Help me fund subtitles for rare Toho films!

[Tamura]

I started a patreon dedicated to funding subtitles for rare and forgotten Japanese movies, including Ishiro Honda and Jun Fukuda's non-kaiju work as well as high profile films long desired in English friendly form, like THE KILLING BOTTLE.

I've already subtitled Honda's first features - two dramas rarely seen even in Japan. The subtitled films are now accessible to all patrons. Please consider becoming a patron so we can have a more diverse and nuanced perspective of classic Japanese cinema! If I hit my $500 a month goal I can have at least one feature subtitled per month.

Spread the link far and wide:
https://www.patreon.com/cultjapansubtitlefund

[Terasawa]

This is one of the coolest things anyone in this fandom has done. I really hope more people will hop onboard.

[LSD Jellyfish]

When I get a new debit card (frustrating process in Japan), I'll happily contribute.

[MaxRebo320]

This is definitely a fantastic idea, and I intend on contributing once I'm paid next week. Considering we've recently gotten the likes of The Final War and the Ultra Q movie subbed, this really is shaping up to be a renaissance. Without giving too much away yet, I did recently finance the translation of a certain obscure Toho flick from the 70s that should be available in a few weeks. Stay tuned...

That said, I do have a few questions/suggestions regarding this whole process, though some might be better suited to private messages.

Who/what/where is the translation source for these movies? The party I turned to for my project is a Fansub group that started offering translation for a fee. I do understand there are people on private trackers (None of which I'm really apart of) that offer the same thing for a price.

When will the movies be available to those that pledge $5? Will they eventually be sent to them, or will the movies just quietly make their way onto private torrent sites (Which in the case for someone like me, would defeat the purpose of making them more available)?

There are some more titles that aren't listed that I'd love to see, like Honda's Eagle of the Pacific and Man Who Came to Port, Nobuo Nakagawa's Vampire Moth (Though apparently UC Berkeley has a subtitled copy), Daiei's Typhoon Reporter, Conflagration/Tokyo Gulf Burns, Claws of Iron (1951), some more works from directors like Kihachi Okamoto and Senkichi Taniguchi (Though good thing bringing up Keys of Keys and Killing Bottle) and I'm sure literally hundreds of others. There's also the subject of TV shows...my interest in Toku shows has sort of declined this year (I still love the Ultraman franchise and a good handful of others though), but there are a few I still really want to see subtitled, with my "holy trinity" being Inazuman Flash, Silver Kamen and Fireman (Tsuburaya's Mighty Jack and Operation Mystery are ones I'd love too). Has your translator ever expressed interest in doing a show? They'd probably cost a fortune, and getting the funding might be hard due to limited interest, but I feel it's worth considering. I'm dumbfounded crap like Kagestar, Bycrosser, Vanny Knights and Born Free all get fansubs, but legitimately good shows with cinematic ties/influence like those are ignored (Don't even get me started on modern shows that get translated by like, three different groups).

[Tamura]

My source is a person who gave me an estimate after I calculated how many full minutes of each film featured dialog for a rate of $6 a minute.

Subtitles will be $10+ patron exclusives until I can find somewhere centralized to host these (I'm thinking Biorante). After that gets set up said patrons will still get to see each of these early as a nice incentive. As I said in the About section, these are not for sale at all. But I am open to them being spread without profit or translated into other languages from the English.

Not interested in doing TV unless it's like a program related to this period of Japanese cinema...

[MaxRebo320]

My source is a person who gave me an estimate after I calculated how many full minutes of each film featured dialog for a rate of $6 a minute.

That's exactly how much my person was charging too. I guess that's the usual fee for this sort of thing, but it'd be funny if we got the same translator.

Subtitles will be $10+ patron exclusives until I can find somewhere centralized to host these (I'm thinking Biorante). After that gets set up said patrons will still get to see each of these early as a nice incentive.

It's of course fair and normal for those that pay more to get earlier access to stuff. That said, I feel most people who would be interested in backing this are probably more able to contribute smaller amounts, but the sort of lack of any real answer as to when they might see this stuff might be off-putting. Wouldn't it just be possible to send those smaller donors the Google Drive links a week or two after the premium donors get them?

Not interested in doing TV unless it's like a program related to this period of Japanese cinema...

Well, the TsuPro stuff is of course tangentially connected to most of the aforementioned film titles (Well, Fireman was made a few years after Eiji's death, but I'm sure it's still great judging by the other Tsuburaya Productions shows that aired in the same period). Silver Kamen has direct ties to the Art Theater Guild (ATG), being devised largely by Mamoru Sasaki and Akio Jissoji (Who both worked on some of the finest Ultraman episodes as I'm sure you know) and using much of the same crew from ATG productions. Inazuman Flash didn't have anyone from the ATG itself, but much of the crew involved were apparently big fans, and several episodes utilize filming techniques present in ATG's work, at least from what I've read (Flash is also the direct sequel to the very fun Inazuman and was the first Toei show to be headed by Shozo Uehara, before he became kind of disillusioned with the whole scene. It also deals with themes of prejudice that are more relevant than ever). That said, I guess the ATG stuff (Which really took off in the late 60s - mid 70s) is a little after the particular "era" you're talking about, and again, I know funding a show could cost a fortune. But still, I wish fansubbers would look into shows like those as opposed to the junk they usually tackle. This might be worth starting a thread over, but I doubt it'd generate any more interest really.

[Tamura]

Sending links a week or two later is a good consideration I stupidly didn't think of. Once I have a host there will still be a one or two week wait period per film for tier 1 peeps.

I understand the significance of those works but my main goal is sweeping up films that don't fit into any "canon" exactly that is already being tackled, and are therefore less likely to be translated by other groups. I'm sure most major TV tokusatsu in existence will eventually be translated, along with all the ATG and Obayashi films. But what about the first Toho Scope film? Or the first Toho film in color? Or Honda's last drama? Again if there's like a documentary about Hajime Koizumi or an interview with a Kunio Miyauchi or whatever (that's what I meant by program I guess) then that would interest me. The focus is on underrepresented films and workers and discovering unknown writers, actors, DPs, etc. through the films I/we choose who would continue being unknown and unappreciated if their work was never English friendly.

[MaxRebo320]

I'm sure most major TV tokusatsu in existence will eventually be translated, along with all the ATG and Obayashi films.

In fairness, couldn't one have made that assumption about all Ishiro Honda's films, since so many are translated already?

But no, I fully get what you're saying - this stuff is the nichest of niches in the US, but are still of big historical importance. And for the record, I wasn't trying to make you include some of those shows in your project (Again, the cost of subbing just one in full would be in the thousands). I was mostly just venting at how stuff that's actually good and/or of historic importance remain untouched by fansubbers who opt to translate junky shows instead. I would love to generate some more interest for them, and maybe even someday, if they still aren't subbed by groups, try funding a project to get them translated (Which is how Zone Fighter got translated), but who knows.

[Tamura]

Ishiro Honda's first two dramas are available now with English subtitles to $5 tier 1 subscribers!

[Tamura]

The Killing Bottle starring Nick Adams and Ishiro Honda's Come Marry Me will be the next subtitle jobs! Get on board and you can both make this cheaper for me, allow the subtitle jobs to continue at a steady pace and get to see these rare films with English subtitles! Everyone wins!

[Tamura]

The Killing Bottle starring Nick Adams is now available with English subtitles to my $10 and $25 patrons. Next week it'll be available to my $5 patrons. This is a fun movie, don't miss it! Become a patron and it'll be cheaper for me to fund subtitles! I'm halfway to my monthly goal.

[Purzel2205]

Is this project still going? It seems like the Patreon is down

[Spuro]

Is this project still going? It seems like the Patreon is down

Smells a bit like a scam to me. After the mess that was Colossal Kaiju Combat, I can't say I'm surprised.

[Purzel2205]

Is this project still going? It seems like the Patreon is down

Smells a bit like a scam to me. After the mess that was Colossal Kaiju Combat, I can't say I'm surprised.

I mean they did actually subtitle the Blue Pearl, the Skin of the South, Key of Keys, the Killing Bottle, Come Marry Me and Good Luck to These Two.
To me it seems more like the project has been discontinued for whatever reason

[heiseigodzilla425]

To reiterate what Purzel said, several movies were subtitled and those subtitles are freely available on the Internet Archive.

The project was discontinued in January. Sydney sent this message out to Patrons on January 8th:

Hey everyone, I'm going to be uploading Good Luck to These Two with subtitles to Internet Archive later today. I'll post the link when it's up.

Good Luck to These Two is the final film of this project. It is becoming stressful and hard to keep up with, and there isn't a lot of interest in it. I'd rather just explore interesting films I've been meaning to see for years that other people are already translating (like Obayashi's) than subtitle unknown films of unpredictable quality that nobody is really seeking out or dying to see. I'm pausing my Patreon for the foreseeable future to prevent you all from being charged again, and I'll unlaunch the page by the end of the month.

I'm sorry to anyone who has been looking forward to this. I just can't do it anymore... I hope you understand.

And a followup about an hour after that:

I already regret the downbeat wording of that message - other people definitely have been dying to see some of these. I have zero regrets translating at least a few Honda dramas... it's something that had to be done that I wanted to be done, and I can die happy for it. Thank you all so much for contributing to this project.