Saturday, May 05, 2007

The Secret of Mamo: It lies in the word itself.

I saw the movie "Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Mamo" on TV. Although I thought that these animation series were nothing more than entertainment, watching this movie today made me change my mind. I was surprised when I heard the name of a character.

Lupin the 3rd is very popular in Japan. It is getting popular in some other countries too. For instance, my ex-roomie liked it.

The villain in the movie is named "Mamo," but to my ears, it almost sounded like "mamon." As you know, "mamon" is an expression shown in the New Testament. For non-native speakers of English, I'm quoting its definition from the New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (2002):

mammon: A New Testament expression for material wealth, which some people worship as a god. Figuratively, it simply means money.

Then, we are taking a look at the storyline of the movie:
Lupin risks death to learn the secret and intentions of a wealthy and seemingly immortal, but certainly ruthless, recluse.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078187/

I have to admit that few Japanese, even when they speak English well or when they are Christians, aren't familiar with the expression "mammon." Therefore, I assume that Monkey Punch, who wrote the Lupin series, know some Western values and put them in his works. Again, I'm surprised.

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