Tag: Crocodile Dundee

Strine, Strine Biz

…ah, so* have a Winfield: The Tiny Tale of Aussie Durries in Japan

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A long, long time ago, in a Straya far, far away, Australia briefly exported cigarettes to Japan.
It wasn’t that long ago, actually.
But for several months in 1994, Winfield cigarettes, one of Australia’s most famous brands (it marketed itself as “Australia’s No. 1 brand” in Japan, but it was actually only the second-biggest seller Down Under, behind Peter Jackson), was an unlikely competitor of mostly British and American Big Tobacco companies to tap into what was still then a thriving Japanese smokers’ market largely unregulated at the time.
Winfield was on a downturn at the time in its home country.
Cigarette advertising had been banned from TV and print media decades earlier, but by the mid-1990s in Australia had also been outlawed from outdoor displays and sporting events that tobacco company sponsorship had largely kept afloat.

Japanese Winnie Reds

Like many Western companies faced with growing anti-smoking sentiment at the time, the owners of the Winfield brand decided to flog their fags off to Asians. It didn’t work too well in Japan.
Japanese Winnie Reds and Winnie Blues could be found in the country’s ciggie vending machines (then ubiquitous, now becoming rarer) over what was a record-breaking hot summer and autumn, but were mostly gone by the Christmas of that year.
Winfield owed its chance overseas to many factors, at least one of which was the role played by Paul Hogan, a sometime comedian better-known to international audiences as the star of the Crocodile Dundee film series.
Hoges had been the face of Winfield when it first came out in the 1970s and he was beginning his ascent toward becoming one of Australia’s best-known stars. He became synonymous with the brand even as its presence was being limited, but his famous catch copy of “…anyhow* have a Winfield,” entered the lexicon of ordinary Aussies.

Japanese Winnie Blues

…anyhow*, Australia outlawed packaging displays on cigarettes from 2012. Although punters could still ask for their different types of Winnies, which had been branded according to colors such as Red and Blue, the packaging was no longer actually red, blue or any other color.
Even Hoges, whose rise to fame was at least partly inspired by a sharp set of movie theater and print ads he’d made for Winfield in the 1970s, came out a few years ago to say that he deeply regretted the commercials for having inspired so many people to pick up a durry.
Hoges and Stropp Winfield Ad from 1971


Indigenous Strine (Woiwurrung), Strine Biz, Strine Songs

国内ヒットでも海外コケ豪映画の行方は？

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The Sapphires

The Sapphires

　1950年代世界を魅了して以降評価が下がれ影響も薄れた邦画同様、1970・1980年代で一時期一世風靡した豪映画も低迷している。
Just as Japanese cinema was globally renowned in the 1950s only to subsequently fall into decline, Australian movies lauded across the world in the 1970s and 1980s can now no longer make much of an impact outside of their homeland.

　国内市場が十分に邦画の存在を確保できるに対してオーストラリア国内だけでは商売にならない。今でも大ヒットしても数百万豪ドルの興業収益しか期待できないので、世界的にヒットするクロコダイル・ダンディ、マッド・マックスかムーラン・ルージュやハッピー・フィートなどのような大作以外オーストラリアの映画界がビジネスよりチャリティ見たいな存在だ。
Unlike the domestic Japanese market, however, which is of a scale large enough to support its own industry, the Australian domestic movie business is tiny. This ensures that short of making a hit of the likes of the initial Crocodile Dundee series entries, the Mad Max series or something akin to Happy Feet or Moulin Rouge, a general release Australian movie is almost destined to be more of a charitable enterprise than a business.
　たとえ、国内・外高く評価された映画でもそうだ。
This applies even for movies rated highly domestically and overseas.
　今年の豪映画界ではそういうような映画が実際にあった。
This year has seen a move that proves to be a case in point.
　それは「ザ・サファイアズ」だった。
We’re referring to The Sapphires.

　この実話の元に作られて、オーストラリア版のスプリームスと呼ばれた若い先住民女性コンビオージー版ドリームガールズと言われている映画がカンヌ映画祭など世界各地で評価・表彰されこの頃豪映画として珍しく海外で売られるようになった。
The movie based on a true story about a band referred to as Australia’s version of The Supremes is said to be an Australian-style Dreamgirls and was awarded and highly rated when shown at international festivals such as Cannes and, rare for an Aussie movie these days, even sold overseas.
オーストラリアで最も有名な先住民歌手一人であるジェシカ・モーボイーをはじめ豪華なキャストがあって、実に面白い映画であり、1960年代先住民がまだ白豪州主義や盗まれた世代など差人種別の根が深いオーストラリア社会で広く差別された先住民女性バンドが国際的に評価される話だ。
The movie featured Jessica Mauboy, one of Australia’s best-known indigenous singers, as part of a tremendous cast who worked to tell the fascinating tale of a group of indigenous women plucked from a reserve to form a band that became something of an international sensation at a time when it was still common for them to encounter discrimination in their homeland still deeply influenced by the White Australia Policy, the Stolen Generations and other aspects of its racist past.

　だが、フランス、イギリスをはじめ、オーストラリア国外では興業実績が貧しいだった。
But, The Sapphires flopped at the box office internationally, starting with failures in its first overseas markets in France and Britain.
　残念なことに日本では上映される予定が無い。
And it’s not even planned for release in Japan.

Strange Strine, Strine, Strine Biz, Strine Dictionary 豪語辞書, 豪cabulary

豪キャブラリー： Yahoo

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Yahooは、検索エンジン及びポータルサイトとして1990年代のインターネット普及によって世界中に有名な言葉となったが、実は昔からyahooがオージー英語でよく使われている言葉であり、「ふざける」という意味なのだ。

Yahoo Serious

　ちなみに、1980年代後半、オーストラリアのコメディがハリウッドを魅了し、ポーホーガン氏のクロコダイル・ダンディ映画シリーズに続き、Yahoo Serious氏というコメディアンが「ヤング・アインシュタイン」という1988作映画を世界中に大ヒットを記録し期待されたが、1990年に入ったら続々と映画がこけ、キャリアが自然消滅してしまった。が、、、ヤフーの登場につれて同氏が再び現れ、同サイトを無断で名前を使用したとして著作違反として訴えたが、敗訴して改めて公の場で見えなくなった。

豪英・米語日本語
YahooAct boisterouslyバカ騒ぎ、ふざける