Distributor: 'Pearl Harbor' dialogue
won't be altered for foreign audiences
By Wayne Specht, Stars and
Stripes
The dialogue in the Walt Disney movie “Pearl Harbor” will
not be changed for Japanese audiences, said a spokeswoman for the company bringing the
film to Japan.
Yoko Kishi, a spokeswoman for Disney’s Tokyo distributor, Buena
Vista International, refuted recent news reports that some dialogue would be altered so
Japanese viewers would’t be offended.
“We have not been told by Walt Disney this will happen,”
Kishi said Thursday. She also called the reports groundless.
The Associated Press, citing an unnamed Disney source, reported the
three-hour, $140 million war spectacle will play to audiences in Japan and Germany with
slightly revised dialogue.
The changes were made out of sensitivity to how ‘Pearl
Harbor’ will be perceived among foreign moviegoers, the source said.
“We are very much annoyed by these reports,” Kishi said.
“The American and Japanese versions will be the same.”
Since many Japanese moviegoers do not understand English, some
surmise Japanese-language subtitles could be shown with translations slightly different
than what is found in the original soundtrack.
Pearl Harbor Producer Jerry Bruckheimer told Reuters news service one
adjustment to the film was removing a scene in which Maj. James Doolittle says that if his
plane was crippled over Japan and he had to ditch it, he would aim it in such a way that
would kill Japanese civilians. Disney publicists would not confirm that.
The filmmaker said they intentionally included several scenes within
the movie to explain why the Japanese felt they needed to attack the United States.
Kishi said Buena Vista’s Tokyo office is unaware of any
complaints from local residents concerning the content of the film.
The film premiered Monday in Honolulu on the deck of the aircraft
carrier USS John C. Stennis. Disney said it paid $5 million for the premiere. The movie
opens across the United States on Friday. It opens June 7 in Germany and July 14 in Japan.
John Tateishi, national director of the San Francisco-based
Japanese-American Citizens League, said the organization feels the movie has potential to
stir anti-Japanese and anti-Asian feelings among Americans.
“We know there are some people who will leave the movie and want
to fight World War II all over again,” Tateishi said in a Web site statement.
“There will always be people who continue to see us as foreigners, as the enemy.
There will always be people who point their finger at us because they are upset with the
actions of foreign nations such as Japan or China.”
During WWII, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were placed in
internment camps.
Though the film recounts Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941,
Disney publicists hope the movie will play well among Japanese audiences because of the
love story at the heart of the film.
Hiroshi Chida and the Associated Press contributed to this
report.
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