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No Hollywood celebrity is quite as loved or quite as “breathtaking” as Keanu Reeves. On one hand, he’s quietly reserved yet charmingly playful, as we found out when we interviewed him back in 2017, yet on screen he can be a ruthless badass, as we saw when he posed for us as John Wick back in 2019.
Ever since he visited Hideo Kojima at his office in Tokyo last year, we’ve been waiting anxiously to play with Keanu again…this time in his role as Johnny Silverhand in the long-awaited "Cyberpunk 2077."
As the scheduled Nov 19 release date for the CD Projekt-developed RPG inches ever closer, fans have been treated to a series of tantalising trailers and teaser clips, and today we have another one to gaze at, this time showing Reeves, as himself…dubbed in Japanese.
This “Seize the Day” trailer first appeared on the official Cyberpunk 2077 YouTube channel on Oct 1, shortly after it was screened as a TV commercial during the NBA Finals in North America. On Oct 21, the trailer was uploaded to the channel’s official Japanese site, giving us Japanese-dubbed Keanu for the first time.
▼ Take a look at the Japanese version below.
There’s a point of difference that’s interesting here, as some of the original script gets lost in translation, particularly at the end, where Keanu says, “So seize the day…then set it on fire” in the English-language original.
In the Japanese version, however, Keanu signs off with, “Yume wo tsukamu. Soshite, hi wo tsukeyo”, which translates as: “Grab onto your dreams. And let’s set them on fire.”
It’s an understandable localization change, seeing as “seize the day” is a phrase that hasn’t caught on here like it has in the West following its mention in the 1989 Hollywood movie "Dead Poet’s Society." In that movie, “Seize the day” was translated as “Ima wo Ikiru” (“Live now") for Japanese audiences, which was also the title of the film in Japan.
“Live now” would be a bit too wishy-washy for the world of "Cyberpunk 2077."
Japanese fans were thrilled to hear Johnny Silverhand speaking their language, while also giving props to Toshiyuki Morikawa, the 53-year-old voice actor and singer famous for dubbing every Keanu Reeves role released in Japan, including the role of Johnny Silverhand.
“OMG this is too cool!”
“Relieved to know Morikawa is dubbing Johnny Silverhand!”
“I just love Morikawa’s voice!”
“As expected from Morikawa – brilliant.”
“So is this what Keanu would sound like if he could speak Japanese?”
As for that last comment, well — we know what Keanu sounds like when he speaks Japanese, because he once treated us to “Me wo samase yo, samurai” (“Wake up, samurai“) during his last visit to Japan.
With less than a month to go until the release of "Cyberpunk 2077," we don’t have too long to wait now until all is revealed. The only thing that makes us feel a tinge of sadness for the release is the fact that current travel restrictions mean Keanu probably won’t be able to come to Japan to promote it.
Source: YouTube/CD PROJEKT RED JAPAN via Hachima Kiko
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
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10 Comments
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W Slifko
"Seize the day" is a loose translation of the Latin "Carpe diem" going back over 2,000 years. The reference to it coming from film is misleading. The original Latin phrase was "carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero" which is, again, loosely translated as "seize the day, put little trust in tomorrow (or the future)".
The condensed version of "seize the day" was first believed to be used is English in the mid-1700s. It has since grown in popularity by a person or team of people to express a desire to do their best or in much the same way as "ganbaru" (頑張る) is used in Japanese.
In saying that it became popular from being mentioned in a Hollywood movie diminishes the level of importance that the Latin language and culture continues to have in nearly every culture all over the world.
Strangerland
You clearly don't realize a lot of English speaking Japanese people read this site. And as a bilingual English-Japanese speaker, I find it interesting as well.
I always find it so weird that people have this distorted idea of reality whereby when something doesn't appeal to them, they for whatever reason think it shouldn't appeal to anyone else. Baffling.
Maria
That's right, we do. No need to state the obvious, but it's worth reminding people what country we are in and what country this website is about.
Bob Fosse
It’s not a film, it’s a video game.
Mark
OLD ACT.
starpunk
This is quite intriguing to watch. It's like watching those old Godzilla movies where everything is dubbed into English. That's a big part of the charm of Godzilla flicks in the first place, I hate those bastardized Hollywood versions. They totally suck.
In either language dubbed, this trailer makes me want to see this flick. It looks like it may the most interesting new film in years. Especially since the age of 'cyberpunk' has arrived in so many ways now.
uktokyo
Because readers of English language japantoday reallly care about how an English film is dubbed into Japanese