"Field of Dreams" : Its strange "mystery"
- Makio Mukai
- Sep 12
- 2 min read
This time, I'd like to talk about something very strange. I don't think anyone has pointed this out before, but I apologize if someone has already pointed it out.

In my favorite American masterpiece film “Field of Dreams” (1989), there is a scene where the main character and another man buy food and drinks at a concession stand inside the stadium before watching a game at Fenway Park, the home stadium of the Boston Red Sox. In the Japanese version of the DVD I have, the waiter who receives an order for hot dogs and beers for two men says "It's seven dollars" in the Japanese dubbing. This is omitted in the Japanese subtitles. I was surprised when I next watched it with English subtitles. The waiter says "ten dollars." Next, I tried changing the audio to English. The waiter's voice is quiet, so I have to strain my ears to hear it, and I can hear "ten dollars." In English, both the audio and the subtitles say "ten dollars" consistently. So is the Japanese dubbing wrong?
The DVD only has audio in English and Japanese, but there are subtitles in other languages, so I checked them out. In Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai it says "10 dollars." However, only in Spanish it says "7 dollars."
I checked the footage in slow motion over and over again. I noticed that the main character pays for two people, and it just looks like he first hands over one bill, then two. I couldn't figure out what type of dollar bill they were. The main character doesn't get any change. It's impossible to pay $10 with three bills. It would make sense if it was $7. The first one is a $5 bill, then two $1 bills.
I thought I had to figure it out completely, so I listened to the English with headphones that block out the surrounding noise, and all I could hear was the waiter saying "7 dollars." It's true. Try it for yourself.
It seems to me that the Japanese dubbing and Spanish subtitles are correct, and the subtitles in other languages, including English, are wrong.
How could something like this have happened? It's very strange. Is such a strange thing really happening ? I’m left feeling uneasy that it may all just be a huge misunderstanding on my part. I urge everyone to check it out. And if I’m wrong, please let me know.
Anyway, whether it was 7 or 10 dollars, it seems incredibly cheap when we think about it now. Nowadays, if we go to the stadium and order hot dogs and beers for two people, 10 dollars probably won't be enough.
( If I’ve made a mistake or left out something important, please let me know. I’ll try to make corrections or additions.)