Going in blind, knowing nothing of the plot or anything.
How difficult is this film for those who’ve seen it. I passed the N3 though I still feel like a high beginner/low intermediate level in Japanese.
Tried watching もののけ姫 with the wife on Friday (she’s Japanese and said the subtitles helped her with that one) but it was way too hard (thankfully seen it a dozen times in English).
Am I in trouble here? I’ve watched a couple movies and dramas in Japanese before and been relatively able to follow along but it really depends on the story and words being used.
8 comments
I will go to watch on 3rd August.
id say you will probably understand the very basic plot but you will miss out on finer details of the plot and the larger themes of the movie. but it’s a very pretty movie that you can enjoy regardless
It’s hard to say as each person is different but for reference I’ve been living in Japan for a few years, passed N3 listening with 60/60 and have taken N2 earlier this month in which I felt the listening was again my best.
Maybe I’m just dumb or don’t immerse enough but it was really difficult to understand, whether it be the speech patterns, vocab not used in daily life, plus just general sound stuff (bgm, action scenes, etc).
Maybe it’s just copium but my Japanese friends say that its hard for them to understand fully as well, both in regards to dialogue and story.
Lastly, I know a lot of people liked it but I didn’t really. Maybe it was because it was hard to follow along that I got lost or “bored” along the way, as I felt it dragged at parts in addition to confusing story beats. But that could just be me “zoning out” as my brain got tired of listening lol. I’ll probably rewatch if it ever comes out in the future with eng sub or dub and see if my opinion changes.
I still recommend it as it’s good visually and it’s always nice to spend time with your significant other.
I’m going to see it tomorrow, FWIW.
Honestly, my general opinion is that learners obsess way too much about what “level” native media is.
Back in the dark ages, we didn’t have the internet or anything, so literally any Japanese content I could watch, I treated like absolute fucking *gold.*
It didn’t matter if it was over my level, or under my level, or whatever — it was *real Japanese –* and the hell if I wasn’t going to soak it up and make the most out of it as possible.
So, TL;DR: just go and feel confident and watch it. Enjoy the fact that you’re watching perhaps Miyazaki’s last movie. Understand what you do, and if you don’t understand some parts — you can watch it again if you find it compelling, or don’t watch it again if you don’t.
My suspicion is that some parts will be easier and some harder, but there’s no need too obsess too much about it. Get out of it what you will, and you’ll almost certainly emerge better from the experience.
I saw it on opening night. I’m around the N4-N3 bubble. I understood the broad plot, who the characters were and how they related to each other, and the stakes of the film. There’s some monologuing once or twice in the film that I didn’t understand at all, but I could explain the movie to someone if asked.
Man I was thinking you meant the novel, and I was gonna say, it’s way over most people’s head, natives included.
Pre-war literature takes some real getting used to.
But you of course meant this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_and_the_Heron
all native media aimed at an adult audience is going to be well above n3, full stop
doesn’t mean you can’t get anything out of it, but do not go in expecting to get most of it, and also don’t beat yourself up for not doing so either
I passed N2 a couple years back and would say I understood about 90% of the dialogue. That said, the story itself was still super confusing and other friends (Japanese included) have also agreed.