"Samurai spirit-a!"
December 10, 2009 11:45 AM   Subscribe

Quentin Tarantino is the latest American celebrity to be featured in a TV commercial for SoftBank Mobile Corp, a Japanese telecommunications and media company. Tarantino stars as “Uncle Tara-chan” in the bizarre and very popular “White family” commercial series. The Whites consist of the "Mom", the daughter “Me” (a Softbank shop saleswoman played by popular singer/actress Aya Ueto), the "Older Brother" (played by African American actor Dante Carter), and the father, Otosan, who happens to be a white Hokkaido-ken dog named Kaikun.
posted by mrducts (26 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
1. The internet has only slightly ruined the "commercials in japan" gig for celebrities where they get butt loads of money for doing a few days worth of work and Americans would never see it and judge them for either selling out/acting like an idiot.
2. QT most likely loved every single second of this.
3. I loved every single second of it too.
4. What the hell was that advertising exactly?
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 11:51 AM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Makes sense to me.
posted by Avenger at 11:51 AM on December 10, 2009


I was going to go get a tasty beverage to wash this down with, but Korean Ringu Robocop stole my refridgerator.
posted by kid ichorous at 11:54 AM on December 10, 2009


So...it's a dog speakerphone? Huh.
posted by echo target at 12:08 PM on December 10, 2009


Wow. This series of commercials is completely amazing. The QT one is like the weakest link.
posted by peachfuzz at 12:09 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


It should be said that Softbank is the only Japanese carrier offering the iPhone, and is an investor in Yahoo! Japan, which is run as a separate company from Yahoo! and (unlike Google in the US) acts as the "Internet home page" for most Japanese folks on the web.

So Softbank has some presence in the Japanse psyche.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:09 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


What the hell was that advertising exactly?

Well, uh, it's not like the commercial was, uh, Lacking Subtlety. Hahaha! Get it? Cuz like I took your name and I... uh. Anyway...

It was pretty obvious that it was a commercial for a cell phone or carrier, actually.
posted by splice at 12:10 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I have a hard time imagining Tarantino being even remotely embarrassed by this. Hell, he'll probably send it around to everyone he knows as this year's Christmas thing.
posted by Naberius at 12:11 PM on December 10, 2009


That dog's dynamite!
posted by tommasz at 12:20 PM on December 10, 2009


"Hello. My cakes?"

"Eaten!"

I LOLed
posted by Navelgazer at 12:22 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


So that's what those dogs are called. It seemed to me that they were the only breed that existed in Japan. Nice dogs, by the way.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 12:43 PM on December 10, 2009


It was pretty obvious that it was a commercial for a cell phone or carrier, actually.

What!? I thought it pretty obviously advertised the sale of talking Japanese dogs.
They have those there, yeah?
posted by mannequito at 12:54 PM on December 10, 2009


"Steak!"

/Dad
posted by xod at 1:03 PM on December 10, 2009


These commercials are generally really funny--totally deadpan humor. This one isn't, but at least Tarantino is speaking Japanese--most foreign celebs don't bother when they do commercials.
posted by zardoz at 1:15 PM on December 10, 2009


I saw the Tarantino one on Gizmodo the other day, and I just sort of thought it was weird and nonsensical. But now I see that it's the crappiest of a series of awesome and hilarious ads. Thanks!
posted by malthas at 1:27 PM on December 10, 2009


This style of humour absolutely cracks me up. The first time I saw NHK's Domo adverts, they showed a whole three or four minute long series of them. If they'd gone on any longer I probably would have passed out from not being able to breathe in.
posted by lucidium at 1:38 PM on December 10, 2009


Needs more Bill Murray.
posted by prinado at 1:41 PM on December 10, 2009


Required "American Actor in Japanese Commercial" viewing: Tommy Lee Jones' commercials for Boss Coffee.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 2:00 PM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]


CitrusFreak12: That's pretty good, although for some reason my brain totally misread "Tommy Lee Jones" as "David Lee Roth", which I think would have been far better.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:06 PM on December 10, 2009


This is just to say
your cakes?
eaten.
posted by axiom at 3:29 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]


"...and you of all people became a surgeon. But who could believe Shirato here would become a white dog?"

"I can barely believe it myself!"

Love these.
posted by Kevin Street at 3:54 PM on December 10, 2009


I enjoyed this better than Death Proof
posted by empath at 4:36 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


It is a cute series of commercials, but this one's got a pretty high "WTF" factor. Tarantino is a known Japanophile so it doesn't surprise me he was able to get in on this. Tommy Lee Jones' Boss commercials are also funny.

Now if you want to see some real shilling, try Robert De Niro or Ewan McGregor. Every time I see those I cringe. It's not the 80s anymore, guys -- the whole world can see you now.

What!? I thought it pretty obviously advertised the sale of talking Japanese dogs. They have those there, yeah?

But of course.

popular singer/actress pretty young thing Aya Ueto

FTFY.
posted by armage at 5:42 PM on December 10, 2009


So that's what those dogs are called. It seemed to me that they were the only breed that existed in Japan. Nice dogs, by the way.

Actually, Jimmy Havok, I had never heard of the Hokkaido dog before. As far as I knew, the Shiba Inu was the Japanese dog breed. When I was gathering links for this post I actually ran across an article that called Otosan a "cream Shiba". I couldn't find any corroborating info so I just took the word of the original link I posted. I love the Shiba Inu BTW, but the Hokkaido-ken is an awesome looking dog as well. They look very similar to a Spitz.

popular singer/actress pretty young thing Aya Ueto

But of course!
posted by mrducts at 7:12 PM on December 10, 2009


I watched this three times. The second and third time thinking "WTF is a bank promoting dog shaped speakers for". Then I realized Softbank isn't actually a bank, but a cell provider. That makes more sense.
posted by barc0001 at 11:35 PM on December 10, 2009


Let us not leave out Jack Bauer selling Calorie Mate.
posted by StarmanDXE at 8:41 AM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


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