[JITF2020] Know It All and Rest Assured!?? The World of Star Wars

Kaori Horikami

Video translator.  Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in1965.  Studied under Mr. Shinji Okaeda, who made the original subtitles for “Star Wars,” and began working as a freelance video translator from 1997.

Representative works: “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” Series (DVD subtitles), “LEGO (R) Star Wars ‘The Empire Strikes Out’,” “White Riot” (musical documentary film), “42nd Street: The Musical,” (Shochiku Broadway Cinema), “Stan & Ollie,” and “Karp otmorozhennyy (Thawed Carp).”

Kazuhisa Kawahara

Film director, film critic, broadcast writer.  Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1965.  While continuing to cover various topics for TV information programs since 1991, he has published movie-related articles in magazines such as “Kinema Junpo.”  He is well known for his writing on “Star Wars Saga,” “The 007 Series,” etc.

He supervised the subtitles for “Star Wars Episodes 1-6” and has written many related books such as “Star Wars Legend” (Fusosha), “Star Wars Kaiteki Fukudokuhon (Fun Supplementary Reader)” (Fusosha) and “Star Wars Ron (Theory)” (NHK Publishing), etc.

After releasing “Yomu Sushi (Sushi for Reading)” in 2019, he has been doing a lot of writing about food culture, including a series of articles titled “Senya Ichiya Tabemonogatari (Arabian Nights of Dining)” for “Tsushinbunka (Communication and Culture)” magazine of the Tsushinbunka Association, etc.

He is a member of the Japan P.E.N. Club.  He was also involved in compiling the books “Ikiru Chikara (Strength to Live),” “Tatakau Chikara (Strength to Fight)” (both from Kodansha) and “”Gan ni Ikiru (Living with Cancer)” (Shogakukan) by the novelist / lyricist Rei Nakanishi.

Know It All and Rest Assured!??  The World of Star Wars

It was the summer of 1978 and I was 13 years old. After being struck dumb watching the cutting edge video imagery of “Star Wars” shortly after its debut, we all saved up our allowance money to commute to the movie theater, listened passionately to “The Story of Star Wars” album and memorized the lines from it.

Many compelling characters appear in the “Star Wars” series, but the interpreter robot C-3PO is one of the few that appears in all of the episodes, witnessing everything that takes place.  It could be said that the “Star Wars” saga is actually a story told through the perspective of an interpreter.

“Star Wars” has enjoyed almost universal popularity for more than 40 years, being quoted not only in movies and drama but also in practically every scene including politics and science.  I will be sharing various “Star Wars” trivia, knowing which (may) come in handy and give peace of mind to all of us who have had our lives totally thrown off course by this series.

I have allowed plenty of time for Q&A, so please feel free to ask anything you wish.