Hey everyone, thanks for watching! What did you think of Isle of Dogs? Do you think director's should try to reduce the impact of cultural context has on a film? As always, thank you to my patrons for their support, and if you'd like to become on yourself check out: patreon.com/thomasflight

I’m bilingual and can speak both Japanese and English fluently, and I agree with your points. Wes outdid himself in this film, but understanding both languages did take away a lot from it.

Isle of dogs is truly a delight to watch, if you're an English speaker of course. I think Anderson made the right call to keep it this way, sadly not every movie is for everyone, but that's ok.

I live in Germany and there are a lot of movies that simply do not work in the translated versions. I exclusively watch movies in English, but people that don't understand English and have to rely on the German translation always face a lot of downsides. One of the prime examples would be Inglourious Basterds. In the original version, The American and British soldiers speak English, the Germans speak German, and the French speak French. That makes a lot of sense. In the German version though The British, the Americans and the Germans all speak German while the French still speak French. So every scene where the Basterds try to communicate with the Germans or their recruitment of former german citizens are totally nonsensical in the translated version. And in addition to that, you oftentimes cannot translate word plays, jokes, or equivocal phrases into another language.

Great essay. I think it's totally fine what he did. He made a movie for western audiences, while still respecting the culture used throughout the film. I don't see a problem with having an audience in mind and I think it would ultimately lead to bigger problems if we had to make films that appealed and worked on a global scale.

The boy has strange accent, like the person speaking is maybe Asian but not actually Japanese. I still liked understanding both languages, it actually expands the story for me, but the narrative is focused on the dogs; understanding the people shifts the focus a lot. Culture is always present in media, from the way people speak to their reactions and the story style; if it is not obvious, then it is subtle, but never absent. Small thing: thumbnail for Inugashima 犬ヶ島 is misleading, 犬 is dog and 島 is Island; it is reversed because English word order is different

Why didn't they just swap the Japanese and English for the Japanese Dub? Might have been a little more work but it seems like it would have been better

I've recently been wondering how Japanese version handles translation and how audience in Japan received "Isle of Dogs', and you've answered all my questions. Thank you for your work, your essays are great.

I believe that watching a movie in its pure original form is essential to truly understand it.

I'm a native English speaker, but I live in Japan and speak Japanese. It was certainly interesting to watch "Isle of Dogs" knowing the Japanese language. I definitely felt like I wasn't supposed to understand the Japanese in the film, but I did enjoy it nonetheless. I think it both took some things away, and added other things to it while I watched. I may not have missed out on the dialogue that I was supposed to miss out on. But I really appreciated the attention to cultural and linguistic detail in the film. From the sushi cutting scene, to the student activist group, to the simple way that the scientists "kanpai" and clap after drinking, it really felt like a lot of effort and research went into this. I do agree that the film comes from an Anglo-centric point of view and that is part of the point of the film, and as you say, you can't tell a story outside of a cultural bubble. But I think it is possible to appreciate the film from different angles. Everyone who watches, reads, or hears a story will have their own cultural or personal background and will take away something different from the story. I will say that I felt like the film was a breath of fresh air in the sense that many films on other countries or cultures, told from an Anglo-centric perspective often show the "other" culture as strange or is played for laughs. Everything I saw in "Isle of Dogs" felt like the "other" culture was just is how it is. The POV characters (the dogs) were still technically a part of that world; their perspective on it was just different and had a different relationship to it than your average foreigner-goes-to-other-country perspective. And as a result, there was a sense of integrity to the use of another culture in an Anglo-centric film. So in the end, yes, to appreciate the film in the way Wes Anderson intended, one should be an English-speaker who does not understand Japanese. But just as no story can be told in a cultural bubble, it also cannot be viewed in one. Differing viewing experiences are to be expected, and in a way that's one of the interesting parts of experiencing a story.

I think the Japanese translation should’ve been a complete swap of voice actors. They should’ve had the main humans talk English while the Dogs speak Japanese.

I wish they had dubbed the humans in English for the Japanese release, would have sounded odd, but would have insured the survival of the language barrier. With the exception of the text on screen. As for the idea of someone 'not' doing something because a specific set won't be able to fully understand it. I say make it. But if you have the money, do the above.

Quick note: interpreting is a completely different occupation from translating

I went to go see this movie with my mum (who is Japanese and her English isn't very good), and I'm fluent in both English and Japanese. We both understood and enjoyed the movie in almost a similar way simply because we watched it with the full expectation that there are certain ambiguities that neither of us could understand regardless of what language that was in. My mum was able to understand the gist of the English dialogue, and was able to interpret all of the references to the cultural context that was shown visually in the film. I was able to understand the English and Japanese dialogue, but wasn't able to understand certain cultural aspects as clearly as my mum would have.

In my opinion it's perfectly fine to create a film geared towards a specific viewing experience for a specific audience. Granted, it's probably ideal if you're seeking to make the box office overflow, especially since foreign markets are such a huge factor nowadays. However, West Anderson movies were never really about that mass appeal other studios try for. I can sympathize with not being able to have the "true" viewing experience if you fall outside of unique cultural perspective this film relies on, but at the same time I feel more culturally neutral options would've made this film come off as more generic in its presentation. With all the reboots and complete lack of originality in Hollywood these days, I'd much rather have a film take risks even at the risk of somewhat excluding certain audiences rather than having artistic integrity watered down trying to please everyone.

I have got the power of god and anime on my side, so I understood most of what was said in japanese. Being a weeb pays off.

Another solution would be to set the movie in the fictional country that looks and sounds like Japan but it actually isn't. So the language spoken would be Japanese-like but actually gibberish, therefore untranslatable which would render all audiences equal. (like Charlie Chaplin's fake German speech )The dogs would be speaking the language of the audiences. Simple, really, Wes actually did something like that in Grand Budapest Hotel where the country is fictional but looks and feels like a Switzerland or Austria. But I believe he really wanted the real Japan and Japanese language. Great video. As a non-native English speaker, I think the issue of language and translation in media should be brought up more because English speakers have no idea how the rest of the world has to cope with the language barrier to consume pretty much any media of bigger importance. English speakers and their opposition to watch movies with subtitles disgust me, to me it's the only way I've ever known to watch movies (except dubs for animation). As a child of 7, the only cartoon channel available was the English Cartoon Network. I didn't understand it, but so what, I knew what was going on. Not to mention games, when I literally had to get up the check the dictionary to fetch the thing I didn't know a word for, if an NPC wanted it from me. I also had few GameBoy games in German, I just asked mom, she spreche Deutsch. So, seeing a movie where the characters in Japan speak not-translated Japanese in the American movie is a phenomenon for me. You guys have everything explained and spelt out for you, in every movie, I swear, you have English speaking French, Italians, Spanish guys... Just visit hem, they don't speak English! At. All. it's great if you don't understand something sometimes. It's eye-opening. Just like you said Thomas, you start to look at people like dogs do, gestures, poses, body language. And this builds empathy.

I quite liked Isle of Dogs, it was one of my favourite Wes Anderson movies, and the first one I could see in theatres. One of the first things I wondered about after leaving the movie was how Japanese audiences would be able to experience the film. I like how you've addressed that here. Even though some of the Japanese audience found the way Ilse of Dogs was presented a bit jarring, I don't think it suggests that this or any other film should try to avoid the impact of their director's cultural context. Whether it's obvious or not, the cultural context of the filmmaker can be a personal part of their vision that uniquely helps them to tell their own stories. Everyone should be able to enjoy a movie, but if the director feels they can speak more so to a specific group, they might get more out of the movie than anyone would if the director (or writer, etc..) hadn't leaned into what they know. Foreign media like film can also use their cultural context to help foreigners begin to understand that context which they may have otherwise been ignorant to.

Hi! I loved this video essay! I agree on your points on both pros and cons of the film. I am a Filipino and can understand English and Japanese well enough. I think Wes and the whole crew did a great job all in all and that this style we see, his thematic use of different languages to convey the story, is something that is both creative and brave. Setting an audience in mind while creating something is not really "bad," that's just how things go. I am excited to see more of this style and how it will evolve.

I think all those issues has been fixed during The French Dispatch : adding subtitles is maybe less immersive but it helps both English and French audience to understand ( as a French boy, I must say this was well done )

Why wasn't the japanese dub language reversed - like the dogs spoke japanese and the humans spoke english

This is honestly Wes Anderson's best film. It works on so many levels

Kind of flabbergasted you have to ask if it's okay to create a movie within a cultural context. Not everything has to be for everyone, there's nothing wrong with making something for a particular audience.

Loved Isle of Dogs! Really enjoyed this, I found the humour in the subtitles great, just a little extra wink to the audience.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this form of story telling. It just becomes limiting when you try to bring it into other languages. Movies like the STAR WARS Trilogy made up many of their languages. So, just translating the English wasn’t that much of an issue. The one time I remember them using a real language was with Lando’s co-pilot, Nien Numb, in Return of the Jedi. I think he spoke Ched or some other African language.

Wes Anderson encountered the old James Joyce problem, and decided to use the same answer. It really is truly impossible to create universal art rendered in langauge, which makes all high art essentially classist. Thats not to say that the upperclass have bad taste, just that you can't blame the lower class for misunderstanding it. So James Joyce just decided to elevate the irish perspective into the english language, instead of trying to reconcile it with his personal identity, atleast until before Finegan's Wake.

This was really fascinating, probably the most interesting and fresh video essay I’ve seen in a while

5 minutes in i had to subscribe. thanks for making this, makes me appreciate the movie even more. i didn't even realize i hadn't watched a single video essay about isle of dogs, and i'm so glad this one was recommended to me.

I must confess, this is a great video! Although I had similar feelings about Isle of Dogs, I would not be able to put my feelings in words as you do in this video. It's nice to see some alternation from all the boring and standardized video essays here on KZfaq!

I watched the movie in German and I THINK I remember Tracy being from Germany. Makes sense and is kinda cool that they changed that fact. (I could be wrong though.)

Really good vid! I love this film and all of Wes Andersons films! This vid is a really good analysis on the language of this film, which I find is a really original idea.

The scene when Atari speaks with Spot for the first time brought me to tears - I put this movie on for fun and was not expecting to have my heart touched so strongly - the way Anderson employed empathy through a lack of communication was brilliant

You actually addressed a very interesting topic. I think this would be an interesting topic for scholars in translation studies. As for your question on whether movies can be made w/o elements of the culture itself, there are some very interesting movies out there that play with that concept in order to film a movie that can be appreciated worldwide. For example, they avoid specifying locations. But also notice how popular Hollywood movies have managed to become despite being situated in an American context and spoken in English.

Everyone else: Detailed and constructive comments. Me: "This video was *S P O N O R E D* by NordVPN

To me it represented a whole new experience altogether. I hadn't really thought about everything you said in your video, but my complete lack of understanding of the japanese language did not take away from the experience at all. I felt like, even though the movie isn't centered on one specific main character, the fact that I was forced to a specific perspective enabled me to connect on a deeper level to the whole context and "message" (if you can call it that) that it tried to convey.

I think having the Japanese and English language cohabit in the same movie, though it makes the movie anglo-centric, actually points out the fact that it's a romanced vision of Japan. In the same way the dogs can't understand the humans but are in utter admiration for them, Wes Anderson shows that he loves Japan, even though he'll never be able to be fully Japanese. This is especially critical in the scene where Atari reads out a haiku : the reaction of the interpret is the one we're supposed to have, even though it's terribly cliché to resolve a crisis like this.

Dang. I stoped the video 2/3 in and watched the whole movie. It's a good watch and definitely holds a lot of the points of the analysis true. good work!

I really liked this video. IT improved myappreciation for this movie even more.

In some small part I find this equivalent to reading translated manga. Often there are explainations in page of innuendo or word play that is garbled or lost in translation, cultural references that are vague for English speakers or more accutely americans. It's an interesting feeling to have that sort of change described from the other side, though I'm sure this an extreme instance because of how the movie is written.

i needed this so much thank you

Great movie and great product referral. Thanks!!

Great video! I loved every second of it.

Great vid! Just something I am curious about, I don't think it was ever implied that the device allows Spots and Atari to understand each other, just hear each other.

After watching this movie several times, I thought to myself how someone like Wes Anderson could make such a clever idea for a movie. This movie is my most favorite movie of all time because of this.

In the Japanese dub I would've inverted the roles, have the dogs speak Japanese and the humans English/other language.

This is extremely well explained

3:05 I took a big oof when you wrote "Charles Brown" No one can get everything right, it's fine

I’m a student learning Japanese currently and I recognized a lot of the basic stuff that was spoken. I found that being able to decipher Japanese graffiti/decor, etc. or certain characters actually deepened the story for me. For example on Trash Island there’s wall graffiti that translates to “how are you going to kill us”. It really makes the struggle for the dogs and the hatred and misunderstanding much more clear when you can notice the film’s plentiful detail.

They could’ve simply used an unintelligible dialect in the Japanese translation (e.g. Okinawan)

Thomas I adore your essays. Keep doin it son.

I loved this concept so much! I was able to finally watch the movie a month back, but it was really amazing. Luckily I was able read the text quickly (or keep up for the lost part) from watching so many subs ^^’

Damn this was interesting Tom. This is my favourite stop motion film. I hadn’t seen it this way. Fantastic.

Needed this

This is delightful

This is really awesome! I liked that the movie didn't have subtitles, it made it more realistic, although thanks to you I can understand how Japanese audiences might not care for it. However, I loved this movie!!

This is my favorite movie! I loved seeing it in theaters!

It's interesting. I've only read it as a unique perspective and stylistic touch to the film but now that you mentioned it, it's probably purposeful that the language barrier also represents the space and awkwardness between the dogs (English) and humans who don't understand each other

this is literally my favorite animation movie that i watched the animation is giving me goosebumps how good it is and i am happy that i founded this movie

Shocked me when I heard Kira's voice coming out of spots

Great discussion Thomas. I think looking at games like those made by Fumito Ueda could offer a unique solution. Ico especially since it both Ico and Yorda speak two different, made-up languages, but we are only able to understand Ico's, and all the developers have to do is change the subtitles for each region.

Very well explained. That's all I can say really.

Damn that i can hear you seen gets me teary eyed everytime :’)

Thanks for posting this video! I am native English speaker and thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but wondered how the language thing would be perceived in Japan.

I guess I'm going to have another kind of special experience viewing this film, different from many of you. When I first watched it I could only understand the English, and a little bit of the Japanese writing since I'm from China I could read most of the kanji, and some simple sentences of the Japanese the human characters say. Now I'm starting to learn Japanese, and I hope that I can understand most of the human speech in this film by 2020, which is when I'm going to watch this film again, looking forward to having a totally different experience.

Great video

I'm not a native English speaker nor Japanese but I really enjoyed this movie because I understand some spoken Japanese .. I have noticed the same thing with Korean movies and Dramas, I don't speak fluent Korean either but I have been watching their works from tv series to reality shows, news to movies and such for over 10 years now and I consider myself to have a cultural and historical background and I don't face issues that will ruin the work experience, but when I recommend the magnificent works I watched to someone with no experience with Korean culture or history they will not enjoy it fully and take the notes I had for the same line or scene. I think language in some works is crucial especially when it comes to comedy and it's inseparable part of the work.. Thank you so much for this video! Keep it up ✨

I honestly loved the movie, the lack of subtitles just made the world more natural.

This was awesome

I love this movie so much!

Great Great, Great MOVIE, STORY, ANIMATION, IDEA........tank you 💓🤘

As a translator in training who speaks English and Korean who just happened to have a fledgling grasp on Japanese language, this movie, both as of itself and its depiction of translators (or rather, interpreters -- we do different things.) was wildly interesting to me. While I can't provide any deeper musings of my own, I just gotta say i find your essay on the cultural boundaries and their effects on cinema very candid and just as interesting, if not even more engrossing than Wes' film. Wes kept most of the intended audience in the dark on purpose, and I believe it was a brilliant stroke of genius. Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks so. Also, as to answer your question: no, I don't think directors should limit the cultural context of any film they produce. It'd be as pointless as removing any other cinematographic values of any given kinds cinema.

Ive said this forever, the way the movie translates and uses language is genius

The background music was so soothing

i friggin loved this movie!!!!!!

I've always thought about a movie that would have 2 people put together in circumstances without translation tools. So over a long period of time you could see the eventual learning and sharing of both languages. And have the movie use either little to no subtitles or have both languages represented in the subtitles. It would be interesting to see how body language would replace spoken language at first and then have them create a sorta of shared language like Spanglish. I can just never get the right setting in mind.

I downloaded a sub version and only had subtitles on the English parts and I thank that because in other way it would a big part of the film essence

Initially I watched the movie in a theatre dubbed in Ukrainian, since no original version screenings were available at the time. It was brilliantly done and they kept true to Wes' idea. Where necessary English lines delivered by Japanese speakers were dubbed in Ukrainian with a Japanese accent. If I recall correctly, all or most of the English subtitles were somehow replaced by similarly stylised Ukrainian ones, while signage in the frame and the like was subtitled at the bottom. Of course, I later re-watched it in English at it was even better, especially hearing the familiar voices of actors involved in the film. But the dubbing in Ukraine was executed as well as it can be done for any movie. So I suppose, other than for Japanese audiences (ごめんなさい!), dubbed versions were fine.

So every half a decade or so I'll have to wait for another layered art piece that is a Wes Anderson film although everything has its problems and for Isle of Dogs it's the language barriers... For those who enjoy the media to their own country only I envy you considering foreign merchandise is either too expensive or too hard to obtain... Great video duder... Even if it reminds us that some experiences we can never experience as intended and that's a lesson that I'm glad I was reminded of.

Why didn't they just swap the languages so Japanese citizens could understand it? The dogs could speak Japanese and the humans speak english, the translators speaking japanese. It's not that hard to figure something like that out. Why would you make a movie and not market it to a single certain country, especially the one that the movie is literally set in? Exclusion like that could lead to some serious backlash. The marketing team failed their jobs.

I'm not entirely sure what more we can expect from an english-speaking director making a movie for an english-speaking audience. We don't seem to ask that Japanese, French, Spanish ect... movies be completely accessible to a english-speaking audience, and that the historical and cultural elements be watered down to accommodate an audience whom the film was not created for. In fact, if any serious critic or writer challenged a foreign film that way he would be castigated for being arrogant and "eurocentric" as well.

I live Wes Anderson's style it's goddamn brilliant

Damn! Watching this video and reading the comments makes me realize how much of a genius Wes Anderson really is!

Question: Do you think it is a coincidence that if you say the title fast it sounds out to "I love dogs"?

I clicked on this thinking you were going to add English subs to the Japanese speech parts. WHAT A FOOL I WAS!!!

Thank you for defending, Tracy.

I am native English speaker with Japanese as a second language and I feel like this movie was made just for me. I didn't feel like it was distracting at all :) I felt privileged because I was able to understand a lot of the cultural cues on both sides. Plus, since I'm always having to translate things for others, I felt like the translators being plot-significant characters made it a really awesome nod to the amount of work that these people do and often don't get credit for.

In Portugal, only the English was translated and subtitled (we don't tend to dub films). It worked brilliantly as the original intended.

I wish in situations like this the movie will just switch the character who's language you aren't supposed to understand into some other language so that way the language barrier still exists

I can’t wait to watch this film! I think for Japanese speaking audience, who don’t get to experience the unknown language on this movie, it is similar to a film “Lost in translation”.

wow, more substance-less surface level observations about popular movies! thanks, youtube recommendations!

It's such a great device, especially in a movie that's basically about communication

I feel that artist should make their craft for the place of origin and if it takes off world wide, it is just a bonus. I just feel that people who are making art for the world are just after money and not the craft. Plus, what a great way to see culture around the world than through their own art.

This video was uploaded on my birthday

The scene at 9:01, I swear I've seen something like this before. I think it was in one of the episode of Ultra Seven....

As I'm sure you're well aware, in the early days of voiced film, Paramount set up a French division to do something that to us would seem ridiculous: make a different version of hit American films for each and every major European demographic. One German version, one Spanish version, one Polish version, etcetera. Theoretically, this would overcome the major hurdle of voiced film, in that global appeal is lost. However, audience reaction was tepid at best. To make scripts that could be translated into 12 languages concurrently, the resulting films were "culturally faceless" so to speak. The films had famous actors from their regions playing the roles, but it couldn't overcome how lifeless and fake they seemed. An opposite problem was reached with some scripts, where without the cultural contexts that the original films were marinaded in, they simply did not work narratively and the resulting films were goofy at best and insulting at worst. What I'm attempting to get across is that the above scenarios are obviously not only not ideal, but should be avoided at all costs. One should not expect an artist to try to appeal to every other potential audience outside of one's own, robbing the art of any individual unique character that can be dubbed over to create "the same thing", but in another language. I, having been raised primarily as a speaker of English, do not and should not expect to be completely able to understand the contexts of Les Quatre Cents Coups, or Germania anno zero, or even stuff like Potemkin - to me, that is the height of egocentrism...and so not understanding them perfectly is just fine by me. It is a natural consequence of art being personal, and it is regrettable, but c'est la vie. As such, I would argue against the notion that the rest of the world is so deprived of art that they need big moneybags America to curate tasteless art for sanitized global consumption. But that's just my two cents. A good dub (there are good dubs) can be a truly excellent experience carried by inspired translation (an art form in itself) and passionate, committed acting - but it will never be quite the same thing. And I don't think removing uniqueness to make something more palatable for outside approval does anyone any favors.

I really enjoyed the movie, and your thoughts on the matter as well as your commentary on the Japanese translation are really insightful. I'm sure you agree with this, but I did want to mention that even though the movie's use of language does make it anglo-centric, I think that credit is deserved for Anderson's appreciation and respect of Japanese culture and language within the film. Even though it might be hard for a Japanese speaker to pick up the thematic elements, he or she can at least be happy with the way Anderson and his team respectfully represented Japanese culture.

lol but my years in anime watching trained me for this, and was surprised and happy to find I understood 85% of the Japanese dialougue.

After watching this, I now see how the title card of the film itself plays to the use of language throughout. Whilst the Japanese says "dog-island" (simpl.), for instance, the English "isle" is written over the kanji for "dog". The positioning of the translation over the kanji, rather than below, implies to the reader that the character says that word, but in fact it doesn't, it also implies the whole thing says "lit. Isle of dogs", it doesn't. Clever.

I forgot about this movie, I saw a trailer a few years ago but never got the chance to watch it because it wasn't in theatres nor on the internet anywhere so I kinda just forgot about it.

This was an amazing movie 10/10