‘Shaolin Girl’ staff to bloggers, Stop calling it Kobayashi

The creators of the upcoming Stephen Chow-produced film Shaolin Girl are having a hard time convincing Japanese bloggers it’s about Shaolin Kung-Fu at all. While some people have been mistaking the martial arts used in the film and its Hong Kong predecessor “Shaolin Soccer” for Shorinji Kempo - a Japanese martial art inspired by Shaolin Kung-Fu, others are convinced it’s about Kobayashi Shorin-ryu, an Okinawan style of karate. Apparently the kanji for “Shaolin” (少林) is so close to the kanji for “Kobayashi” (小林) that many Japanese blogs and online media outlets have been reporting on the two films under the titles “Kobayashi Soccer” and “Kobayashi Girl”.

This concern over the typo speaks to the importance of blogs and the web in general for promotion of Japanese films, but when mistakes like this are made it’s kind of tough to get the genie back in the bottle. This is something English-language blogs are used to by now, given that translated Japanese titles are often just a best guess at the intended meaning. It’s a good reminder to blogs like this to be really careful in reporting things that may get circulated around the web with our mistakes intact.

Shaolin Girl opens April 26th.

Source: Shaolin Girl production blog

Links:
Shaolin Girl trailer
Eigapedia

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Tags: kou shibasaki, martial arts, shaolin girl, stephen chow, takashi okamura