Thermae Romae – “Rome Has Been Yellow-Washed”
- Categories: Manga, News
- Date: Oct 19, 2011 21:48 JST
- Tags: Adaptations, Bathing, History, Italy, Live Action
Japanese manga fans are marvelling at both the amount of effort the makers of the movie adaptation of Roman gag manga THERMAE ROMAE have put in, and the sight of a cast of ancient Romans played by Japanese actors…
Online there is a great deal of resistance to the sight of a small cast of Japanese amidst an otherwise distinctly Mediterranean cast, especially when the makers have gone to the trouble of filming it on location amidst the mouldering ruins of Rome’s former glory.
For those wondering, the story explores the obsession of both Roman and Japanese culture with public bathing, with Roman protagonist Lucius managing to enjoy modern Japanese bathing (of the all-too realistic scrawny old men variety rather than the steamy onsen mixed bathing action variety) by way of uncannily fortuitous time slips.
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Great manga. Also: Abe Hiroshi can do no wrong.
Totally.
I wouldn't have given this a second thought. You throw me Abe and you've got my attention. Everything he touches turns to gold.
wat is dis o_o
Humor and men with a public-bathing complex apparently?
Oh man if Andy Whitfield would see this he might come back from the grave and haunt them as Spartacus.
but the look so latin.
no they dont...
they dont have mustaches, and they arent eating paella nor codfish
anon 01:57 20/10/2011
stereotype banzai !
anon 04:26
Im portuguese, i know what im talking about.
i am italian and can only say... WTF!!! O.o
Judging by that last pic, he might also have a public-fapping complex...
Given that this is probably filmed for a comedy, I'd say they're more than fitting for their roles.
homoerotic japanese conquests through european history, staring cho-aniki.
....but that's not important right now.
Back then, there was no "gay" or "straight". It was "I see a hole, and I shall claim it!"
With the white-washing they pulled in the "The Last Airbender" movie, I see nothing wrong with this...
Every bloody nation can (insert color) wash something to fit their sales, standards, and services after all...
It pretty much up to what they (and sometimes the consumers) see fit...
A very awesome read.
I want to cry.
When in Japan, do as the Japanese do?
I recognized Ichimura Masachika instantly. He was fantastic in My Boss My Hero. He'll be playing the Emperor.
Also, this seems like something I'm likely to watch.
same here! i recognized the three actors from the first pic starting from the left. last dude on the right is the only one i never saw before
My mind screams... find western actors...
But then again meanwhile in America, with Akira...
So I'm cool with it
DID YOU KNOW that John Wayne once played Genghis Khan in the 1956 movie "The Conqueror"? Seriously, look it up.
So consider this Japan's revenge.
Another piece of trivia from that movie is it that the location where it was filmed was very close to a nuclear testing sight, fallout was everywhere and they actually trucked radioactive soil back to Hollywood for studio shots! By 1980 out of 220 people who worked on it 90 had gotten cancer and 46 had died of it including most of the lead and supporting actors!
Wayne hated the movie and said "The moral is to try not to look like an ass while playing a role you're not suited for".
I think that was 'Rio Bravo', with the cancer and whatnot.
Anyway, before hollywood employed actual asians, many talented white actors portrayed those roles- guys like Yul Brenner, Peter Sellers, and David Carradine. Turnabout is fair play, methinks.
@ Tex_Arcana
Never bothered me either way. Doesn't detract from my enjoyment of old movies, it would just look peculiar to see a Caucasian playing an Asian now and vice-versa.
According to IMDB it was "The Conqueror" often called "An RKO Radioactive movie" financed by none other than Howard Hughes!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049092/trivia
I stand corrected.
A - Genghis Khan is not Japanese.
B - Two wrongs don't make a right.
He's Mongolian. Glad somebody else has brains.
Anon 22:44, stfu and practice your google-fu.
This is comedy, right?
Anyway, in the movie Gladiator the people/actors were speaking with a very British English accent in Rome, which was very wrong too, wasn't it?
As were all of the many, many movies with ancient Romans and Greeks speaking upper-class British English, eg Spartacus, 300, Clash of the Titans, Cleopatra... Producers figured that especially Americans would associate British accents with a sprawling, pompous empire, while they only associate Italian accents with funny pizza chefs, befuddled recent immigrants and organ grinders. (Mobsters all have New York accents, of course.)
My favorite is enemy at the gates. The Germans have German accents, and the Russians have... British ones? Lulz were had.
My Russian Professor for history simply hate the movie, apparently he thought it is a complete rip on the Red Army with stereotypes of the West.
That said, red army veterans did make a protest about the screening of the movie in Russia.
It's a me, Caesar!
Honestly, I thought they gave them all British accents just for the hell of it but is managed to stick unintentionally somewhere down the line. Well, that and Americans, or at least some of us, really dig the accents of the British Isles.
They are supposed to talk with American English accents?
LOL kinda like the dragonball z movie but opposite
No. Dragon Ball characters are fictional, not HISTORICAL FIGURES.
Romulans. That's what they remind me of.
Obsession with public bathing? Bathing is no more that washing dirt off your body. If you take that process for something more, you waste your time
the fuck?
this is confusing
Hollywood does this all the time with white actors playing Asians, etc - the Dragonball movie comes to mind, Jennifer Garner in Elektra (she's not Greek at all!) and that fucking guy from Twilight is going to play Tetsuo (I mean Travis) in the live-action Akira movie. If that's going to be their attitude I'd rather they just go ahead and cast cute schoolgirls to play these parts.
3rd from the left could somewhat pass as almost Euro if I wasn't looking hard enough.
Do want to watch.
The grammar school boy in me seconds that motion.
And then Julius Caesar comes back to enjoy Japanese's hot spring
I check this manga.
This is no different than every anime that uses Japanese seiyuu for gaijin characters. Infinate Stratos would have been a disaster with a "enthnicly correct" cast of voice actors.
I think it is great that characters like Patricia Martin (lucky Star) and Elizabeth Warren (Softenni) spoke better Japanese that English :P
On a side note, I hope this style starts a trend and we start seeing some toga parties in Japan!
Romans enjoyed, among other things; public executions, gladiatorial battles, slavery, racial and ethnic discrimination and incestual relationships.
In a way I think they were capable of coming to terms with the ugly sides of humanity unlike the hypocritic societies we have today, and so it leaves me with mixed feelings to see modern civilization worshipping them.
Are we talking about the Romans or American Southeners?
Woah, good point. Could perhaps include that they were both into races where the participants did several laps around an oval shaped track and the crowd cheered only when somebody crashed.
Then again that'd make my second comment apply to them as well.
I lol'd(and I'm from the south)
you forgot gay men sweating together.
Every ancient, and even as recent as 300+ years ago has done some of the same things, and more!