"Lu Eh Mia Si?" – Penangites Recreate 'Your Name' Anime In Tokyo While Speaking Hokkien
*Cue 'Nandemonaiya' by Radwimps.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 22 Dec 2022, 05:55 PM
One of Makoto Shinkai's most iconic works, Your Name, is known to many anime fans for its heart-wrenching story.
But would it still evoke such a dejected sentiment if the characters spoke Hokkien? These Penangites show us.
In an Instagram Reel posted last Friday, 16 December, content creators Sai and Bernice blessed us with a Malaysian version of the award-winning animated movie.
The 43-second video begins with Bernice frantically looking for someone after coming out of Yotsuya Station in Tokyo, Japan.
Sai and Bernice shot the parody video to mimic the movie scene by scene, all the way down to the details of the framing of the running movements, road signs, as well as the interaction between the two lead characters on the iconic staircase in front of Suga Shrine.
Sai walks up the stairs; Bernice descends the stairs, both pass each other and are too afraid to make the first move.
Staying true to the romantic trope, the two of them then turn around to face each other
Parodying the male lead, Taki, Sai hollers at Bernice, "Eh, zha bo! Wa lang wu du kuey bo? (Hey, lady. Have we met?)"
"Wa kam kak si la (I think so)," answers Bernice, crying.
It ends with both of them saying the popular line, which is also the name of the movie, "Lu eh mia si? (Your name?)"
At the time of writing, the parody has racked up over 121,000 views on Instagram, with hundreds of netizens applauding Sai and Bernice's brilliance in the comedic skit
From being impressed with their dedication to film at the actual location to their ingenious idea to speak Hokkien for the parody, Malaysians loved every bit of it.
Speaking to SAYS, Sai said they filmed the video on 9 December while they were in Japan
Initially intended as a nine-day-eight-night leisure trip, they ended up working most of the time because they wanted to create content for their fans.
"Our channel (Wabikong on YouTube) is about banter in different dialects in an entertaining way," Sai said.
"For this particular project, we wanted to entertain our audience further, thus, making Your Name into a Hokkien version to show the contrast of speaking in Japanese versus Hokkien, and how it would change the mood of the whole scene."
"It turns out that speaking Hokkien really makes things different!"
He told SAYS that they had to shoot everything by themselves, using a tripod, without a third person's help.
"To replicate the scene of tilting up at the very end, we had to ask one of the tourists, who happened to be a Singaporean by the way, to help us tilt up," he explained.
Sai said he was proud of his Penang heritage because some 10 other tourists in the vicinity witnessed them speaking Hokkien.
