Alright, how do you translate a movie title?
"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"
Let's take that as an example
Well, you can always translate it word by word
But then you hit the word massacre
And no matter what synonym you use
It's bringing up connotations that... shouldn't be there
So you fudge the title a bit
Ah yes, "Texas Chain Saw Homocidal Maniac"
It tells you precisely the genre, the character, and the tone
That's the level of intricacies you have to deal with
Taking history, culture
And a whole bunch of other language-specific things into consideration
Chinese translation is especially annoying
Not just because of how different these two languages work
But because there are no less than 3 different Chinese speaking film industries
Four if you count Singapore
Sometimes, these markets can agree on a translation
But more often than not... they don't
Yeah, they all mean the same thing
Just different wordings
But this situation also gives us a treasure trove of titles we can compare and contrast
So... let's do just that!
Broadly speaking, there are four ways you can translate a title
The first one is "literal translation"
Sticking as close to the original meaning as possble
This is the simplest and safest method
Very little room for misinterpretations
Which is why it's usually used on big budget blockbusters
But just because the translation is literal
Doesn't mean it can't be interesting
The 1996 horror movie Scream is translated literally by Mainland and Taiwan
Meaning "Screaming in fear"
(They are the exact same title, by the way)
(Just difference between traditional and simplified Chinese)
It's intentionally vague and kinda silly
Just like its English title
Alluding to the film's self-aware tone
But Hong Kong went one step further
You see, the last character here is a pun, meaning "call"
It can mean "A Deadly Call for Help", like a scream
But also mean "A Deadly Call On the Phone"
Referring to the opening sequence
The 2000 French Romantic Comedy Amélie is another example
Taiwan's "Amélie's Fantasy World" is actually closer to the original French Title
“Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain”
(Yeah, I can speak French)
But Hong Kong and Mainland translates Amélie's name phonetically into a pun
It sounds like "Angel Amélie"
But reads like "Angel Loves Beauty"
Which is clever, because in a way
The movie is about Amélie learning to love the beauty of the world
And bringing happiness to people... like an angel
I would give it a chef kiss
But this movie is French, not Italian
That said, literal translation is safe but not perfect
For one thing, you have to choose your words carefully
Mainland China translates the Fast and Furious series as "Speed and Passion"
Sounds about right
But the word they choose for passion has a slight sexual connotation these days
It sounds kinda weird and dirty to a Chinese ear
I guess that's why there are so many homoerotic fanfics bbout the two protagonists
Now that I think about it, maybe it's intentional...?
And then sometimes, a title just flat out can't be translated
Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is one of those
The "Pulp" in "Pulp Fiction" came from the type of paper used for cheap novels
These novels usually feature sex, drugs, guns and all sort of tropes
It's a term that only really makes sense in English
Mainland translated it as "Low-Brow Novel"
The surface-level meaning is preserved, but the context is pretty much entirely lost
Personally, I think Hong Kong's "Dangerous Personnel" best captures the vibe
And that leads to our second way of translating a title: reinterpretation
Instead of translating from the English title
This is when you come up with your own title by interpreting the plot
It's usually a good way to deal with titles that can't be easily translated
The aforementioned "Dangerous Personnel" is a good example of this
Christopher Nolan's Inception is another example
It's about a bunch of thieves running around people's dream where reality is distorted
The word "Inception" sounds cool and thrilling and imposing and cerebral
An there isn't an equivalent word in Chinese
Taiwan attempted a literal translation "Full-Scale Initiation"
Which is close... but not quite there
That's why Mainland and Hong Kong came up with their own titles
Mainland calls it "Dream Theft Dimension"
Which I think is absolutely amazing
Hong Kong's "Dimensional Infiltration" gives it a bit more of a spy thriller edge
Matrix is another one with no equivalent words in Chinese
At least nothing as sci-fi and cool sounding
... It sounds nerdy as heck
So instead, Taiwan and Mainland both translate it as the awesome sounding "Empire of Hackers"
Capturing the scale and the coolness factor
Hong Kong's "22nd Century Killer Network" is... less cool
(Yeah I don't know why they call it that)
Hong Kong's title for The Truman Show is great, though
The title comes from a 24/7 reality show about the main character Truman
Unknowingly living in a fabricated reality
Mainland and Taiwan went with the relatively safe "Truman's World"
Hong Kong went with "Reality Show"
But wait! it's not reality!
Exactly!
In fact, going word by word, the title literally means "A show featuring real humans"
And the movie is about Truman
A "True Man"
And how his humanity breaks him out of a fake TV reality
Spike Jonze indie sci-fi romance film, Her, talks about a geek
Falling in love with an AI who sounds like Scarlet Johansson
Mainland just has a direct translation
Hong Kong is a bit more poetic
But Taiwan completely reinterprets the title
Calling it "Cloud-based Lover"
Which not only hints at the technology behind the AI
But also the distance between the two characters
And her intangibility
That's freaking awesome!
Okay, one more. Because this is fun
Inglourious Basterds
Tarantino's Nazisploitation film about a group of Jewish soldiers hunting nazis for sport
While Mainland and Taiwan gave a pretty straight-forward translation
Hong Kong just GETS Tarantino
I swear I'm not making this up
"Demon Hitler"
"Versus Homicidal Maniacs"
It's ridiculous until you realize
That's exactly the kind of movie Tarantino makes
Nazisploitation!
Like She Wolf of the SS, just done well and tasteful
I guess Hong Kong and Tarantino just love each other
Did you know Mighty Peking Man was distributed by Tarantino in the West?
Now, reinterpretation may sound great
But it does have at least 2 potential pitfalls
The first one is...
Well, sometimes, it doesn't age well
The Mission Impossible series was called "Spies on a Disk" in Mainland China
Referring to the list of spy names mcguffin in the first movie
But then the series continues without that thing ever showing up again
And the title just completely loses all meaning
The Terminator is another example
Instead of using the villain's name
Hong Kong titled it after the hero's identity
Kyle Reese is a warrior, and he is from the future
But then the sequels put more emphasis on the Terminators
And Kyle Reese is almost entirely forgotten
The second translation pitfall is straight-up misinterpretations
This is when the translator doesn't get the movie
Manchester by the Sea is a drama about a man confronting his own path after his brother's death
Hong Kong translates it as "Love Ties to the Seaside Town"
But... it's not a love story, and it doesn't have that much to do with love
It puts the movie in a genre it doesn't belong
Contact is another one
It's about an astronomer trying to contact alien life
While also dealing with her past trauma
So the Taiwanese title "Contact the Future"
Is kinda the polar opposite of what the astronomer is doing
She isn't really reaching to the future as much as she's freeing herself from the past
If you are planning on reinterpreting the movie title
You better be sure you have a firm understanding of the movie
Onto the third way of translating: poetic translation
This is when you incorporate cultural context from the Chinese language into your translation
Kubrick's Lolita is a good example of this
A movie about a man's inappropriate obsession with an underage girl
The original book has a phonetically translated title in all three regions
But when the movie got released
Hong Kong and Taiwan got a bit... cheeky with the title
It reads "A Pear Tree Crushing a Begonia"
Which came from a famous poem written to mock old men who marry young women
It's beautiful on the surface
But a "big yikes" when you think about it
So, a perfect fit for this movie
Another similar example would be "Knives Out"
A murder mystery filled with tension
Both Mainland and Taiwan chose existing idioms for their title
Mainland chose "Sharp Blade Unsheathed"
Meaning tension is high, people are one step away from killing each other
Taiwan chose "Blades Curved And Roads Turned"
Meaning the story has taken an unexpected turn
Both titles reference the knives motif
But also gives additional context through cultural references
Now, you don't always have to be classy, either
Sharknado-
Yes, Sharknado, a movie about sharks flying in a tornado
Has one of the most poetic and funny Chinese titles I've ever seen
In Chinese, tornado is called "Dragon twisting wind"
Naturally, mainland and Hong Kong replaced one of the words with shark
And it works
But Taiwan hilariously referenced a classic pop song
In which the lyrics describe a romantic image of the desert sands dancing in the wind
And since the words "sand" and "shark" are homonyms...
Well, now a hilarious mental image is stuck in your head
Genius.
Of course, like other methods
Poetic translations can go wrong
Disney's Coco is a movie about a kid traveling the world of the dead , trying to find his musical idol
Mainland's "Dream Chase Odyssey", good translation
Taiwan's "Coco's Nightclub"... not so much
Okay, "nightclub" is a Taiwanese euphemism for "cemetery"
So, it KINDA cleverly alludes to the musical theme, the theme of death, and the dazzling lights
But all that subtext is useless
When the surface level text is more or less entirely out of whack
This is the definition of trying way too hard
Another seemingly beautiful one is Slumdog Millionaire
A movie about a young man going on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"
And through the show, he reconnects with his childhood love
Hong Kong gave it a very poetic title "One Million And One Nights"
It references the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" game show
It's also a metaphor for the length of time
the main character waited to meet his love again
It also feels like a fairytale
Because it references the book "One Thousand and One Night"
Which... It's an Arabian book
This movie is set in INDIA!
God damn it, Hong Kong...
Last, and also maybe the least exciting way
There is the marketing translation
This is when a title is fudged to make the movie more marketable
A basic example would be 1994's "Speed"
A movie about a bus that explodes if it drives too slow
With a generic-sounding title like Speed
Hong Kong added a word to signal its genre: "Speed of Life and Death"
And since Chinese is such a compact language
You can usually get away with more complicated titles
Taiwan is especially fond of this types of marketing translation
Speed becomes "Police Protector"
Top Gun becomes "Warrior Protector"
And John Wick becomes "Mission to Protect"
The most infamous example is probably "Shawshank Redemption"
To which Taiwan gave it a nonsensical translation of...
(And I did not make this up)
"Excitement 1995"
Okay, let me explain
When Shawshank first came out in the US, it was a box office bomb
And with a nondescript title like that, I can see why
So, the Taiwanese distributor marketed it as
A spiritual successor to the 1973 movie "The Sting"
Which was called "Excitement" in Taiwan
"Excitment"
"Excitment 1995"
And, as far as I know, the strategy worked!
It made box office record in Taiwan
So you may laugh at this, but Taiwan got it to work!
This strategy is used for many Arnold movies, too
They are marketed as the "Demon" series in Taiwan
"Demon Terminator"
"Demon Commando"
"Demon Emperor: True Lies"
"Demon Jr."
It's funny, but it works
Of course, it's not a exclusively a Taiwanese thing
A lot of the Pixar movies are also like this in Mainland
Toys Mobilized
Undersea Mobilized
Racing Cars Mobilized
Superheros Mobilized
Hong Kong has a similar shtick going on, too
By now, you can already see the major problem with this method
It's mind-numbingly boring
Se7en, a detective thriller about a serial murderer in the theme of the seven deadly sins is called
"Flash Point Warrant"
It conveys none of the mysteries and style of the movie
It sounds more like Donnie Yen is about to kick some ass
Shyamalan's Unbreakable is called "Tribulations of the Undying" in Mainland
A poetic way to describe the main character
A man who has above average physique that makes him a real-life superhero
Taiwan just calls it...
"Thrilling"...
I have no idea why!
So, that's four ways of translating a movie title into another language
Let's see...
There's "the direct translation"
The safe but not always possible option
"Reinterpretation"
A good option to bring in some personality
But you have to make sure you understand the film well enough
"The poetic translation"
Bringing in cultural references to provide additional context
And "the marketing translation"
Boring, but it works
Of course, these options are not mutually exclusive
And it's generally ideal if you can achieve more than one at a time
But like all art forms, there is no definitive way to do it right
That's also what makes this topic so much fun to look into
Have you paid attention to any movie titles lately?
Take a look next time
You might be surprised by the amount of thought that goes into it
So... Yeah.