Our little sister

是枝監督の映画『海街Diary』。ニューヨークタイムズではロイターの配信記事で済ませていましたし、レビューを載せているメディアも多くないので、カンヌで大注目というほどではないようです。

タイトルは英語だとOur Little Sisterと訳されています。『そして父になる』がLike Father, like sonでしたが、今回も海外向けのタイトルにしたのですね。「腹違いの妹」がhalf-sisterになることを知りました。

（オックスフォード）
half-sister
a person’s half-sister is a girl or woman who has either the same mother or the same father as them

最近、名詞の単数・複数にこだわっていたので、Our little sisterというタイトルも気になりました。メディア紹介では４人姉妹であることを推していたので、予告編にあったように、そのあたりのことを出すのかと思っていたら、Our little sister（私たちの妹）と単数でした。

It is a diary of four sisters to become a family through the life together.
それぞれの思いをかかえ、四人が本当の家族になるまでの１年間の物語。

３人姉妹の中に、Our little sisterが加わったので、改めて考えてみるとなかなかうまくつけていますよね。ちなみにAyase Haruka plays the eldest, Nagasawa Masami plays the second-born, Kaho plays the third-born, and Hirose Suzu the youngest.と長女はthe eldest、次女はthe second-born、三女はthe third-born、末っ子の妹はthe youngestと公式プレスキットではなっていました。

（公式プレスキット）
Award-winning internationally acclaimed director Kore-eda Hirokazu delivers a new film adapted from Yoshida Akimi’s best-selling graphic novel masterpiece “Umimachi Diary”. Set in the town of Kamakura, the book portrays with a great sense of realism the bonds interwoven between four sisters, as well as painful yet kindhearted relationships with people living in the town. It received the Excellence Award at the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival, and the Cartoon Grand Prize 2013.
Ayase Haruka plays the eldest, Nagasawa Masami plays the second-born, Kaho plays the third-born, and Hirose Suzu the youngest.

原作は吉田 秋生さんの漫画・コミックなんですが、graphic novelを脚色したと公式プレスキットではありました。メディアの紹介を見てみるとgraphic novel / serialized comic / manga / shojo mangaと表現はいろいろでした。

(LA Times)
"Our Little Sister" was adapted from Akimi Yoshida's successful graphic novel "Umimachi Diary." It takes place over a year in the seaside city of Kamakura, Japan, and deals, as Kore-eda's films often do, with family.

（Irish Times）
Adapted from a manga by Akimi Yoshida, the film tells the story of three sisters who, when their father dies, elect to take care of his daughter from a second marriage. Older members of the family growl ominously, but the relationship is a success from the beginning. Suzu (Suzu Hirose) turns out to be bright, helpful and perceptive. She’s also a damn fine footballer.

（Variety）
Sold by Wild Bunch, the Japanese family film is an adaptation of Akimi Yoshida’s popular serialized comic about four sisters living in the eponymous city. Cast is headlined by Masami Nagasawa, Haruka Ayase and Suzu Hirose. Kore-eda received a jury prize and an ecumenical prize at Cannes two years ago for “Like Father, Like Son,” and he was also in competition with “Nobody Knows” (2004) and “Distance” (2001). His 2009 film “Air Doll” premiered in Un Certain Regard.

（Variety）
In adapting shojo manga artist Akimi Yoshida’s “Umimachi Diary” (“Diary of a Seaside Town”), published sporadically since 2006 and still going, Kore-eda (who also wrote and edited) has wrought certain changes: Most significantly, the central perspective has shifted from the little sister, Suzu, to the eldest, Sachi. Consequently, the film emerges as less a coming-of-ager than a pensive drama about how adults come to terms with the mess their parents made of their lives.

公式プレスキットではgraphic novelであるとしているのは、comicよりもちょっとseriousなものであることを意味したいからでしょうか、渡辺さんの洋書ファンクラブでも紹介されていましたが、全米図書賞の最終候補になったグラフィックノベルもあるようです。

全米図書賞の最終候補になったグラフィックノベル　Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?

前に紹介したStation 11という作品や映画アメリカンスナイパーでもgraphic novelとcartoon, comicとの違いに触れている部分がありました。

He doesn’t understand the difference between serious graphic novels and Saturday-morning cartoonsやYou still read comic books? -It’s a fuckin graphic novel.とあることから、graphic novelの方がseriousなもの、大人が読んでもいいものというニュアンスがあるのかもしれません。

（Station 11抜粋）
“You’re always half on Station Eleven,” Pablo said during a fight a week or so ago, “and I don’t even understand your project. What are you actually going for here?”
He has no interest in comics. He doesn’t understand the difference between serious graphic novels and Saturday-morning cartoons with wide-eyed tweety birds and floppy-limbed cats. When sober, he suggests that she’s squandering her talent. When drunk, he implies that there isn’t much there to squander, although later he apologizes for this and sometimes cries. It’s been a year and two months since he sold his last painting. She started to explain her project to him again but the words stopped in her throat.
“You don’t have to understand it,” she said. “It’s mine.”

『アメリカンスナイパー』兵舎での会話
54. 55 INT. CHARLIE COMPANY BARRACKS, CAMP FALLUJAH - NIGHT 55
Chris steps in, letting the air-conditioning blow down on him. Cots, lockers and cruise-boxes line the room. Biggles reads a PUNISHER graphic novel, doesn’t look up.
BIGGLES
Heard you got your dick wet.
CHRIS Where is everybody?
BIGGLES
We’re just picking our dicks here,
training those fucking haji soldiers.
CHRIS
Why ain’t you out there?
BIGGLES
I got the shits. Marc Lee said you were
on fuckin fire out there.
CHRIS (shedding gear)
You still read comic books?
BIGGLES
It’s a fuckin graphic novel. Talk to me,
man. Did you pop your cherry?

ということで、漫画なんか読んでいるのとバカにされたら、これはgraphic novelと言い返すのがいいようです（笑）