mayhem 復習
とてもこころに残るコマーシャルです。
Japanese commercial shows what happens when you beat the company president
A Japanese commercial for the strategy card game Hearthstone has become an overseas hit online by pitting the company president against a “regular office lady”.
The commercial cleverly works on the idea of the Japanese phrase “ippatsu gyakuten”, which means a “come from behind victory”.
The commercial begins with the company president (played by veteran acto, Minori Terada) being chauffeured in a Mercedes Benz to the front of a prestigious looking company headquarters.
Terada then leads a large entourage into the building with everyone dutifully greeting the boss with the accustomed “otsukarasama desu”, which is usually translated as something like, “thank you for your hard work” and often used a sign of respect.
One office lady (played by popular actress Ryo Sato), however, refuses to greet the boss and stands firm without bowing.
This results in an “ippatsu gyakuten” with the boss bowing to the office lady, immediately throwing the entire ground floor into chaos.
People falling off ladders, high heels breaking underneath women’s feet, businessmen accidentally pouring coffee onto their colleagues, and even the security guard’s shirt buttons bursting from the seams — it’s total mayhem! We then learn that the young woman had previously beaten the company president in a game of Hearthstone, which was apparently all it took to flip their social relationship on its head.
（以下省略）
今回取り上げる単語は、mayhemです。ヒールが折れたり、ボタンが外れたりと大混乱な状態を “it’s total mayhem!”と書いていおります。
Oxford Advanced Lerner’s Dictionary (8th edition, Oxford University Press)によると、 “confusing and fear, usually caused by violent behavior or by some sudden shocking event”とのことでした。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版，大修館）には、「（通例暴力行為または衝動的な出来事による）大混乱，パニック」そして「身体傷害（罪）」と載っておりました。
panicとの違いが気になったので同じ英和辞典で調べてみると、「恐怖心，狼狽」、「[…に関する]恐慌状態[over, about]」そして「（締め切り直前の仕事上の）大混乱」などと載っておりました。
これらから、mayhemは暴力的あるいは突然起こるニュアンスがpanicより強いように思いました。
面白いコマーシャルなので是非ご覧になってください。
