Blade Runner 2049's Finnish (Aug 2019 update)

No, that isn't a spelling mistake. This really is about the Finnish in Blade Runner 2049. There are a few spoilers in this, nothing big, but you may want to check out now.

(NB - 2019 follow up comments in PS down at the bottom)

I went to see the film a second time, primarily to immerse myself again in that world. Despite the intensely pessimistic vision it offers, its design and cinematography are wondrous and absorbing and I wanted it all again, while I could still get it on the big screen. And it was a big screen, a bigger and better one in Manchester. I went with a friend, which enabled some lively discussion afterwards. I'm glad to say she liked it too, and made several good points. The main one was about the 'glaring plot hole' towards the end (ie. how does so-and-so know how to find *cough* in order to effect a rescue): something's been cut out there, maybe only a bit of script, but something which might have explained it. There were other reasons to see it again. Many were to do with particular scenes and conversations; I wanted to see if I'd missed important details, or things people had said. Or did I just want to see my new favourite 'robot prostitute' again (sorry Pris!), Mariette (above)?

The thing is, I mainly wanted to cement it in my mind, now I knew it was the same world as that of the original Blade Runner. It could be a very long while before I can even buy a dvd, especially now I know I may want to wait for a 'Director's Cut' or some other sort of longer edition. They've denied there'll be any longer version, so I don't know about that. Or they could be lying...

Anyway, last Monday I went a third time. I was in Preston for an appointment, so I took the opportunity afterwards. Why, you ask? Well, it's sort of to do with those robot prostitutes (yes yes, I know they're replicants, not robots). I'd discovered I'd been lacking in a classic case of how you should spot something you know about, or recognise a person you know, but you don't, because it's so out of context.

Recall the scene in which K is standing at a bar, and is approached by three  of those prostitutes, or, as the cast list has it; Mariette, and "Doxie #1" and "Doxie #2". Well, I didn't recognise #1, though I'm familiar with her and have seen a couple of her films. More to the point, when she speaks, briefly, I vaguely registered that, as in one or two other scenes, a bit of foreign was being spoken. Funnily enough, a part of my brain was vainly trying to draw attention to this but it was swept aside as I followed the developing conversation with Mariette. Weird how the brain works.
 
After I'd seen Blade Runner 2049 a second time, I discovered that one or two Finnish culture sites were making a fuss, about actually hearing Finnish in a Hollywood film. I knew straight away they were referring to this short interchange, so I had to go and hear it again. There was my first excuse for not noticing it before; it really is a very brief slice of speech. She says a couple of things, first that he's a Blade Runner - those two words being in English - then that he is dangerous. In subtitles. Seeing subtitles, I'm afraid, is probably why I stopped listening carefully to the speech. But this time, I was straining every sinew in my ears (biologically improbable I know) to catch some of that Finnish. At last, a smidgen of credit for me, because although it's mumbled and barely audible, and the subtitles were needed, I pieced the last phrase together before getting back to my dictionary. "He is dangerous" = "Hän on vaarallinen".

The actress is called Krista Kosonen, and well respected in Finland. I've seen a couple of her films, Jadesoturi (Jade Warrior) and Suden vuosi (The Year of the Wolf - spoiler alert: there are no wolves in it), both good, and she's very good indeed. There seems to be a pattern, in which Hollywood wants decent actors on the cheap, and/or needs unknown faces who are also experienced actors, and trawls foreign parts. Blade Runner 2049 is packed with them. True, the Cuban actress who plays K's girlfriend already works in America but certainly I'd never heard of her. Then there's the Swiss actress playing the daughter, and best of all the Dutch actress playing the deadly replicant. I have no idea if this aspect of casting was deliberate, but it's nice to have grey areas. When Hollywood films are full of famous names, it's hard to avoid preconceptions as to who's a goodie or a baddie - rather like, on a trivial level, when you spot a celebrity guest star in Murder She Wrote or Columbo, it removes some of the mystery about who dunnit.

The characters of Blade Runner 2049 do develop and change, to varying degrees. Even Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) is fascinating and ambiguous and there seem to be hidden layers to her agenda. Joi's path through the story is poignant and I did wonder at one point if she was the key to solving that plot hole I was talking about; but on my third viewing that seems not to be so. K himself has some fascinating moments in the film, especially ones in which he obviously withholds a response to someone. We're told at the start of the film that the most important new rule in this future world of replicants is that they obey. It turns out that the picture there is not a black and white one. And they have definitely learned how to lie.

I hope as many people as possible managed to see the film without knowing too much. Now, as you can see, I want some explanations; and more and more, I want them, some of them at least, to be revealed in a third film. Whether or not it features any spoken Finnish. Please, please, let that not be in another thirty years.

Postscript, 2019

I now have a dvd copy of Blade Runner 2019, bought this year in Finland. Hence I have access to those Finnish subtitles. I had seen the film four times, the last being in a cinema in Helsinki. I don't know if these are the same exact subtitles as I saw then. The Finnish subtitles I remember were very sweary, more so than the original English. Makes me wonder quite a bit how this kind of language works in Finnish. I mean, I know for a fact that Finns can and often do have a disapproving attitude to bad language. But I suspect bad language may also function somewhat like their enclitic particles - oh please don't ask: I've studied Finnish for quite some while and I still don't really know how to use them properly.

Anyway, let's have a look at that scene, now. Specifically, where Doxie #1 speaks.
I'm trying to take in the audio, the Finnish subtitles on the dvd, and the English subtitles apparently on the film print. The dvd Finnish subtitles read: "Tää jätkä on Blade Runner. Antaa sen olla. Mennään, se on vitun vaarallinen."   The film text English reads: "He's a f***ing Blade Runner. I recognise him. This guy is dangerous... You coming?"

As for the sound, I admit that despite replaying it, Doxie #1's speech is still hard for me to follow. Sometime I'll try it out on a Finn, to see if that is actually what she says. It sounds as if it probably is. The Finnish, that is. I'm still embarrassed about not having clicked to hearing Finnish being spoken when I first saw the film!

But what about the screen English? It isn't a literal translation of the Finnish subtitles. Personally, I read it as "This guy is a Blade Runner. Leave him (leave him be, leave him alone, something like that). Let's go, he's a dangerous c**t. (or, he's f***ing dangerous)" Well... To be honest, I can't really complain about the translation, can I? It's not exact, and it moves the sweary bit around, but it does get the sense of it.

By the way, I still think this film is a masterpiece.