Great Post :)))) At least for me, funny too.. I always thought the role-model story was a joke! :) Yaad-e saal-haaye Oshin be kheyr :))
Wow. This is something we in America missed. A very powerful series even when censored. I'll bet the uncensored series would be a huge hit. Someone in satellite TV should take note. I'll have to see if I can get video copies.
Just a note on today's censorship methods of the IRIB. One can categorize them into these categories: 1- Enlargement: if in one scene there's for instance a woman wearing a rather revealing dress (think IRIB standards now, not Baywatch!), then they would digitally stretch the whole picture so that only her head would be visible. 2- Digital obfuscation: if there's nothing wrong with actor's themselves but in a scene there's a painting of say a naked (wo)man, that particular part of the screen will be checkered. And, 3- The most popular one, total annihilation of the script by making up a complete nonsense out of a dialog between two characters of the movie. This, in fact, is not a technique, and is nothing like Babak mentioned in the case of Oshin's series. This is a side effect of having people as translators in IRIB, who do not know the... [more at the permalink of the entry above]
akhey ... memories of oshin ... i remember the entire family sitting down to watch it, with my mum holding the radio in her hand in case there were air strikes ... time really flies by!
Oshin, censorship, Fatemeh Zahra, women's role model... that is called sewing ASEMOON and RISMOON.
About censorship, I don't know about you, but I personally hate it to be treated by the government as SAGHIR, someone who is not mature enough to decide what is good for him and what is not and a Big Brother finds Himself eligible to make decisions for him. I just hated it so much to watch a censored, altered, or otherwise changed show. Anyway, the story is unfortunately true and shows the "we know what is good for you and you yourself are too stupid to know" attitude of the Iranian government.
Mobaleghe: Oshin, censorship, Fatemeh Zahra, women's role model... that is called sewing ASEMOON and RISMOON. That's probably because "ASEMOON and RISMOON" are sewn that way in Iran, today.
Funny how time goes by. I actually miss all that! Amazing how strong we were as children to actually enjoy those days! Another example of such censor/dubbings that I fully recall were in Hercule Poirot series. Since the stories were extremely clever murder mysteries, such stupid tamperings were REALLY frustrating. The one example I especially remember was an episode where the murder took place on a ship...the murderer was a woman Poirot and others, including the viewers, had met during the dancing party on the ship. The scenes of that party were censored in their ENTIRETY. So we never even saw the murderer, or had bo idea any such character even existed in the plot for that matter, until the very end of the episode when Poirot had reveiled the truth! But what you said about the common bond we all had by watching the exact cartoons and series,... [more at the permalink of the entry above]
Babak, I don't mean to ruin the nostalgic mood here but since you brought up the subject of CENSORSHIP in Iran I think a few words on that are long due. I can not think of a publication, a journal, a report, a TV channel, or for that matter , any kind of mass media on this planet earth that is free from what we commonly refer to it as CENSORSHIP. Do I support censorship? When I was a young man I would say "hell no". I like to think that I have matured now ( not many people around me will agree with that including my ex!!) and I have seen the way the world is being run and I would say I will not bet a penny of my money on seeing a day that we will see a censor free country, organization, institution, mass media and... [more at the permalink of the entry above]
To Arash, Since you brought up the "bad translation" I thought to add couple of things to your examples... First one is the publications of the embassy documents by the students who took over the US embassy. In their translation of one of the documents they had translated the phrase "with the ultimate objective of.." (ba hadafe nahaee) as "ultimately objecting" (dar nahayat ba mokhalefate.....) At the time my English was really poor but even I could see the difference. But the worst one that I saw was the case of a (translation/book jacking). A relative of mine in Iran showed me a Physics book written in Farsi named "modern Physics" that three Iranian physicists had authored it. (their names were on the cover). He wanted my opinion on that. As I looked through the book I could see there were many figures that were so familiar to me.... [more at the permalink of the entry above]
I came to Europe from CHILE and I did watch OSHIN in my homeland 2 times!! In fact, OSHIN is one of my all time favorite from JAPAN to the world. The rearview mirror to a unfair sexist society trying to reborn from war economical an moral disaster, and the mixture of suffering, honor, sacrifice just can't keep you off the screen... So sad to notice censorship when something so simple can be watched in other place. I love Tanaka Yuko!!!
heydarbaba ye aziz, You ask "Do I support censorship? First we have to define what it is..." How about we start with a rather simple definition, cen·sor, transitive verb: to examine (as a publication or film) in order to suppress or delete any contents considered objectionable — Source: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc. I'm sure we can agree on this much about defining what censor is. Now it is simple to answer your question: I do not support censor and not only that, I am against censor in all its forms. Simple as that. This means that removing material due to other reasons than objectionabl-ity is not censor. Sometimes, it is not possible to publish a work in its entirety simply because there is not enough space for it in the intended publication format. And what's more important, expressing a view, even a false view, is... [more at the permalink of the entry above]
this whole web site is a crap if you even allow yourself erase someone else's postings. you should not assume falsely that you are superior than the readers that you can in case you didn't approve the content to simply erase it. the whole point that we had been stagnating in history for so long is basically because of the attitude I can obviously see here that we assume we are supposed to approve or disapprove whatever other people believe or do; however, in the world of modernity, usually no one gives a heck to what you think as long as you respect the freedom of thought and speech and rights of other citizens. as long as you don't invade other people's privacy, who cares!! if bunch of intellectuals erase each other's postings simply because it seemed off the topic, then what do you expect from bunch of uneducated... [more at the permalink of the entry above]
To Babak and Sadaf; I haven't responded to your comments so far for a simple technical reason. I hadn't paid my phone/internet bill and I had lost my service for a while.!! I was using the public library computers and there is simply no time for writing and posting comments in that situation. So it wasn't that I ignored the comments. I am not good at doing that. lol. I have a few words to say but not now . peace.
i love u oshin by the way i am rachelle oshin my father named me oshin cause he love the tv show oshin eventhough i didn watch that particular show i know it was great,cause many people love it.i am from the philippines.i hope that oshin will be shown also too here in the philippines.
What does the name "OSHIN" MEAN?
Hi, everybody, I've ever watched OSHIN FILM in my country Vietnam, but not whole film. So now, I want to find this film and I want to buy it. Any Japanese friend can help me?? If it'll better translate to English, yeah? Thank you.
Interesting article and intersting convesation. Thanks. Just a side note here, that I am amazed that they show the X-Files in Iran!
hi thanks alot for giving some information about the real oshin.but i want to know the real story of the oshin.can you help about it. i look forward to hearing from you. h. sahra good luck
thanks! Great Site
keep information free!