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Now that's a screwy ad...
Maybe I saw this wrong
A.k.a. one Japanese ad I'm not sure I want to see again
The other evening, I saw this Japanese television ad for the first time. And I'm still... well, here. Let me describe it.
Start with the smiling face of a young Japanese comedian. Pull back to show us that he's in swashbuckling naval costume, complete with a cutlass. Then pull back a bit more to show us the ship's deck, blue sky, rigging. He said something -- I'm afraid it was "Yo, ho." Then cut a wider shot, with a chorus of men also in costume, responding -- sigh, I am almost sure it was, "Yo, ho!"
Then a long shot of the tall ship in the waves -- beautiful. And...
Cut to casks of whiskey, racked around a narrow ship's aisle. And a fellow in costume rolls a cask down the alley into our point of view.
Now cut back to our favorite comedian, who is at this point hoisting a glass in the sunshine, with ice, soda, and whiskey -- or at least the bubbles and color are the right tinge. And the chorus hoists glittering, sweating glasses as he leads off, " Hi-baru!" (Hi-ball, but with the Japanese pronounciation) The chorus responded, on the beat, with "Hi-baru!" I really need to go back and listen again, but I could swear that the background music was the song from the dwarves in Snow White, "Hi, ho, hi, ho..."
And go to credits. I'm pretty sure it was Suntory.
I'm still gagging at the mixture. Ye olde tall ships, cutlass and sailors and whiskey... OK, I can see a thread of relationship there. But off to work with the dwarves? And the pseudo-pun of "hi-baru" for "hi-ho"? Maybe it's a sign of successful cultural imperialism -- after all, I don't think there's anything in that motley that was particularly Japanese, except the actors.
I think I need to see it at least once more, just to check that they really did that. Maybe I was having a hallucination. Or... maybe I did see it?
A.k.a. one Japanese ad I'm not sure I want to see again
The other evening, I saw this Japanese television ad for the first time. And I'm still... well, here. Let me describe it.
Start with the smiling face of a young Japanese comedian. Pull back to show us that he's in swashbuckling naval costume, complete with a cutlass. Then pull back a bit more to show us the ship's deck, blue sky, rigging. He said something -- I'm afraid it was "Yo, ho." Then cut a wider shot, with a chorus of men also in costume, responding -- sigh, I am almost sure it was, "Yo, ho!"
Then a long shot of the tall ship in the waves -- beautiful. And...
Cut to casks of whiskey, racked around a narrow ship's aisle. And a fellow in costume rolls a cask down the alley into our point of view.
Now cut back to our favorite comedian, who is at this point hoisting a glass in the sunshine, with ice, soda, and whiskey -- or at least the bubbles and color are the right tinge. And the chorus hoists glittering, sweating glasses as he leads off, " Hi-baru!" (Hi-ball, but with the Japanese pronounciation) The chorus responded, on the beat, with "Hi-baru!" I really need to go back and listen again, but I could swear that the background music was the song from the dwarves in Snow White, "Hi, ho, hi, ho..."
And go to credits. I'm pretty sure it was Suntory.
I'm still gagging at the mixture. Ye olde tall ships, cutlass and sailors and whiskey... OK, I can see a thread of relationship there. But off to work with the dwarves? And the pseudo-pun of "hi-baru" for "hi-ho"? Maybe it's a sign of successful cultural imperialism -- after all, I don't think there's anything in that motley that was particularly Japanese, except the actors.
I think I need to see it at least once more, just to check that they really did that. Maybe I was having a hallucination. Or... maybe I did see it?