10 Things You Didn't Know About Inception
1. The Japanese TV Version Features On-Screen Captions To Denote Each Dream Layer
Inception is a relatively tricky movie to get your head around at first, but it seems safe to assume that most people will grasp the nature of its convoluted plottings eventually. And it's not really a film that, for whatever reason, might be deemed more or less accessible to a particular country or nation of people. Right?
For some reason, though, Japanese TV broadcasters decided that audiences watching the film at home would be unable to grasp the whole dream layer idea, and - as a "helpful" aid - opt to include captions that appear on-screen to denote which of the dream layers the characters are in whenever it airs on television.
Now, this is Japan we're talking about - a nation that are more than comfortable with insane narrative structures. Ghost in a Shell, Akira and Paprika - heck, Inception was partly inspired by a lot of stuff in Paprika - all hail from the Land of the Rising Sun, and are far more complex than Inception. What is it about the Japanese that caused the studio to panic and insert captions like "Dream Layer No. 1"?
Can I just reiterate that Japan has produced some of the most mind-bending films in all of cinema history? What it really necessary to patronise them in such a way?
God forbid Japanese TV ever tried to air Memento...