Hollywood stars in Japanese whiskey commercials
October 7, 2016 3:27 PM   Subscribe

 
My favorite is Keanu's
posted by timshel at 3:27 PM on October 7, 2016


I see some have Japanese subtitles, but so much is lost in translation.
posted by buzzv at 3:37 PM on October 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


Obligatory clip from Lost in Translation.
posted by and for no one at 3:37 PM on October 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


Also obligatory because yeah.
posted by droplet at 3:39 PM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Tommy Lee Jones has an amazing set of Japanese commercials for Boss coffee. He's an alien living in Japan.
posted by blob at 3:57 PM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Obligatory clip from Lost in Translation

Lost In Translation is an amazing movie. It perfectly captures what self-absorbed people who have no idea what Japan is really like think Japan is really like. It's an amazing achievement.
posted by My Dad at 4:16 PM on October 7, 2016 [11 favorites]


The Welles clip was screened as part of a series of his rarities 20-odd years ago in LA; the presenter told us that the whisky was vile.
posted by brujita at 4:24 PM on October 7, 2016


I like Orson's version. Here's another for Paul Masson champagne. Translation?
posted by strelitzia at 4:26 PM on October 7, 2016


I'll have what Sammy's having.
posted by grimjeer at 4:26 PM on October 7, 2016 [3 favorites]


I actually swear I read somewhere that Sofia Coppola's memories of her father being tapped for a whiskey ad was one of the things that ultimately inspired Lost in Translation.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 PM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hopping on the Lost in Translation tangent… it really is just a profoundly different movie when you understand everything going on around the bewildered main characters.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:53 PM on October 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Looks like Keanu was Saved by the Bell.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:12 PM on October 7, 2016


For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.
posted by Sutekh at 5:24 PM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Tommy Lee Jones has an amazing set of Japanese commercials for Boss coffee.

Suntory Boss is the boss of them all since 1992.
posted by The Tensor at 5:28 PM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think the Keanu Reeves one translates as, "When you're already so stoned you think your overweight cat is a beautiful seductress: Suntory Reserve."
posted by pangolin party at 5:48 PM on October 7, 2016 [5 favorites]


DoctorFedora -- what exactly changes in the movie? Are the Japanese characters commenting on the narcissism of the main characters?
posted by benzenedream at 6:57 PM on October 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


GRAND SPONSOR
TOKYO DAY
OH CHRISTMAS

posted by comealongpole at 7:09 PM on October 7, 2016


We had an exchange student from Japan stay with our family in the very early 90s (I think), and she would get videotapes of Japanese television from her family sent over. I couldn't believe it when I saw this one.
posted by Red Loop at 7:34 PM on October 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


I think what DoctorFedora means is that the movie is kind of made with an "ooh isn't Japanese culture all weird and aren't we isolated fish out of water" filter, and if you actually have a decent understanding of Japanese culture that comes across more like "ooh aren't we spoiled Westerners who are too caught up in ourselves and aren't trying to learn something about where we are because we're complaining."

....Eh, the movie was more about the relationship between the pair for me so I still love it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:11 PM on October 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yeah, the core story about the affair of sorts remains worthwhile. It's just weird seeing a bunch of everyday stuff that is just happening around them like normal treated as this sort of unknowable perpetual Other.

Honestly, the experience of buying a cheesesteak at either Pat's or Geno's is at least as bewildering as anything depicted in that movie, and that's without leaning on the crutch of Those Inscrutable Asians ; )
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:23 PM on October 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Didn't recognize the guys before and after Connery. Sammy Davis is, as always, sublime.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:32 AM on October 8, 2016


I like Orson's version.

don't know if I should laugh or cry at that.

So I guess I should watch "Lost in Translation"? Will do this week end.
posted by james33 at 3:55 AM on October 8, 2016


Didn't recognize the guys before and after Connery.

Mickey Rourke, Roy Scheider.
posted by chavenet at 5:10 AM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


Mickey Rourke, Roy Scheider.

Thanks! I don't know how I could have mistaken Roy Scheider; he's one of my biggest movie crushes.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:06 AM on October 8, 2016


Huh, I did not know that Suntory owned Jim Beam and Laphroaig. Also did not know that Suntory offered a single malt (the Yamazaki).
posted by infinitewindow at 7:21 AM on October 8, 2016


Also did not know that Suntory offered a single malt (the Yamazaki).

The most expensive booze in Yakuza 2. A game where part of the fun is getting completely hammered with Suntory products to the point the bartender sends you away.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:58 AM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


Roy Scheider, FTW.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:16 AM on October 8, 2016


Joseph Beuys, not a hollywood actor, also made one.
posted by quoquo at 2:30 PM on October 8, 2016


Some of these are good, but yeah the Tommy Lee Jones Boss commercials are the best in this general genre (Western stars in Japanese commercials).

And Suntory is huge and has lots of random stuff beyond alcohol. They even own Orangina, as of a few years ago (which explains why I started seeing it more often in Japan).

Lost in Translation is just irredeemably racist and/or stupid to me (if you want more detail, just Google "Lost in Translation racism" and you'll fine plenty of people who can go into it better than me). I tried watching it years ago but couldn't get through it.
posted by thefoxgod at 7:48 PM on October 8, 2016


Were you listening to me Keanu? Or were you looking at the woman in the black dress?
posted by mobunited at 12:10 AM on October 9, 2016


Wut, no mention of Mandom, the granddaddy of washed out American actors doing strange commercials for the Japanese market?

There's always a bit of "let's laugh at the strange foreigners with their strange commercials" about this sort of thing, but it's not like the Japanese themselves don't know how naff this was or they wouldn't still make fun of it four decades after it first aired.
posted by MartinWisse at 7:30 AM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think it's the Golgo-face that does it for me.
posted by lmfsilva at 8:13 AM on October 9, 2016


Lost in Translation would have been so much better if a completely separate plot was playing out in the background but only in Japanese.
posted by benzenedream at 4:28 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


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