Seven Pounds (with Will Smith)

I would definitely recommend seeing this movie (twice): Seven Pounds (with Will Smith). In Japanese it’s 7つの贈り物. Nanatsu No Okurimono. The DVD and Blu-ray disc went on sale in Japan on September 2, 2009.

It’s not as fast-paced as the trailer would have you believe, and Will Smith has a pained expression on his face for most of the movie, but if you can get past those things, the film has its rewards. Not the least of which is Rosario Dawson. Or the more cerebral reward of figuring out the English title. I won’t say more.
But my concern about this movie, and the reason I’m posting about it on the SWET blog, is a key subtitling error. (I don’t think revealing the dialogue will spoil the movie for first-time viewers.) I’m wondering if it’s a legitimate error, in the sense that the translator hired by Sony Pictures Entertainment (or production) made a mistake, leaving out a “~” to indicate a span between two numbers.
The reason I have to wonder, is that I received the DVD from a friend in July, so it was likely downloaded from a torrent. In the past I’ve watched “fansubbed” videos, and the MO of the fansubber is usually a prominent display of his “name” at the beginning. (I don’t have an example at hand, though.) This DVD didn’t have that and seemed like a legitimate rip (I know, an oxymoron), perhaps from a rental DVD.
Anyway, here’s the dialogue for the scene with subtitles. “W” stands for “Will” and “D” for “Doctor.”

W: Do you have any more..any optimism about Emily
あなたの経験から言って
than you did the other day?
エミりーにはどれくらい見込みが？

D: When..when you’re looking for a donor with a rare blood type
ドナーが見つかっても雌らしい血液型では
the odds go way down.
可能性が低いよ

W: To what? They go down to..What’s..give me a percentage.
可能性が・・低いとは？
確率は？

Give me a number!
数字を現して！

D: Three? (Shakes head) Five percent?
３５パーセント

I…I’m sorry…
もう少したかければ
I wish the numbers were higher.
いいんだけど

W: Thank you.
ありがとう。

(Here’s the video of the scene.)
——-
That subtitle sure looks like “35” to me.
Three to five, not thirty-five!!!
I wonder if Japanese audiences who only read the subtitles will be misled by this mistake. What do you think?

Posted by Richard Sadowsky on 09/14 at 08:49 AM

Comments

  1. You can see this level of error on NHK…even in documentaries.
    Don’t get your knickers in a twist!

    :-D

    Posted by Simon on 09/14 at 01:32 PM

  2. I hope that 雌らしい wasn’t actually in there too!

    Posted by Aaron on 09/14 at 01:39 PM

  3. I saw it in Mission BC last year. Once was enough.
    Better than Hancock and Happyness, but that’s not saying much.

    Posted by Maynard Hogg on 09/14 at 01:43 PM

  4. Whoops…珍しい (mezurashii—rare). The kanji error is my own. ;-)

    Posted by Richard Sadowsky on 09/14 at 01:45 PM

  5. When I lived in Finland and Sweden and saw English-language movies/shows, I noticed subtitling errors in numbers all the time. It got so I thought it must be some sort of in-joke among those who subtitle movies.

    Posted by Peggy on 09/17 at 01:01 AM
    6. Page 1 of 1 pages

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