A Noongar language dub of the Bruce Lee classic Fist of Fury aims to invigorate interest in the endangered language, telling a story with universal themes of fighting injustice and loyalty to community.
The Noongar language of the First Nations people of Western Australia is spoken by just two per cent of Noongar people, and just a few thousand words remain after decades of forced suppression.
After presenting Shakespeare's Macbeth in the Noongar language in Hecate at the last Perth Festival, director Kylie Bracknell — also known as Kaarljilba Kaardn — will this year reveal another language revitalisation project in the form of a redub of the 1972 kung fu film.
Both projects aimed to show Noongar people that although their language might be endangered, it was not lost.
"For me, it's presenting this to the world, like we did with Hecate, to go to bring to everyone's attention that this is how fluently and beautifully our language would be shared and spoken day in, day out, if it were uninterrupted by colonisation," Ms Bracknell said.
Story with universal appeal
Fist of Fury, made in Hong Kong in 1972, is a Bruce Lee kung fu movie set in Shanghai with the Chinese population living under Japanese imperial occupation.
When Lee's character, Chen Zhen, returns to his kung fu school to find his revered teacher dead, he — and the school — are drawn into conflict with a rival, Japanese martial arts school.
The film's enduring themes of honour, resisting colonisation, revering one's teachers, and fighting injustice, as well its significance to Noongar people, made it the obvious choice for the dub project, Ms Bracknell said.
"I knew it needed to be art-house and not dialogue heavy, and something that represented physical body language as well, because that's something that we respect and look to," she said.
"It just made sense to do a kung fu film, specifically a Bruce Lee film.
"Fist of Fury is from a time and an era when that generation of the Noongar community missed out on Noongar language because their parents were too busy trying to keep them in the family and not taken away.
Translating an endangered language
Having chosen the film, it then had to be translated in Noongar, a project she undertook with her partner, Dr Clint Bracknell.
"It's quite daunting knowing that you're translating from arguably the most sophisticated language in the entire world to a language where only two per cent of its community speak it, and it's endangered," she said.
They decided that rather than work from an English translation of the film, they would go back to the Cantonese and Mandarin of the original film with the help of a colleague, Felix Ching Ching Ho.
"I think when you see the kung fu films dubbed into English it can seem like comedy because often the lips don't match what the character is saying, and sometimes the voice actors are a bit over the top.
"We wanted to make sure this is not taken as a comedy.
"It has subtle comedy, but we didn't want the comedy to be as a result of the dub."
They also had to decide how to translate a story about Chinese resistance to Japanese imperialism into Noongar language while avoiding English words.
"Because 'Noongar' is such a complex word that can mean man or person or even ally, we've used 'Noongar' as the word to describe the people of the film and the people of the country, and in this case the people of the country are the Chinese people," he said.
Not only did the language have to be accurate, it also had to fit the time the actors take on screen to speak, so the script was painstakingly refined over weeks in the studio as each actor came to perform their role.
"Clint actually did a lot of the translation, if not the bulk of it, and he went through with the first sweep," Ms Bracknell said.
"I came through later and didn't have to change much because he's quite brilliant with language.
"I've been editing in the studio, as needed, to suit the dub and the mouth movements of the actors themselves."
Acting out every punch
In a small recording studio, each actor had to perform their part, directed by Ms Bracknell, dubbing each line — and breath — of their character.
They also recreated the numerous, intense fight scenes throughout the film, voicing every shout, punch, and kick seen on screen.
For Dr Bracknell, who as well as translating also took on the role of Fan in the film, it was quite a challenge.
"If you are going to vocalise fight scenes in a recording booth you can't actually make physical movements that make noise," he said.
The final product, Fist of Fury Noongar Daa (dub) is close to completion and will screen at the Perth Festival in February.
The couple hopes it will inspire further Noongar language revitalisation.
"To know that this new language vision will be recorded in time and hopefully accessible to generations beyond our expectations," Ms Bracknell said.
"Perhaps even the script, the translated script, will accompany that, and it's something that can be shared in schools and with the Noongar community.
"Around the world, when communities are trying to revitalise endangered languages, most of the success comes from doing something with your endangered language — whether that be singing, putting on a festival, making films, or making theatre," Dr Bracknell added.
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2020-12-18 23:35:00Z
CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTEyLTE5L25vb25nYXItbGFuZ3VhZ2UtcmV2aXRhbGlzZWQtd2l0aC1icnVjZS1sZWUtZmlsbS1kdWIvMTI5ODcxOTbSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTI5ODcxOTY
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