Blackburn 1 Michael Blackburn English 105 Prof.

Shroff 2 February 2014 Lost in Translation While making the film Hot Summer Winds filmmaker Emiko Omori had to choose which elements of the two short stories she was combining to keep and which to omit. The two short stories, Yamamotos Seventeen Syllables and Yonekos Earthquake, deal with many sensitive subjects from the 1940s and 1450s such as racism, sexuality, class dif ference, abortion, and religion. Some of these topics were omitted because it is just impossible to film some of the scenes from the stories. Omori also would not be able to fit all the subjects into the time constraints of a feature length film without losing focus. To compensate for some things that may be lost in translation from literature to film, Omori uses her own unique style in approaching some of the subjects. The end result is a film that has some strengths, but in the end doesnt do enough to fully capture the emotions of the original source material. Right off the bat the film runs into a problem of translating a story into film and that problem is point of view. Both stories have failing relationships seen from the point of view of a child. The problem is that in a film the audience can see the relationship failing in front of them on the screen. The childs point of view was one of the most powerful aspects of Yamamotos style. To cover up for this, Omori uses a grown up version of Yoneko that is looking back at her life as the narrator. It is revealed to the viewers that her patents marriage is failing, but she was unaware of it at the time. Another scene dealing with this subject that was unfilmable, probably due to the resources and budget among other things, was Rosies vision of a car crash

Blackburn 2 in Seventeen Syllables. It was a key scene because it foreshadows the destructive relationship of Rosies parents and shows that Rosie is aware, at least subconsciously, of what is going on with her parents. The foreshadowing and eventual payoff when Rosies dad destroys her moms prize creates an elliptical effect in Yamamotos storytelling that keeps the failing relationship in the covert plot as opposed to being in the overt plot as it is in the film. Racism is another key subject that is changed from the short story and dearly absent in the film. This is most likely due to on reason: the audience. An American audience might find it difficult to distinguish between two Asian races, so changing Marpo to Mexican makes it easier for the audience to visually see the difference. In the short story Yamamoto continually brings up the theme of Filipino versus Japanese in a way that cannot be translated visually. The stark contrast in appearance between the Japanese characters and the Mexican Marpo does its best to fill in for the missing clash of cultures. There isnt any racism towards Marpo in the film for being Mexican simply b ecause it would do nothing to move the plot forward. In the short story racism plays a bigger role with constant reminders throughout the Marpo is Filipino and therefore different. Yoneko even uses the fact that Marpo is a mere Filipino, an eater of wild dogs, to help herself come to terms with him being gone. In the film the audience knows exactly why Marpo leaves, so the question of race playing a part in it is unnecessary. The reason the audience knows why Marpo is leaving is because of the visual cues that an affair has taken place. Although the affair is still only implied in the film, it is heavily implied compared to the covert style of Yamamotos short story. The affair is implied in the film by the scene where Yonekos mother walks to the bathtub past Marpo, fanaticizes about Marpo while in the bath in a very sensual sequence, and then is invited into Marpos room for tea on her way back into the house from the bath. In the short

Blackburn 3 story you really have to put the pieces together to figure it all out. The way Yamamoto writes the affair just cannot translate the same into film. There are a few important subplots that are left out of the film that are very important to the short stories. One of these subplots is Rosies love story with Jesus. There w ould have been no way to fit this into the film without stretching the length and confusing the main plot. In Seventeen Syllables the love story is important because of the parallel drawn between Rosie discovering her sexuality and Rosies mom becoming a poet. This is also another example of Yamaotos elliptical writing style that is unable to be translated into the film. Rosies mother is unhappy because she couldnt marry the man she wanted to and then she asks Rosie never to marry. They are both finding themselves only to have what they have discovered taken away from them. Rosies dad forces her mother to stop writing and her mother tries to keep Rosie from finding love. Another major subplot from Yonekos Earthquake missing from the film is Seigos death. Seigos death serves an important role in both the abortion reveal and the way religion is used in the story. The religion sub plot is touched on briefly in the film but far from a major factor. In the story Seigos death throws Yoneko into a full reli gious crisis, where she rejects god in the end. It also serves as a major hint towards the fact that Yonekos mom got an abortion. Yonekos mom tells her Never kill a person, Yoneko, because if you do, God will take from you someone you love. Killing Seigo would have lengthened the film and probably not gone over well with audiences. This is a powerful moment in the story that is lost in the film, especially when Yoneko responds with her rejection of religion. The last major moment from the short stories that doesnt appear in the film is the ending to Seven Syllables, where Rosies mom unveils to Rosie her whole history. The problem here is that there are two short stories

Blackburn 4 with two endings being made into one film with only one ending. Omori had to make a choice and she chose to leave this ending out. This ending most likely would not have translated well to the screen. The powerful silences in the book may have come off as awkward and out of place in the overall tone of this film. Yamamoto uses the silences to fill in for the emotions and conflicts between the characters that the film shows on screen. The class difference that is unveiled at the end of the short story is also the first thing that comes out of the narrators mouth in the film, which would take away from the mothers story if she were to tell it in the film. The absence of Rosies love story with Jesus from the film would weaken the moms story as well. Omori approaches three subjects from the stories in her own style. One of these subjects is the abortion. In Yonekos Earthquake the words pregnancy and abortion never comes out. Yamamoto uses the image of the dad running over a dog in the middle of the road to symbolize the trip to have the abortion done. In the film there is a scene where Yonekos mom tells her husband she is pregnant and due to her husband not being around at the time it is obvious that Marpo is the father. Part of this is the fact that Omori made her film in the 1990s when abortion was a little less of a taboo subject, compared to 1951 when Yamamoto released Yonekos Earthquake at least. Omori is also just throwing the subject out on the table for people to deal with instead of using subtle hints. Another thing Omori approaches differently is the earthquake. In the short story the earthquake is serves as something similar to Rosies car crash fantasy in Seventeen Syllables. The earthquake is real but what it represents for Yoneko is the breaking down of her family and religion, which hasnt taken place in the story yet. The earthquake is for Yoneko that is why the story is titled Yonekos Earthquake. In the film

Blackburn 5 the earthquake is merely a plot device and has little to do with Yoneko. It just moves Yonekos father out of the way so that her mother is free to have an affair with Marpo. It feels more like the earthquake is happening to shake up the mothers life rather than Yonekos. The last thing the Omori handles differently is how the mother and fathers difference in class is displayed. In Seventeen Syllables we see throughout the story that Rosies father doesnt communicate very well and has a bit of an explosive temper. The film starts off by saying they are from different classes but also does more to show this throughout the story. There is a clear farmer versus intellectual dynamic throughout the film. They play off of each other well and create a real sense of tension. In Seventeen Syllables the reader isnt really sure why the couple is so unhappy until the mother reveals her history at the end. In the end the changes made to the two short stories weaken their impact when translated into film form. The ending Omori went with for the film is weaker than both of the endings from the short story and gives the story a whole different meaning, with Yonekos mom accepting her place being obedient to the controlling, less intelligent husband. The film leaves the audience with a smiling mother, while Yonekos Earthquake leaves the reader with a broken woman clinging to religion and Seventeen Syllables leaves the reader with a sobbing mother begging her child to never marry. The attempt at a happy, Hollywood style ending really weakens the films. The powerful silences and elliptical style of Yamamotos writing are lost in translation when the stories are put on the screen. The film does do a good job of externalizing the parental conflicts and combining both stories into a coherent narrative, but o verall its the short stories that do a better job at creating entertainment and delivering a message.

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Works Cited Hot Summer Winds. Dir. Emiko Omori. Perf. Natsuko Ohama and Tricia Joe. American Playhouse, 1991. Class Screening. Yamamoto, Hisaye, and King-Kok Cheung. Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories. New Brunswick (N. J.): Rutgers UP, 2001. Print.