Miles Prower wrote: I think it's only in the subtitles that Ren 'says' it though. If you listen to the Japanese dialogue, he doesn't seem to be saying Ryo's name at all. And indeed in the Xbox version it's dubbed as 'Never mind about
him'. I could be hearing wrong, but it honestly doesn't sound like the JP voice actor actually says 'Ryo'. It fits Ren's character better to not call Ryo by name anyway, IMO.
There's a similar thing with Wong's dialogue too, the subtitles claim he's saying 'Ryo' but he actually says 'Onii-chan', which is a Japanese term roughly translating as 'older brother', obviously not literally in this case but it's often used by younger people to address their elders, I believe.
That's right. I don't remember Ren calls Ryo by name in Japanese; "teme'e (てめえ)" or "ome'e (おめえ)" instead. English equivalents are "you bastard" or "you punk," maybe?
This kind of alteration happens a lot in Shenmue. In Japanese version, Ryo never calls Nozomi by her first name, but by her family name, Harasaki. And, it's quite natural for a boy like Ryo to do so in Japan. Cultural difference, I suppose.
For your information, we usually don't call older siblings by their name, "onii-chan(big bro)," or "one'e-chan (big sis)" instead.