with the spirit of Ito's work to a workable degree.

Review: Uzumaki Junji%20Ito%20-%20Uzumaki
A panel from the original comic. This part isn't in the movie, but I have always loved this drawing


Uzumaki begins with our protagonist, the teen-aged Kirie Goshima (A mild - but cute - performance from Eriko Hatsune) narrating about the the town of Kurozu-Cho, and invites us to hear the story of the strange events that occurred there. We then see the mangled face of a student who has just fallen to his death, his brains spattered across a spiral marked floor at the bottom of a massive spiral stair-case. Get used to the prevalence of spirals - afterall, that's what the film is about and what "Uzumaki" just so happens to mean.

Anyways, Kirie is on the way to meet her boyfriend Shuichi (Played by the utterly bizarre Chinese actor Fhu Fan. His performance is suitably weird for a weird movie.) and on the way runs into Shuichi's father (Played by character actor, Ren Ohsugi. Easily the most memorable performance in the film, sadly it is very brief.) on the way there filming a snail with his handheld camera. Thus begins our first chapter, "The Spiral Obsession" and a good entry point for the events to follow. Shuichi's father has become downright maddened in his love of spirals, and is doing anything he can to obtain spiral shaped objects from the town - even stealing signs and stripping cars for any spiral shaped parts. Shuichi blames his fathers behaviour on a curse - and as crazy as that sounds, it's a lot more grounded than anything else going on because it just so happens to be true. His fathers obsession eventually leads to violence, his father hitting his mother for throwing out his collection. Without his collection - he soon learns that he must "Create the spiral for himself," and in a scene that is every bit as creepy as it is humorous - Shuichi's dad pops his eyes from their sockets and starts to spin them round and round, all while wearing a grin that would make the devil proud.

Review: Uzumaki Uzumakik
I'd hate to see his "O" face...

This all sets the wacky mood of this film. It is both to the films benefit and defecit that it happens to be an absolutely batshit insane dark comedy. This is not a film devoid of identity or humour, and that is certainly what makes it fun to sit through. However - where it does detract from the film is any form of atmosphere. The manga, while certainly bizarre was genuinely scary and atmospheric. There are a couple genuinely creepy moments (The death of Kirie's stalker and the poor driver in the middle of the accident was genuinely a little disturbing.) but more often than not, it focuses on the comedic aspect. To their credit though - it isn't exactly easy to make a movie that has obese teenagers turning into snails serious and scary and while Junji Ito may have pulled it off in the Manga, I suppose it's better that the makers of the film didn't try to pull off on screen what only Ito could pull off in his comics; one of the things that made Tomie an absolute mess.

Another aspect where Uzumaki succeeds is the visual design. Considering the very low budget, the film has a very unique look. I may hate the colour green - but the weird green tint gives the film a somewhat mysterious feel, and there are many memorable cinematographic tricks. Even the opening scene with the student who fell down the spiral stair-case is memorable, for genuinely being dizzying as we see the camera spiral away slowly unraveling the staircase. One of the films creepier scenes - in which the ashes of Shuichi's father and Mother coil out of the furnace and then form their twisted faces in the sky - looks absolutely fantastic, sadly since it relies on motion I can't get a good capture of it. In its place is the original drawing from the manga (Although it only shows his fathers face) - lets just say the scene in the movie does the effect justice.

Review: Uzumaki Uzumak15
The ashes in the sky.

If there was one majour downfall for Uzumaki, preventing me from giving it a higher score (Next to the aforementioned lack of the Mangas atmosphere) is the ending - or rather, a lack thereof. I believe I pointed out earlier that the film was made before the manga had been finished. This means that the film doesn't really end, and there is also a very pointless and frustrating sub-plot that goes nowhere involving a Detective trying to get to the bottom of the towns curse and its correlation with the pond in the center of the town. When the detective is on screen and doing research, it is a complete waste of time. It sets up a mystery that the film never bothers to solve, and the ending is completely non-existance to it or the main storyline. It's suggested that more or less the town is just consumed, and we do get to see some very creepy shots in the films ending scene - but it isn't satisfying, especially since we don't even get to see the downfall. It's also a little jarring that one of the films funniest scenes (Retained for spoiler reasons) happens immediately before the somewhat creepy ending shots. I admit it is also a shame because the 3rd volume of the manga and the final chapters were easily the most memorable and lead to a fascinatingly bizarre, but disturbing, unique, and extremely clever ending. If the filmmakers had taken the time to stick it out a bit longer (Just another year) maybe I could have given this film more points for a complete story.

Regardless though - Uzumaki is a lot of fun. It's an oddity amongst the generic droves of Yurei films in Japan (Yurei = A type of Japanese ghost; the long haired female ones we see a lot.) that existed at the time and serves as a very entertaining and unique dark comedy. It does the manga justice maybe not in scares or story, but in style and entertainment value - capturing the odd imagination of Junji Ito well and providing some memorable visuals and set pieces as well.

Oh, and because I used to do this when I reviewed films on other sites here's the trailer (It was hard to find since typing in "Uzumaki" gets you a thousand videos of Naruto. Barf.) to give you another brief glimpse.
Back to top Go down
The Original Greaser Bob

The Original Greaser Bob


Posts : 1298
Join date : 2011-01-19
Location : Tampa

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyWed Feb 23, 2011 3:14 am

Saw a copy of this at a local video store. Been meaning to buy it for a couple of years now.

I read all the books and am a fan of them, and Ito's work in general, and have heard a deal of good things about this movie.
Back to top Go down
UnknownKadath

UnknownKadath


Posts : 392
Join date : 2011-02-16
Age : 34
Location : I live in my namesake, of course!.. Okay, in real life - Japan.

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyWed Feb 23, 2011 7:54 am

The Dude wrote:
Saw a copy of this at a local video store. Been meaning to buy it for a couple of years now.

I read all the books and am a fan of them, and Ito's work in general, and have heard a deal of good things about this movie.

Yeah, as I said it's good fun. Far from perfect but plenty enjoyable. Definitely better than that Tomie adaptation. Mad The same year, Higuchinsky (The guy who directed this movie.) did an hour long TV movie called "The Long Dream" which is also based on an Ito piece and it is also worth checking out.

There was another Ito adaptation called "Kakashi," not sure who was in charge of it, and while it was alright - it kind of moved slow. It was also an oddity in that it was more of a melodrama than anything.

I've heard rumors that Higuchinsky might adapt "Gyo," which might be interesting if done right. I actually think Gyo was one of my favourites next to the Uzumaki books, a good piece of body horror. I was actually genuinely a little disturbed and bothered by some of the things that happen in "Gyo" when people start to become infected, then again I have a distinct fear of things that leech and manipulate life (Anything parasitic = D:). Making it a disease made it a little freakier for me.
Back to top Go down
The Original Greaser Bob

The Original Greaser Bob


Posts : 1298
Join date : 2011-01-19
Location : Tampa

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyWed Feb 23, 2011 9:15 am

UnknownKadath wrote:
I've heard rumors that Higuchinsky might adapt "Gyo," which might be interesting if done right. I actually think Gyo was one of my favourites next to the Uzumaki books, a good piece of body horror. I was actually genuinely a little disturbed and bothered by some of the things that happen in "Gyo" when people start to become infected, then again I have a distinct fear of things that leech and manipulate life (Anything parasitic = D:). Making it a disease made it a little freakier for me.
I hope to God that you're right. If done well (preferable with analog effects, as opposed to CGI), Gyo could be a sick little treat of a movie. I actually liked that series more than Uzumaki.
Back to top Go down
UnknownKadath

UnknownKadath


Posts : 392
Join date : 2011-02-16
Age : 34
Location : I live in my namesake, of course!.. Okay, in real life - Japan.

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyWed Feb 23, 2011 7:38 pm

The Dude wrote:
UnknownKadath wrote:
I've heard rumors that Higuchinsky might adapt "Gyo," which might be interesting if done right. I actually think Gyo was one of my favourites next to the Uzumaki books, a good piece of body horror. I was actually genuinely a little disturbed and bothered by some of the things that happen in "Gyo" when people start to become infected, then again I have a distinct fear of things that leech and manipulate life (Anything parasitic = D:). Making it a disease made it a little freakier for me.
I hope to God that you're right. If done well (preferable with analog effects, as opposed to CGI), Gyo could be a sick little treat of a movie. I actually liked that series more than Uzumaki.

I think that Gyo was more disturbing than Uzumaki, but I think I loved the overall story from Uzumaki more. The third volume of Uzumaki was excellent, I loved some of the artwork seen in the last places and I absolutely loved the idea of the town being in some sort of twisted never-ending time warp.

If Higuchinsky does Gyo, one would hope he uses more traditional effects. In a way, you could say he is much more talented at that than CG effects or editing. Part of it may just be the low budget - but some of Uzumaki's worst effects are the ones that try to use CG or computer editing, they look really sloppy. While they do have limited motion - the effects done without any computer editing though are fantastic. I will say that the CG effects they use on Shuichi at the end as well as the ones that Chie films (The character Chie - not my wife.) are actually well done, but I imagine those would be harder to pull off with such a low budget. There's a good chance if Higuchinsky were to do Gyo years later - he could have a better budget to put the more practical effects in motion. I know he's admitted to not liking some of the effects they had to resort to a couple times in Uzumaki.

I actually imagine stop motion would work out fairly well for Gyo - at least when dealing with the walkers.

Back to top Go down
The Original Greaser Bob

The Original Greaser Bob


Posts : 1298
Join date : 2011-01-19
Location : Tampa

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyThu Feb 24, 2011 6:53 am

UnknownKadath wrote:
I actually imagine stop motion would work out fairly well for Gyo - at least when dealing with the walkers.
That would probably look pretty damn creepy.
Back to top Go down
UnknownKadath

UnknownKadath


Posts : 392
Join date : 2011-02-16
Age : 34
Location : I live in my namesake, of course!.. Okay, in real life - Japan.

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyMon Mar 28, 2011 9:38 am

The Dude wrote:
UnknownKadath wrote:
I actually imagine stop motion would work out fairly well for Gyo - at least when dealing with the walkers.
That would probably look pretty damn creepy.


Indeed. I'm not really striking lightning back into that subject; but on the topic of Junji Ito - have you read his recent take on Frankenstein? It's actually pretty damn good. It's based more on the original novel than the Universal movie(s) and in a way, to me is Shelley's novel with a bit more "hard" horror. It's definitely different for Ito, but his artwork and a few of his gruesome takes make it feel faithful to the original story - yet still unique in some places. Not sure if it's been translated into English or not but if you speak Japanese or there is an English version, you should check it out.

Back to top Go down
The Original Greaser Bob

The Original Greaser Bob


Posts : 1298
Join date : 2011-01-19
Location : Tampa

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyMon Mar 28, 2011 10:46 am

UnknownKadath wrote:
The Dude wrote:
UnknownKadath wrote:
I actually imagine stop motion would work out fairly well for Gyo - at least when dealing with the walkers.
That would probably look pretty damn creepy.


Indeed. I'm not really striking lightning back into that subject; but on the topic of Junji Ito - have you read his recent take on Frankenstein? It's actually pretty damn good. It's based more on the original novel than the Universal movie(s) and in a way, to me is Shelley's novel with a bit more "hard" horror. It's definitely different for Ito, but his artwork and a few of his gruesome takes make it feel faithful to the original story - yet still unique in some places. Not sure if it's been translated into English or not but if you speak Japanese or there is an English version, you should check it out.

Nope, do not speak Japanese. I'd like to, but given how hard a time I'm having learning Spanish, it's probably never going to happen.

I'm a little iffy on this idea. There were a lot pf things about the novel that annoyed the Hell out of me, so if Ito was able to remedy them, then hey, why not. But otherwise...
Back to top Go down
UnknownKadath

UnknownKadath


Posts : 392
Join date : 2011-02-16
Age : 34
Location : I live in my namesake, of course!.. Okay, in real life - Japan.

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyMon Mar 28, 2011 11:19 am

The Dude wrote:
UnknownKadath wrote:
The Dude wrote:
UnknownKadath wrote:
I actually imagine stop motion would work out fairly well for Gyo - at least when dealing with the walkers.
That would probably look pretty damn creepy.


Indeed. I'm not really striking lightning back into that subject; but on the topic of Junji Ito - have you read his recent take on Frankenstein? It's actually pretty damn good. It's based more on the original novel than the Universal movie(s) and in a way, to me is Shelley's novel with a bit more "hard" horror. It's definitely different for Ito, but his artwork and a few of his gruesome takes make it feel faithful to the original story - yet still unique in some places. Not sure if it's been translated into English or not but if you speak Japanese or there is an English version, you should check it out.

Nope, do not speak Japanese. I'd like to, but given how hard a time I'm having learning Spanish, it's probably never going to happen.

I'm a little iffy on this idea. There were a lot pf things about the novel that annoyed the Hell out of me, so if Ito was able to remedy them, then hey, why not. But otherwise...

Ahh, sad to hear you weren't a big fan of the novel. I'm obsessed with it for some reason. I'm not sure what your issues were, so I can't say whether or not he fixed them.

Japanese is actually a very simple language. Though, if this makes any sense - its simplicity is the reason why it is considered a hard language and why the Japanese consider English such a hard one for them. The rub is - they only have 42 sounds. Whenever I say that, people think I'm referring to "sounds" as the alphabet (In truth, they do not have an alphabet. They have a syllabary.) and go "They have so many compared to us!" yet that's far off, the 42 sounds refer to every single possible vocal note they can make, and they all follow a simple pattern. The base syllables are:

A/あ (Ahh) I/い (Eee) U/う (Ooo) E/え (Eh) and O/お (Pronounced the same as an English O.)

They all follow that pattern later with little variation

Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko
Sa Shi Su Se So
Ta Tchi Tsu Te To
Na Ni Nu Ne No

Etc.

My wife speaks English fluently and can read it and write it perfectly, but you wouldn't think it if you heard her speak. She still can't handle and grasp the hundreds upon thousands of sounds and sounds we can make. She actually calls me "Kato," since I think it sounds nicer than the actual Japanese pronunciation of my name; "Kedafu;" as Kedafu honestly sounds like someone sneezing.

Grammar, while hard to grasp at first - is also quite easy and simple. The only real difference is that in grammatical sentence structure, the subject comes after the object. For example, instead of saying "Mrs. Nakamura went to the grocery store," you would say "To the Grocery Store went Mrs. Nakamura." That's also why google translate is always so damn bassackwards. Once you get the hang of it though, it's easy...

However - the hardest part of the language is in reality, the writing and multiple word meanings. Hirigana and Katakana are easy to learn, but the Kanji are a bitch. There are 2,000 of them - and they have thousands of permutations that are so bloody sensitive. Words in Japanese often have multiple meanings, and to determine the proper meaning - you have to use the proper Kanji. It's actually quite common in Japan that when referring to words with multiple meanings in conversation, they carry markers around and when they get to the word they need - they write the Kanji on their wrists. A good, simple example would be the word "Kami." It can mean Hair, Paper, Deity, Above, or Seasoning:


神 - Deity/God
髪 - Hair
紙 - Paper
上 - Above/top of
加味 - Seasoning


The Kanji is such a pain even for them, that they have cram schools that go into high school to teach them how to use the Kanji, even when the students can speak every single word properly. I learned the Japanese language when I was 6 in a matter of 5 weeks, and yet it took 5 years to learn all of the Kanji. That's actually considered faster than most, but the only reason I learned faster is because Chie's mother was the one who taught me it and the language itself and she is quite possibly the best linguist I've ever met and made sure her children learned the Kanji and language ahead of time, and she took that with me as well.

The Kanji requires time and effort - but honestly I think you can grasp Japanese if you follow a rule that really helped me. Do NOT think of English when learning the language. Learn the language from the ground up, and it will go smoothly. You can learn how to pronounce and say the words in literally 10 minutes methinks, and learn the grammatical structure in a matter of 2 days, and spend a month or two learning words.
Back to top Go down


▲


Posts : 62
Join date : 2011-02-25

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyMon Mar 28, 2011 8:10 pm

UnknownKadath you are a bro.
Nice to see someone put time and effort into a forum review.

But with your scores at the top you should probably put a scale with it so we know what the score of 3 is out of. Since Your review is generally favorable I can assume it's a 4 or 5 but a scale would be helpful.

Aside from that great review of a good movie. Keep it up.
Back to top Go down
UnknownKadath

UnknownKadath


Posts : 392
Join date : 2011-02-16
Age : 34
Location : I live in my namesake, of course!.. Okay, in real life - Japan.

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyMon Mar 28, 2011 8:20 pm

▲ wrote:
UnknownKadath you are a bro.
Nice to see someone put time and effort into a forum review.

But with your scores at the top you should probably put a scale with it so we know what the score of 3 is out of. Since Your review is generally favorable I can assume it's a 4 or 5 but a scale would be helpful.

Aside from that great review of a good movie. Keep it up.

I established the scale in my first review here, Begotten. It's out of 4. If necessary I'll start putting an "out of 4" in future reviews. Thanks for the comment!
Back to top Go down
The Original Greaser Bob

The Original Greaser Bob


Posts : 1298
Join date : 2011-01-19
Location : Tampa

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyTue Mar 29, 2011 1:59 am

UnknownKadath wrote:
Japanese is actually a very simple language. Though, if this makes any sense - its simplicity is the reason why it is considered a hard language and why the Japanese consider English such a hard one for them. The rub is - they only have 42 sounds. Whenever I say that, people think I'm referring to "sounds" as the alphabet (In truth, they do not have an alphabet. They have a syllabary.) and go "They have so many compared to us!" yet that's far off, the 42 sounds refer to every single possible vocal note they can make, and they all follow a simple pattern. The base syllables are:

A/あ (Ahh) I/い (Eee) U/う (Ooo) E/え (Eh) and O/お (Pronounced the same as an English O.)

They all follow that pattern later with little variation

Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko
Sa Shi Su Se So
Ta Tchi Tsu Te To
Na Ni Nu Ne No

Etc.

My wife speaks English fluently and can read it and write it perfectly, but you wouldn't think it if you heard her speak. She still can't handle and grasp the hundreds upon thousands of sounds and sounds we can make. She actually calls me "Kato," since I think it sounds nicer than the actual Japanese pronunciation of my name; "Kedafu;" as Kedafu honestly sounds like someone sneezing.

Grammar, while hard to grasp at first - is also quite easy and simple. The only real difference is that in grammatical sentence structure, the subject comes after the object. For example, instead of saying "Mrs. Nakamura went to the grocery store," you would say "To the Grocery Store went Mrs. Nakamura." That's also why google translate is always so damn bassackwards. Once you get the hang of it though, it's easy...

However - the hardest part of the language is in reality, the writing and multiple word meanings. Hirigana and Katakana are easy to learn, but the Kanji are a bitch. There are 2,000 of them - and they have thousands of permutations that are so bloody sensitive. Words in Japanese often have multiple meanings, and to determine the proper meaning - you have to use the proper Kanji. It's actually quite common in Japan that when referring to words with multiple meanings in conversation, they carry markers around and when they get to the word they need - they write the Kanji on their wrists. A good, simple example would be the word "Kami." It can mean Hair, Paper, Deity, Above, or Seasoning:


神 - Deity/God
髪 - Hair
紙 - Paper
上 - Above/top of
加味 - Seasoning


The Kanji is such a pain even for them, that they have cram schools that go into high school to teach them how to use the Kanji, even when the students can speak every single word properly. I learned the Japanese language when I was 6 in a matter of 5 weeks, and yet it took 5 years to learn all of the Kanji. That's actually considered faster than most, but the only reason I learned faster is because Chie's mother was the one who taught me it and the language itself and she is quite possibly the best linguist I've ever met and made sure her children learned the Kanji and language ahead of time, and she took that with me as well.

The Kanji requires time and effort - but honestly I think you can grasp Japanese if you follow a rule that really helped me. Do NOT think of English when learning the language. Learn the language from the ground up, and it will go smoothly. You can learn how to pronounce and say the words in literally 10 minutes methinks, and learn the grammatical structure in a matter of 2 days, and spend a month or two learning words.
Good to know, and I appreciate the fact that you would go to the effort basically breaking down a whole language for my benefit. Looks like I have a project for the summer now.
Back to top Go down
UnknownKadath

UnknownKadath


Posts : 392
Join date : 2011-02-16
Age : 34
Location : I live in my namesake, of course!.. Okay, in real life - Japan.

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyTue Mar 29, 2011 1:04 pm

The Dude wrote:
UnknownKadath wrote:
Japanese is actually a very simple language. Though, if this makes any sense - its simplicity is the reason why it is considered a hard language and why the Japanese consider English such a hard one for them. The rub is - they only have 42 sounds. Whenever I say that, people think I'm referring to "sounds" as the alphabet (In truth, they do not have an alphabet. They have a syllabary.) and go "They have so many compared to us!" yet that's far off, the 42 sounds refer to every single possible vocal note they can make, and they all follow a simple pattern. The base syllables are:

A/あ (Ahh) I/い (Eee) U/う (Ooo) E/え (Eh) and O/お (Pronounced the same as an English O.)

They all follow that pattern later with little variation

Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko
Sa Shi Su Se So
Ta Tchi Tsu Te To
Na Ni Nu Ne No

Etc.

My wife speaks English fluently and can read it and write it perfectly, but you wouldn't think it if you heard her speak. She still can't handle and grasp the hundreds upon thousands of sounds and sounds we can make. She actually calls me "Kato," since I think it sounds nicer than the actual Japanese pronunciation of my name; "Kedafu;" as Kedafu honestly sounds like someone sneezing.

Grammar, while hard to grasp at first - is also quite easy and simple. The only real difference is that in grammatical sentence structure, the subject comes after the object. For example, instead of saying "Mrs. Nakamura went to the grocery store," you would say "To the Grocery Store went Mrs. Nakamura." That's also why google translate is always so damn bassackwards. Once you get the hang of it though, it's easy...

However - the hardest part of the language is in reality, the writing and multiple word meanings. Hirigana and Katakana are easy to learn, but the Kanji are a bitch. There are 2,000 of them - and they have thousands of permutations that are so bloody sensitive. Words in Japanese often have multiple meanings, and to determine the proper meaning - you have to use the proper Kanji. It's actually quite common in Japan that when referring to words with multiple meanings in conversation, they carry markers around and when they get to the word they need - they write the Kanji on their wrists. A good, simple example would be the word "Kami." It can mean Hair, Paper, Deity, Above, or Seasoning:


神 - Deity/God
髪 - Hair
紙 - Paper
上 - Above/top of
加味 - Seasoning


The Kanji is such a pain even for them, that they have cram schools that go into high school to teach them how to use the Kanji, even when the students can speak every single word properly. I learned the Japanese language when I was 6 in a matter of 5 weeks, and yet it took 5 years to learn all of the Kanji. That's actually considered faster than most, but the only reason I learned faster is because Chie's mother was the one who taught me it and the language itself and she is quite possibly the best linguist I've ever met and made sure her children learned the Kanji and language ahead of time, and she took that with me as well.

The Kanji requires time and effort - but honestly I think you can grasp Japanese if you follow a rule that really helped me. Do NOT think of English when learning the language. Learn the language from the ground up, and it will go smoothly. You can learn how to pronounce and say the words in literally 10 minutes methinks, and learn the grammatical structure in a matter of 2 days, and spend a month or two learning words.
Good to know, and I appreciate the fact that you would go to the effort basically breaking down a whole language for my benefit. Looks like I have a project for the summer now.

No prob. Hope it goes well. Gotta at least go better than when I tried to learn Chinese. Now that is a hard language. At least Japanese has Grammar, Chinese has none. It's all based on how you pronounce it to very tiny spoken syllables. I think a few synapses blew in my head when the teacher recanted a Chinese tongue twister that was nothing but the word "Ma" with a different tonal inflection, and how it translated out to something about a woman trying to ride a stubborn horse.
Back to top Go down
Angie Matera

Angie Matera


Posts : 564
Join date : 2011-01-23
Age : 34
Location : Puerto rico

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyTue Mar 29, 2011 7:56 pm

i agree its entaertaing as hell one oof my favorite j-horros
Back to top Go down
https://www.facebook.com/angelina.matera
The Original Greaser Bob

The Original Greaser Bob


Posts : 1298
Join date : 2011-01-19
Location : Tampa

Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki EmptyWed Mar 30, 2011 12:09 am

UnknownKadath wrote:
I think a few synapses blew in my head when the teacher recanted a Chinese tongue twister that was nothing but the word "Ma" with a different tonal inflection, and how it translated out to something about a woman trying to ride a stubborn horse.
China would do that.
Back to top Go down
Sponsored content





Review: Uzumaki Empty
PostSubject: Re: Review: Uzumaki   Review: Uzumaki Empty

Back to top Go down
 
Review: Uzumaki
Back to top 
Page 1 of 1
 Similar topics
-
» Review: V/H/S
» Can I Mail You A VHS To Review?
» Review: Portal 2
» Review: Begotten
» Might be fun if you review Popcorn.

Permissions in this forum:You cannot reply to topics in this forum
The Cinema Snob :: Other Stuff :: Theater of Blood-
Jump to: