Concrete roooooooaaaads - Mimi wo sumaseba (1996) Discussion

[–] stephen-morton 15 years ago

Um, the song is "Country Roads" , originally by John Denver.

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[–] excel99 15 years ago

Um...

Have you actually watched this movie?

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[–] stephen-morton 15 years ago

Yeah, I have, and I liked it a lot.

I guess the original statement was supposed to be a joke about the city the movie takes place in? Hopefully that was it, and I just have an underdeveloped sense of humor.

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[–] donthompson550 15 years ago

The "concrete roads" reference comes from Shizuku's alternate set of lyrics she shows Yuko near the beginning of the film, rendered into english as:

"Concrete Roads
Everywhere I go,
Covering
West Tokyo..." etc.

This of course does not clarify the intentions of the original poster. Who really knows what is going on in that mind?

Sure I'm depressed, but I don't let it get me down.

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[–] Truman_Galapagos 15 years ago

You people are too serious.

There are no particular intentions, I just found the alternative lyrics really funny (and somewhat good) and was singing them:)

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] stephen-morton 15 years ago

Actually I think I just forgot. I hadn't seen the movie in a year or two, and I probably should have kept my mouth shut about things I didn't remember clearly. Oh well.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] freeze_frame 14 years ago

The alternative lyrics in the film are cringe-worthy at best.

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[–] thereseuphemiaabernathy 14 years ago

I found them rather amusing...though actually kinda sad.

flowerpower

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[–] Suzume-san 14 years ago

For more about the concrete roads of Western Tokyo, see Pom Poko.

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[–] thereseuphemiaabernathy 14 years ago

Indeed, indeed. I watched that one shortly before Whisper.

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[–] psdhart 14 years ago

I agree it is a direct reference to Pom Poko, watched it just before whispers

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[–] Suzume-san 14 years ago

No it's not; the song in this film and the action in Pom Poko are both references to the housing development of the Tama Hills. Tokyo is a real place, you know.

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[–] psdhart 14 years ago

Let me rephrase that: it reminded me of Pom Poko
Yes I know Tokyo is a real place and I know where Tama is (western Tokyo)en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama,_Tokyo.
I just saw it as a reference because I happened to watch Pom poko just before

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[–] Suzume-san 14 years ago

That's better! thanks, psdhart.

Miyazaki cares deeply about the environment, don't we all, so we get something about this concern in almost all his work. Only a very light touch, in Mimi wo sumaseba.

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[–] HDcreepy 14 years ago

Guys let's just enjoy the film, instead of over analyzing it, okay?

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[–] alveolate 13 years ago

it is NOT over-analysing when it helps you enjoy the movie better!

thanks for making the connection: i missed that one. tho the "concrete roads" dry humour on its own was already tugging at my heartstrings... now that the reference to Pom Poko is clarified, it just seals the deal for me.

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[–] JojoShabadoo 12 years ago

The song was symbolic of her yearning to be free, her potential for individual thought and creativity

she was breaking away from tradition

Like strawberries and cream
It's the only way to be =P

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[–] NotASpeckOfCereal (302) 3 years ago

I have a question and it's not overanalyzing it -- I'm just curious.

I watch films with English subs (for hard of hearing) and I noticed that a) the subs didn't match (as is often the case with some of these Japanese to English translations, and b) in the case of the song Country Roads, the lyrics were not only different in both but wrong in both.

I mean that John Denver's original version is not hard to understand and I found no instance in this film where they were following the correct lyrics. (ALL ASIDE from the corny Concrete Roads alternative version.)

So I wonder if there was some sort of copyright issue with the John Denver song. Anybody?

Extra: for those unaware, that song is possibly the most popular modern pop song in the world. I heard that people here in the states in music bands that tour countries in Europe and the Far East absolutely must have that song in their set list, because it will get requested often.

Speck

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[–] greenvelvet (167) 2 years ago

I watched the film with the Japanese audio a while ago and from what I remember, the lyrics they sing are different too, even for the proper version of the song. The subtitles roughly match what they sing. The lyrics might have been changed to sound better in Japanese.

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