Remember that Indian music video subtitled with hilarious similar-sounding English lyrics? Well, here’s something along the same lines, only with Japanese and Shanghainese.
The video is the theme song for a Japanese anime series called Saint Seiya (圣斗士星矢 in Chinese — apparently it’s well-known among the Chinese). This case is a little different, because the song was actually re-recorded with (ridiculous) Shanghainese lyrics. (In a karaoke parlor, from the sound of it.) And there are subtitles for us Shanghainese-impaired! The kind subtitler put the Shanghainese “transliteration hanzi” on the top line, and the Mandarin translation on the bottom line.
Here’s a quick and dirty translation of the lyrics:
No hot water for washing my feet
Today I’ll go to bed without washing them
The water for washing my face is still heating up
Going to bed without washing my feet - so dirty
No hot water for washing my feet
Mom says the bills are too high
She says wash your face first, then use that water to soak your feet
Water for your feet and water for your face
They’re both heated with the gas burner
Why don’t salaries go up? The cost of water, electricity, and gas have
Oh my God
Heat it, heat it*
If you don’t heat it, the price’ll be higher next year
Heat it, heat it
Wash you feet, then go for the spa, oh yeah
Heat it, heat it
Heat it from now til the end of the month
Heat it, heat it
Why not heat it?
My mom is paying the bill
Lots of great cultural context here:
- Water in Shanghai has traditionally been heated with gas heaters (although electric ones are also common now)
- Traditional Shanghainese good old-fashioned thrifty living
- Washing one’s face and feet traditionally has been a common substitute for taking a shower
Here’s the original Japanese theme song.
The Shanghainese version of the video was recommended to me by a local friend who said the Shanghainese lyrics sounded like the Japanese. I don’t really hear the resemblance, but it’s good wacky fun nonetheless.
Fun stuff. Thanks John.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:31 pmOk, question: Since I am not familiar with anime cartoons, or any cartoons these days for that matter let alone Asian ones, are song lyrics usually this weird and unrelated to what it looks like the cartoon is about? Just want kids like to listen to these days, or is there actually any relation to the show?
September 9th, 2008 at 11:34 pmRich,
The Shanghainese lyrics are a complete redubbing of the original Japanese lyrics. I didn’t pay the original Japanese lyrics much attention, though… it’s just action cartoon stuff.
Anyway, the contrast is where the humor comes in!
Get it?
September 9th, 2008 at 11:49 pmThat made my day. Thanks. ^_^
September 10th, 2008 at 1:34 amWhy not just get in the spa in the first place?
I chuckled a few times but more because I always find the washing before bed bit strange to me. It makes sense just strange to me. And the sheer horror of not washing before bed is chuckle-worthy. :)
September 10th, 2008 at 4:55 amHi Rich,
The original Japanese lyrics are very related to the content of the anime, and the Shanhinese version is a funny (and poor) transliteration of the original, and that is why its content has nothing to do with the anime, although it’s very intriguing from the standpoint of Chinese life and culture, as John pointed out above.
FYI, Japanese people are very particular about anime theme songs. They are composed and sung by prominent musicians, and they often hit the charts high. In a sense, it could be said that the success of an anime highly depends on its theme song. I can sing almost all the theme songs of anime I watched when I was young.
This is one of classic anime songs, “Kimba the White Lion” (1966) http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=FgeBFRjWxiU
September 10th, 2008 at 9:56 amLOL! I’d never seen the “Benny Lava” video before. I don’t hear the resemblance between the Shanghainese and the Japanese, though.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:57 amErm, anyone else notice the English “transliteration” of this song when playing the Indian song?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSsXlRytRDs
The Shanghainese version is much cleaner, despite the dirty feet theme.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:05 amAfter reading your blog I have this strong desire to jump and Splash around in puddles of water. Oh, but won’t my feet get dirty? Oh, the dilema.
Take care Greg Pasden
Halloween is coming soon http://www.funclothes.us
September 11th, 2008 at 5:28 am“Washing one’s face and feet traditionally has been a common substitute for taking a shower”
…That’s only two thirds of a full Chinese three-point wash :) But I guess there are some things that shouldn’t be mentioned in a cartoon, even a redubbed one!
September 12th, 2008 at 7:30 amhaha, this is awesome. I grew up watching saint seiya, great manga!
September 12th, 2008 at 8:17 amWow, Saint Seiya - days we were so young!
I didn’t hear much resemblance either. The first lines sound alike; other than that, only a few words do, such as Mama and Seiya/Shaoya (heat it).
Have a nice holiday!
September 13th, 2008 at 12:11 amFrom Tokyo, Japan, I just thought I’d report that the videos have an error message on them: “This clip has been blocked in your region.”
Has anyone seen that before? Does Youku only work in China? Or do the Japanese now have a great firewall?
September 15th, 2008 at 3:11 pmTodd,
Hehe, thanks for clearing that up. :)
September 15th, 2008 at 10:08 pmBryan,
Wow, really? I was able to watch Youku videos at decent speed while I was in the States over the summer. Some video providers do limit viewing by IP, though, like Hulu and Google Video.
It might be that Japan is blocked from Youku as a proactive measure to eliminate IP hassles. (Remember what happened with Japanese TV on YouTube?) There are an awful lot of Japanese videos on Youku.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:10 pmHilarious!!
September 16th, 2008 at 3:44 amJohn,
I suspect you are right about the IP stuff. I still can’t view the videos. I really wouldn’t be surprised if Japan had a great firewall to protect “anime” IP. Funny how Tokyo might protect their country’s IP yet they have no beef with the bit torrents of Western films and Korean TV dramas flowing over NTT’s fiber-optic (”hikari”) networks. :-)
Bryan
September 20th, 2008 at 1:50 pmthis is absolutely absurd and hilarious. apparently what they did was take the transliteration of the japanese lyrics and use the sounds to come up with something remotely coherent in the shanghai dialect. the result is what you get up there. too much fun for 5 minutes.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 pm