Thanks to Kara for sending this in :)<\/p>\n
From `ER’ to `Roswell,’ Japan’s dubbers make themselves heard<\/p>\n
By GARY SCHAEFER
\n.c The Associated Press<\/p>\nTOKYO (AP) – Toshiyuki Morikawa used to imagine himself anchoring the evening
\nnews, his voice calm and smooth. His dream didn’t quite come true. Even so,
\nhe is a television personality, and his voice is familiar to millions of
\nJapanese.<\/p>\nThey just don’t know it.<\/p>\n
Morikawa is a “voice actor,” one of about a thousand performing artists in
\nthis country who have made a career of dubbing foreign TV shows and movies
\nand providing the voices for domestically produced cartoons and video games.<\/p>\nThe job gives Morikawa a lot of exposure, if no camera time.<\/p>\n
When Lt. Tom Paris of the starship Voyager worries out loud about crossing
\nthe transwarp threshold, it’s Morikawa whom Japanese viewers hear. He’s the
\nJapanese voice of Greg Montgomery, the lawyer on “Dharma & Greg,” and he
\nplayed the aspiring American Indian filmmaker Ed Chigliak on “Northern
\nExposure.”<\/p>\nThe Morikawas of Japan aren’t as anonymous as one might expect.<\/p>\n
They get fan letters, and there are books and Internet sites that catalog
\nevery disembodied voice in Japanese entertainment. Japanese “Colombo” fans
\nsay the show was never the same after Peter Falk’s longtime alter ego died.
\nDubbing devotees argue about which of the seven Japanese 007s was the best.<\/p>\nDubbed words aren’t cheap, either – a voice in demand can command 20 million
\nto 30 million yen (between dlrs 166,666 and 250,000) per year, or more.<\/p>\n“News readers just tell what’s happening,” Morikawa said. “Voice actors
\nget to create characters out of their imagination. It’s a great job.”<\/p>\nBut not a glamorous one.<\/p>\n
Morikawa, 34, and the rest of the Japanese cast of “Dharma & Greg” get
\ntogether once a week in a small recording studio in downtown Tokyo to dub two
\nepisodes.<\/p>\nKeeping one eye on their Japanese scripts and the other on a video screen,
\nthe dubbers have to deliver their lines in sync as well as in character.
\nThat’s tough when you’re trying to grunt your way through an action scene or
\nstumble over foreign words like “aromatherapy” with no Japanese equivalent.<\/p>\nAnd almost isn’t good enough – unlike those English voiceovers of Godzilla
\nmovies that left generations of American kids wondering why Japanese people
\nkept moving their mouths after they’d stopped talking. Dubbing two 23-minute
\nepisodes takes four hours.<\/p>\n“The toughest thing is giving the character you’re dubbing a credible voice
\nand making it look natural to people watching,” said Sakiko Mizuno, a
\n37-year-old part-time stage actress who plays Dharma.<\/p>\nOf course, credibility is a culturally specific concept. Women’s voices tend
\nto be higher than in the original because that’s the way women are expected
\nto talk in Japan.<\/p>\nRoles for dubbers are increasing as satellite and cable TV bring more
\nAmerican entertainment into Japanese living rooms. Even network TV watchers
\ncan choose from Japanese-language versions of “Ally McBeal,” “ER” and
\n“Roswell,” plus weekly Hollywood movies.<\/p>\nThat adds up to big business for Tohokushinsha Film Corp., the largest
\ndubbing company in Japan.<\/p>\nTohokushinsha has been in the industry since 1961, when TV viewers here
\nmarveled at the modern kitchens and endless yards of the Japanese-speaking
\nAndersons and Cleavers. The company started dubbing in-flight movies in 1966
\nand video releases in 1980.<\/p>\nThough dubbed TV programs are the norm, few movies shown in theaters have
\nvoiceovers.<\/p>\n“In the years right after the war, film distributors in this country
\ncouldn’t afford to dub,” said company director Tetsu Uemura. “People just
\ngot used to the idea of reading subtitles when they went to the movies.”<\/p>\nDubbing costs several times more than subtitling, mostly because of the
\nexpense of casting voice actors. Redoing a two-hour feature film in Japanese
\nmay require a budget of up to 30 million yen (dlrs 250,000) and take two
\nmonths.<\/p>\nDubber wannabes go to schools like the Tokyo Media Academy, where 160
\nstudents pay tuition of 1.15 million yen (about dlrs 9,500) to be drilled in
\narticulation, pronunciation and projection. They don’t even touch a
\nmicrophone until their second year.<\/p>\nTMA director Mitsutoshi Ichihara estimates that only 10 of his 160 students
\nwill be working in the industry two years after graduation.<\/p>\n“They all want to be Julia Roberts or some cartoon character,” he sighed.
\n“Very few ever will.”<\/p>\nAP-NY-06-14-01 2238EDT <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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