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Originally Posted by Suki

Errr no. I mean, yes okay, it has to do with the translation, but it is true that some languages have ways to say something with very few words (English is one of those), while in others you'd use a much longer sentence to express the same thing. There's a pretty funny scene in Lost In Translation that pretty much illustrates what I'm saying. Bill Murray goes to Japan to do a commercial. On set, during the filming, there's a Japanese translator there that translates to English everything the director says. And here's what proves my point: the director just chatters away in Japanese for the longest time, and Bill Murray is like "wow I must be doing very awfully cause he won't shut up..." and when he asks the translator what all he said, the translator just says "Do it again but more slowly" and Bill Murray's like "WTF?! Seriosuly, is that ALL he said? He talked much more than that! He must have said something else!"... see what I mean? Ummm it makes a lot more sense when you watch the scene, I tried but couldn't find it on youtube.

Yes, I know that film, and absolutely love it, one of the bests, but what I've said still stands:
Translated Suntory Scene
Translated dialog from the hilarious Suntory Time whiskey commercial scene from the film Lost in Translation.

Bob, who is in town to make a whiskey commercial, doesn't speak Japanese. His director (Yutaka Tadokoro), a histrionic Japanese hipster, doesn't speak English. In one scene, Bob goes on the set and tries to understand the director through a demure interpreter (Akiko Takeshita), who is either unable or (more likely) unwilling to translate everything the director is rattling on about.

Needless to say, Bob is lost. And without subtitles, so is the audience. Here, translated into English, is what the fulmination is really about.


DIRECTOR (in Japanese to the interpreter): The translation is very
important, O.K.? The translation.

INTERPRETER: Yes, of course. I understand.

DIRECTOR: Mr. Bob-san. You are sitting quietly in your study. And then
there is a bottle of Suntory whiskey on top of the table. You
understand, right? With wholehearted feeling, slowly, look at the
camera, tenderly, and as if you are meeting old friends, say the
words. As if you are Bogie in "Casablanca," saying, "Cheers to you
guys," Suntory time!

INTERPRETER: He wants you to turn, look in camera. O.K.?

BOB: That's all he said?

INTERPRETER: Yes, turn to camera.

BOB: Does he want me to, to turn from the right or turn from the left?

INTERPRETER (in very formal Japanese to the director): He has prepared
and is ready. And he wants to know, when the camera rolls, would you
prefer that he turn to the left, or would you prefer that he turn to
the right? And that is the kind of thing he would like to know, if you
don't mind.

DIRECTOR (very brusquely, and in much more colloquial Japanese):
Either way is fine. That kind of thing doesn't matter. We don't have
time, Bob-san, O.K.? You need to hurry. Raise the tension. Look at the
camera. Slowly, with passion. It's passion that we want. Do you
understand?

INTERPRETER (In English, to Bob): Right side. And, uh, with intensity.

BOB: Is that everything? It seemed like he said quite a bit more than
that.

DIRECTOR: What you are talking about is not just whiskey, you know. Do
you understand? It's like you are meeting old friends. Softly,
tenderly. Gently. Let your feelings boil up. Tension is important!
Don't forget.

INTERPRETER (in English, to Bob): Like an old friend, and into the camera.

BOB: O.K.

DIRECTOR: You understand? You love whiskey. It's Suntory time! O.K.?

BOB: O.K.

DIRECTOR: O.K.? O.K., let's roll. Start.

BOB: For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.

DIRECTOR: Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! (Then in a very male form of
Japanese, like a father speaking to a wayward child) Don't try to fool
me. Don't pretend you don't understand. Do you even understand what we
are trying to do? Suntory is very exclusive. The sound of the words is
important. It's an expensive drink. This is No. 1. Now do it again,
and you have to feel that this is exclusive. O.K.? This is not an
everyday whiskey you know.

INTERPRETER: Could you do it slower and ?

DIRECTOR: With more ecstatic emotion.

INTERPRETER: More intensity.

DIRECTOR (in English): Suntory time! Roll.

BOB: For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.

DIRECTOR: Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! God, I'm begging you.

Posted originally in NY Times

From :Lost in Translation Film Fans: Translated Director Suntory Scene