What does 方 say in this sentence?


The following is an excerpt from a dialogue between me and my language
partner. We talked about movies deviating in certain points from the original
works they are derived from (e.g. Lord of the rings books vs. movies), and how
this can have both its pros and cons.

For context, I will include the full block of her reply concerning this point:
パディントンの映画は原作（げんさく：元の作品のことをこう言います）とは違いますが、ファミリーで楽しめるエンターテインメントになっていて、とても良かったです。
ロード・オブ・ザ・リングも、日本語に翻訳された本の方（『指輪物語』）は、とても長く、難しいので、子どもが読み切るのはなかなか難しいです。映像の場合、エルフとドワーフがどう違うか、一目でわかるので、一緒に観ている息子に説明しなくても済みます。目と耳から情報が入ってくるので、話に入っていきやすいのではないかと思います。

The sentence in question:
ロード・オブ・ザ・リングも、日本語に翻訳された本の方（『指輪物語』）は、とても長く、難しいので、子どもが読み切るのはなかなか難しいです

I think のは signals that a cleft-sentence is used here. I will try to come up
with a translation which adequately reflects that:

"Same for the lord of the rings, concerning the into-japanese-translated book
指輪物語, it is pretty hard that children finish it because it is long and
difficult."

So first, I don't really know what to do with 方. I don't think that it has any
grammatical function like in 来週の試験は今練習するほうがいいだと思います。 I think it simply acts as
a noun here. However, <http://jisho.org/search/hou> doesn't give me any
meaning for 方 as a noun which I could think of as suitable for this context
here. I usually would go for "volume" or "edition" since we are talking about
the japanese version of "The Lord of the rings", but that isn't really backed
up by the various semantics listed on jisho.

Second, I must admit that I am really confused what exactly she is talking
about now ^^ Is she talking about this movie from 1978, mentioned in the entry
for 指輪物語 (前編) <http://jisho.org/word/51869426d5dda7b2c6031a62> ? I don't think
that this would make sense, since she later on tells me that she finds it
easier (for her son) to delve into the story with the visuals of the movie. In
addition, 子どもが読み切る suggests a written medium, so she can't be talking about
the movie in 日本語に翻訳された本の方（『指輪物語』）は、とても長く、難しいので I think.

Third, I must also admit that I'm a bit confused by the use of brackets in
（『指輪物語』) . Um, I guess it kind of works like "" but I've never seen that many
brackets being integrated into each other in written text so maybe I'm just
not seeing the specific purpose of this.^^

Fourth, I'm not really sure wether the way I dealth with も in ロード・オブ・ザ・リングも is
still legit. I'm pretty sure it references back to what she said about
"paddington family"-movie, since she thinks that both the LOTR movie and the
paddington-movie have changed the original works in a way that makes it more
entertaining/easier to delve into. But I'd like to ask for confirmation.




You're on the right track but perhaps overthinking the grammar.

> ロード・オブ・ザ・リングも、日本語に翻訳された本の方（『指輪物語』）は、とても長く、難しいので、子どもが読み切るのはなかなか難しいです
>
> "The Japanese translation of _Lord of the Rings_ is also very long and
> difficult, so it's hard for a child to finish it."

("also" here means "similar to Paddington, the movie is much easier to
understand than the book," but that's not explained until the next sentence.)

方 here is used to indicate contrast with something else--specifically, the
film adaptation of _Lord of the Rings_ mentioned in the next sentence. It's
used in the same sense as 日本よりアメリカの方が危ない. Often this usage is translated into
English with an intensifying "more" or "-er," but that's not natural in this
case.

Brackets in Japanese are, as you suggest, used in the same way as quotation
marks or italics to denote the title of a work.

As Naruto mentions, 読み切るの is a nominalization, not a cleft sentence.

> 子供が読み切るのは

"As for children finishing it..."

> なかなか難しいです。

"...it's rather difficult."

Finally, looking up 指輪物語 on Jisho will give a misleading result. Try Googling
it instead. You'll find that 「指輪物語」refers to the Japanese translation of the
book series _Lord of the Rings,_ and the recent film series is called
ロード・オブ・ザ・リング.




You're on the right track but perhaps overthinking the grammar.

> ロード・オブ・ザ・リングも、日本語に翻訳された本の方（『指輪物語』）は、とても長く、難しいので、子どもが読み切るのはなかなか難しいです
>
> "The Japanese translation of _Lord of the Rings_ is also very long and
> difficult, so it's hard for a child to finish it."

("also" here means "similar to Paddington, the movie is much easier to
understand than the book," but that's not explained until the next sentence.)

方 here is used to indicate contrast with something else--specifically, the
film adaptation of _Lord of the Rings_ mentioned in the next sentence. It's
used in the same sense as 日本よりアメリカの方が危ない. Often this usage is translated into
English with an intensifying "more" or "-er," but that's not natural in this
case.

Brackets in Japanese are, as you suggest, used in the same way as quotation
marks or italics to denote the title of a work.

As Naruto mentions, 読み切るの is a nominalization, not a cleft sentence.

> 子供が読み切るのは

"As for children finishing it..."

> なかなか難しいです。

"...it's rather difficult."

Finally, looking up 指輪物語 on Jisho will give a misleading result. Try Googling
it instead. You'll find that 「指輪物語」refers to the Japanese translation of the
book series _Lord of the Rings,_ and the recent film series is called
ロード・オブ・ザ・リング.

