I love Japanese movies and they are maybe the main reason I started studying the language. Whenever I’m deep-diving in some director’s filmography I usually stumble on films that haven’t been translated yet and I would love to understand them.
Please, could you help me elaborate a study plan to achieve this goal?
Further information about my current Japanese level, as suggested by Gigahercz:
Current Japanese level: N5
Time of study per day: about 30min
Material studied: Minna no Nihongo I and partially II
Study style: practice-focused, the more practice, the better But I guess I’m also a deep-diver, I like learning all details so I feel confident to move forward.
I’ve never been one to do much structured/planned study, so I probably can’t help you too much on that front, but I’m sure anyone that can help would want to know a few details so I’ll start by asking some questions!
What is your current Japanese level?
How much time a day do you plan to dedicate to study?
What have you tried so far - I see level 5 on here, what about grammar study or textbooks?
What’s your study “style”? You can learn quite quickly with really efficient but often boring methods, but not everyone has the patience to power through like that (and that’s fine!)
Hopefully this can help someone get an idea of how to help you plan - everyone’s different so it’s hard to offer blanket advice without more context!
I found Out that I can’t learn Grammar in Winter or watch Videos on YouTube Like Tokini Andi or Japanese from Zero. The Darkness makes me extremely tired. That’s why I decided to concentrate on Things Like vocabulary and Kanji (srs) at the Moment and will continue with Grammar during Summer. I also started to read a book with the absolute Beginner Book club.
Funny, I got into learning Japanese for the same reason as you - love of films and wanting to understand the original language, even when English subs are available.
It’s far from an easy journey, for me anyway, so I’m probably not best positioned to give advice
But I wanted to ask:
What kind of films are we talking about?
There’s a big difference between the language spoken in 2025 and in… say, 1955 (to pick a year from the golden age of Japanese cinema). Or between the language of a film by Kore-eda and one by Ozu, to put it in different terms.
It would seem the older ones are difficult even for natives - not so much in understanding, but in reproducing the speech patterns used back then
Also, do you plan to use Japanese subtitles or none at all?
The answer here would indicate where you should focus your efforts.
Aaaand… let’s prop up the film watching thread we’ve got going here, we’d love to hear what you and anyone else may be watching, with or without English subs
Right now I’m trying to watch Takashi Miike’s filmography so I’d say I’m focused on films from 90s until now. But I’m interested in pretty much everything
By the way, thanks for sharing the watching thread, I’ll definitely hangout there! I really miss places for discussing movies.
Ah that’s fine then… 90s and up should be fine I think
Now, here’s my take on it:
I went in via the reading route, thinking it wouldn’t take long until I’d be able to follow JP subs. Well… I was wrong: it’s one thing to read a book at whatever pace you’re comfortable with, it’s a whole different matter to be able to read those subtitle lines in the 1-2-3secs they are displayed.
I reckon you or better, said, me - can’t speak for anyone else - I’d need a few hundred books under my belt to get to a suitable reading speed to keep up with the subs.
Unless, of course, one would be willing to pause-resume most of the time but… then you’re no longer watching a film, you’re just reading a script
If for you it is easy to learn vocab without needing their “visual” form (writing), it might be a good idea to prioritize this and listening skills, to get you to your goal faster?
That’s not to say ignore reading and kanji learning, though - subs will still come in handy when the speech is muffled and whatnot.
As for grammar:
If you’re not intending to take JLPT exams or getting your own speaking level up right away, perhaps just skim through the theory (in textbooks or online resources), rather than spending much time on that and drilling practice and so on. And put in that leftover time into vocab learning and listening practice.
My feeling is N3 grammar will get you most of the way for film dialogue. At least insofar as contemporary-set dramas go.
I’ve recently started N2 grammar points (on Bunpro, no textbook) and the few I’ve seen so far I can’t say I’ve heard in dialogue - although it is entirely possible I missed them Bunpro is cool enough and all their grammar points are accessible even without a subscription, albeit without access to SRS.
Another great resource (IMHO) is Satori Reader: their stories come with full audio so can be useful for both reading and listening, plus they have a wealth of extremely useful side notes and explanations on grammar.
Subscription based, but the first few chapters of each story are free.
Oh and by the way: Natively have community-backed difficulty gradings for films, anime, TV series too - the database isn’t as large as that for books, but it’s better than nothing. At the very least, it can give you a rough idea of what to expect.
But I guess I’m also a deep-diver, I like learning all details so I feel confident to move forward.
