PC Translations

Tonight in my Shakespeare class, I was showing clips of The Banquet to my students, discussing it in conjuction with other versions of Hamlet. I referred to it at one point as a “translation” rather than an interpretation of the play. A student raised the question of what is the difference.

Finally, we let the language decide it for us. A translation, we decided, has to do with a change in form or across forms. An interpretation, we thought, might have more to do with a change within a form.

I’m not sure that we are necessarily right on that, and I will do more study on it when I’ve got the time. But I found it a good question, and a very enjoyable discussion on points that are obviously rather important to me.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, and it’s been on my mind recently as I prepare for an upcoming lecture on it. I enjoy, in the course of reading the plays, considering as well some of the onscreen performances of the play. That is appropriate because my course focuses on the performance aspects of the play.

Hawke’s Hamlet is not my favorite of those I look at in class (Gibson and Olivier being the others, and now adding in the Chinese production The Banquet). I think some of the performers are too self-conscious. But it isn’t just that. It is also that, in many ways, the language isn’t fully believable in the setting, which is sad. Normally, I am perfectly fine with keeping the original language in a modern setting, but it just wasn’t quite pulled off in this version. (It’s some of the same feeling I get from Romeo + Juliet.)

I liked some things about the film though. I liked the film-within-the film, and thought it was a nice adaptation of the original play-withing-the-play. And the “To be or not to be” scene was pretty nicely done, set in the action section of a video rental shop. That makes for a nice contrast with the inaction Hamlet is sucked into.

In a previous post, I wrote a review the recent Chinese big-budget adaptation of Hamlet, The Banquet. It was a very well-made movie, and has been on my mind often since I watched it toward the end of last year. I loved the scene where the Hamlet character did a prolonged consideration of the importance of masks and making a mask of one’s face. I thought it was an excellent demonstration of the importance of theatricality in the play. It translated very well into this film version. I actually liked it much better than Hawke’s performance.

That said, Hawke’s performance, and the whole film, has something to be said for it. I think it is an interesting film to consider in a study of the play and its adaptations onto the screen.

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The Banquet was one of the best shows I saw in 2006. While some of my friends in China were less than thrilled with it, I thought it was a great movie. I suppose that any adaptation of Shakespeare is sure to be something I’ll be interested in, and I thought this translation of Hamlet into a Chinese sword fighting movie was well done.

The Hamlet character, I thought, was acted better than any of the others, even though he is not played by as experienced an actor as the rest. But I thought he was more convincing in his role than some of the others.

I read on Amazon a “complaint” that the love story was too openly expressive of emotion. I agree, in one sense, but on the other, I thought it highlighted that this was at least in part to blame for the king’s eventual downfall.

I thought the story was pulled off well, and the translation particularly well-done.