I was very excited when Will from “Monkey Steals Peach” announced his trip and his planned video project. However, I was already quite skeptical about certain points in advance – but that’s a whole different topic. I briefly became a Patreon supporter to watch the content earlier.
From episodes 3 and 4 onward, I was quite shocked by the subtitles, especially during the interview with Higa Kiyohiko Sensei – I found it particularly frustrating. The subtitles have since been revised; in my personal opinion, they are still not perfect – but clearly much better than the ones that were originally produced. Just a small correction from my side – in the interview, Higa Sensei speaks of Yamani-ryū, not Yamane-ryū – he’s basically using the Okinawan pronunciation here rather than the Japanese one. The Yamani-ryū that is practiced and preserved at the Bugeikan Dōjō is a great treasure – it comes very close to how Chinen Masami demonstrated it in 1961.
Today I watched Will’s apology, and I can tell him that he is not the only one who had issues with the subtitles – even in the much-praised episode of Kung Fu Quest, there were similar problems. I really appreciate that he apologized for his mistakes – that shows STRENGTH. It’s increasingly noticeable lately that many people, especially via print-on-demand platforms, quickly change the criticized points and act as if it had always been that way… which is, of course, not true.
THANK YOU MONKEY STEALS PEACH (WILL) FOR YOUR HONESTY.
The example of Higaonna Morio Sensei and Kung Fu Quest:
from 32:30 min on (!)
Chinese TV translation:
I was told Ryu Ryu Ko was a guard. He was about 40 years old. Tall with powerfull foot movements. Because oft he civil wars he went to many places and learned many different kung fu. He might have learned Crying Crane boxing. In the past learning martial arts had to be done covertly. Kanryo went to China because his father had been beaten to death. He wanted to learn kung fu for revenge. Because Kanryo Higaonna was illiterate many things had not been passed down. What is the truth? Was the name Ryu Ryu Ko real or false? No one knows.
What Higaonna Morio really said in Japanese:
正確には、分からん。とにかく、リューリューコウとしてはね、あのーお寺で、元々仕事はまぁ護衛官ですよね。この福建の王様の時代ですよね。お城があって。護衛官なんですね。セキュリティ。
で、内乱が起きたもんだから、地下に潜ったと言うんですね。ほとんど、半分は逃げたと。最初に逃げるのは、ベトナム、東南アジアと。この人はだから、、、あの、、、たくさんあった少林寺のお寺があったんですね。流派はまだ聞いてないですけど、あのーよく鳴鶴と言う、、、、(フェイドアウト)
Translations of the real words of Higaonna Morio:
To be precise, I don’t really know. Anyway, as for Ryū Ryūkō, well, at the temple, his original job was, you could say, a bodyguard. That was during the time of the viceroy of Fujian, right? There was a castle. He was a bodyguard—security.
Then, because a civil war broke out, it’s said he went underground. Apparently, about half of them fled. The first to flee went to Vietnam and Southeast Asia. So this person… um… there were many Shaolin temples, you see. I haven’t heard which school yet, but, um, he was often referred to as „Whooping Crane“… (fades out)
Karate Kenkyū Shitsu 