is a Japanese subtitler and film industry interpreter. She has been called "the most famous film translator in Japan ..unquestionably" and the "Subtitle Queen". She has subtitled more than 1,000 English-language films in Japanese.

Biography

Natsuko Toda was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on July 3, 1936. She graduated from

Tsuda College is a private women's university based at Kodaira, Tokyo. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher educational institutions for women in Japan, contributing to the advancement of women in society for more than a century. History The u ...

in 1958 and started working as a secretary in a

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

company, but left after about a year. She learned the craft of subtitling under the eminent Japanese subtitler

Shunji Shimizu Shunji Shimizu (清水俊二 ''Shimizu Shunji'' ?), (1906-1988), is a well-known Japanese subtitler and translator, referred to by one scholar as 'practically a household name in Japan'. He translated popular authors including Erskine Caldwell and ...

. She found a part-time job at the Japanese arm of

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

through Shimizu. At United Artists she performed miscellaneous tasks including translation. Later, Haruo Mizuno, the advertising manager at the time, asked her to work as an interpreter for movie people from abroad. She has been active as both a subtitler and an interpreter for many visiting stars and filmmakers. She has worked on many high-profile films, including

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence , also known in many European editions as , is a 1983 war film co-written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, co-written by Paul Mayersberg, and produced by Jeremy Thomas. The film is based on the experiences of Sir Laurens van der Post (portrayed b ...

and

The Last Samurai ''The Last Samurai'' is a 2003 epic period action drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz from a story devised by Logan. The film stars Ken Watanabe in the t ...

. Her name is well known to Japanese audiences to the point that

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...

's 1995 film

Getting Any? is a 1995 Japanese film, written, directed, edited, and starring Takeshi Kitano. ''Yatteru'' (やってる) is the colloquial form for ''yatteiru'' (やっている), ''yatteru'' coming from the Japanese verb ''yaru'', which is an informal word m ...

contains an

inside joke An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke whose humour is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest. It i ...

: subtitles that make no sense and are credited on-screen to Toda.

Criticism

Toda has been criticised by some film fans for characteristically odd-sounding translated phrases such as 「～を?」「～かもだ」「ファック野郎」「プッシー知らず」. Toda worked on the subtitles for

Full Metal Jacket ''Full Metal Jacket'' is a 1987 war drama film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 novel ''The Short-Timers'' and stars Matthew M ...

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

, who was closely involved with the translation of the script into subtitles. Kubrick fired Toda when he realised that she had softened or removed the obscenity, which was a crucial part of the script. Japanese movie fans express reservations about her over-free and loose translation, which can detract from the film watching experience. Natsuko Toda also subtitled The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and was criticised by Tolkien fans for her translations, which were inconsistent with the published Japanese translation of the books. Fans petitioned the distributor, Nippon Herald, with complaints about the subtitles. It was later reported that Peter Jackson intended to bring in a new subtitler for the second film in the series, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Films subtitled by Toda

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella ''Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph Conr ...

(

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...

, 1979) *

(

, 1987) * The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

, 2001) *

(

Edward Zwick Edward M. Zwick (born October 8, 1952) is an American filmmaker and producer of film and television. He has worked primarily in the comedy drama and historical drama, epic historical film genres, including ''About Last Night (1986 film), About L ...

, 2003) *

The Phantom of the Opera ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (french: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a novel by French author Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serial in from 23 September 1909 to 8 January 1910, and was released in volume form in late March 1910 by Pierr ...

(

Joel Schumacher Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designer. H ...

, 2004)

Books by Toda

*''Jimaku no Naka ni Jinsei'' (Tokyo: Hakusuisha, 1994)

Honours

45th Japan Academy Film Prize The is the 45th edition of the Japan Academy Film Prize, an award presented by the Nippon Academy-Sho Association to award excellence in filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmakin ...

: Distinguished Service Award

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Toda, Natsuko Living people Tsuda University alumni Japanese subtitlers 1936 births