There Are American Godzilla Movies, So Why Not a Japanese ‘Lord of the Rings’?

In 2020, podcaster Eric Molinsky discussed the idea of “fantasy in translation” during an episode of his fine series, “Imaginary Worlds.” He elaborated on the famous case of the Israeli fighter pilots who while being held as prisoners of war at Cairo translated “The Hobbit” into Hebrew, and spoke of how the Russian version of “The Wizard of Oz” became a thriving sub-franchise unto itself. Those are powerful examples, as no fantasy story is considered more resolutely English than J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” saga or more all-American than the “Oz” franchise. When it was announced that there would be an anime adaptation of a Tolkien story, my first thought was that there is already an American series of Godzilla movies, so why not a Japanese “Lord of the Rings”?Officially released Friday, “The War of the Rohirrim” is a fascinating sample of multiple levels of fantasy in translation — from England to Japan and then back to the West again. The picture is an international co-production between American and Japanese interests, with the screenwriter of the three “Lord of the Rings” films, Philippa Boyens, as producer. The picture is being released under the auspices of the “LOTR” films’ director, Peter Jackson.“Rohirrim” is also part of a general trend of the last 30 years, essentially since the publication of “Wicked” in 1995, that has seen every successful franchise, from “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” to “The Sopranos,” get a prequel of some sort. The most elaborate “LOTR” prequel is an Amazon Prime series, “Rings of Power,” now in its second season. “Rings of Power” is a valiant attempt to out-Tolkien J.R.R. Tolkien and out-Jackson Peter Jackson. Everything is big, grandiose, and moves with the glacial pace of a motion picture epic rather than a fantasy TV series.Héra, voiced by Gaia Wise, in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.’ Via Warner Bros. Pictures“Rohirrim” makes no such effort: On the whole it feels less like medieval Europe than a Japanese shogun-era war drama like Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood,” itself an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Scottish play. Perhaps the ironic point is that “Rohirrim” is actually based more directly on Tolkien, being adapted from dribs and drabs and undeveloped leftover stories in the admittedly small Tolkien canon. The look and feel of “Rohirrim” seem like a combination of Celtic and Asian imagery, and the feeling is somewhere in between middle-brow Japanese anime TV fare and the higher-end, Fellini-esque animated art films of Hayao Miyazaki. One of the aspects we love about Tolkien and most of his adaptors is that he takes his time; readers are in it for the long haul. The Jackson adaptation of “The Hobbit” is a literal maxi-series that takes nine hours to cover the events of a single book. By those standards, “Rohirrim” is brisk and fast-moving; at 134 minutes, it’s almost a short subject. Director Kenji Kamiyama’s film is a straightforward tale of families, resentment, revenge, life and death, love and marriage — the more I think about it, the more I think it actually could have been directed by Kurosawa. What’s also refreshing is that, unlike J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” prequel series, there is not a lot of time wasted setting up plot points for “LOTR” — it’s a story unto itself. It’s a medieval drama, as much “King Lear” or “Richard III” as “The Hobbit,” with only occasional fantasy elements. The entire story is carried out by humans; there are no dwarves, elves, hobbits, dragons, walking trees, or wizards. The only magic is the occasional oversized animal. Unless you knew it was Tolkien, you wouldn’t know it was Tolkien. In fact, “Rohirrim” succeeds where other Tolkien projects have failed in giving us a true female protagonist who is virtually the whole story. The risk is that “Hera” (Gaia Wise) is so perfect she could become a “Mary Sue,” one of those female characters in fan fiction who are, as they say, so very perfect as to be annoying. When “Rings of Power” was announced, more conservative fantasy fans objected to the colorblind casting — as if a magical dwarf somehow would be harder to believe if he were Black rather than Caucasian. In “Rohirrim,” contrastingly, everybody seems to be ethnically and racially neutral.In a sense, “Rohirrim” is a Tolkien story that has potential appeal not only for members of the Tolkien cult, but non-Tolkien fans as well. I know the rings of power are kind of the whole point, but I’m just as happy to see a middle earth story that does not obsess over those lousy rings as I am to find a “Star Wars” movie without any characters named Skywalker.

There Are American Godzilla Movies, So Why Not a Japanese ‘Lord of the Rings’?

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