Asinine Film Title Translations

[lord_clyde]

Recently I noticed that the title of Miyazaki's Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta was translated in the UK as Laputa: Castle in the Sky. I'm not sure why they changed the first letter but to the growing number of Spanish speakers there, the title reads: "TheWhore: Castle in the Sky."

So THAT's why it was dropped for US dvd release. I've been calling it Laputa this whole time.

[Mr Sausage]

Recently I noticed that the title of Miyazaki's Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta was translated in the UK as Laputa: Castle in the Sky. I'm not sure why they changed the first letter but to the growing number of Spanish speakers there, the title reads: "TheWhore: Castle in the Sky."

Well it seems to be because of Jonathan Swift, of all people. In Gulliver's Travels one of the societies Gulliver meets is called Laputa and they live on an airborne (man-made) island which they use to float around and intimidate the ground peoples.

[colinr0380]

I suppose if you add 'in' to Laputa, and separate the 'la', you also get close to a rude word in French.

It reminds me of the situation Manga Video had when they released the anime series 'The Heroic Legend of Arslan', and decided to add an extra 'i' into the character's name to prevent arse jokes. So on the box and in the dubbing the character became Ar-is-lan rather than Ars-lan.

This was quite a change from normal practice, since many anime releases at the time (perhaps cashing in on the idea that all anime were sex and violence filled) were often being 'fifteened' i.e. they had extra gratutious swearing added to their English dubs to get a 15, rather than a 12 or PG rating which might therefore make them seem more attractive to a teen male audience.

[MichaelB]

This was quite a change from normal practice, since many anime releases at the time (perhaps cashing in on the idea that all anime were sex and violence filled) were often being 'fifteened' i.e. they had extra gratutious swearing added to their English dubs to get a 15, rather than a 12 or PG rating which might therefore make them seem more attractive to a teen male audience.

I don't think the 12 video certificate existed in the early days of Manga Video - it wasn't introduced until mid-1994, five years after the cinema version. And before then, a single "fuck" was enough to secure a 15.

[zedz]

Recently I noticed that the title of Miyazaki's Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta was translated in the UK as Laputa: Castle in the Sky. I'm not sure why they changed the first letter but to the growing number of Spanish speakers there, the title reads: "TheWhore: Castle in the Sky."

Well it seems to be because of Jonathan Swift, of all people. In Gulliver's Travels one of the societies Gulliver meets is called Laputa and they live on an airborne (man-made) island which they use to float around and intimidate the ground peoples.

Given Miyazaki's fondness for European fantasy traditions, the original "Rapyuta" is presumably an attempted transliteration of "Laputa", so it's only natural that it was rectified for Englisgh language release.

And given Swift's acidic sense of humour, the Spanish reference may not have been entirely unconscious.

[dx23]

Enemy of the State - Peleando contra el Estado, pero por que? (Fighting Against the State, but Why?

Police Academy - Locaacademia de Policias (Crazy Police School)

Home Alone - Mi Pobre Angelito ( My poor little angel)

Bad Boys - Dos Amigos locos (Two Crazy Friends)

Bedazzled - Al diablo con el diablo ( To hell with the devil)

[Lino]

Some more for Portugal:

Little Miss Sunshine - A Family on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

The Departed - Between Enemies

Versus - The Resurrection

[Paupau]

Also from Portugal:

Little Children - Intimate Sins

The Fountain - The Final Chapter

Half Nelson - Trapped

The Banquet - Enemies of the Empire

Miller's Crossing - Gangster's Story

Young Mr. Lincoln - The Great Hope

Crank - Poison in the blood ( gotta love this one )

Flightplan - Panic on board

[Belmondo]

America gets into the game with Bicycle Thieves - The Bicycle Thief. Perhaps not truly asinine, but I don't think a country as great as ours should be ignored in a thread as important as this one.

[dx23]

From IMDb:

Lost in Translation

Efforts by overseas film distributors to cut costs by outsourcing subtitle translations to such countries as India and Malaysia have resulted in creating dialog that makes little sense to local audiences, according to today's (Monday) London Times. The newspaper observed that translators with little understanding of the nuances of English are taking the place of British subtitlers, many with long careers in the business. Kenn Nakata Steffenson, who translates English films into Danish and Japanese films into English, cited one film in which the line "Jim is a Vietnam vet" became "Jim is veterinarian from Vietnam" in the farmed-out Danish subtitles. In another film, the words "flying into an asteroid field" became "flying into a steroid field." In yet another, "She died in a freak rugby accident" became "She died in a rugby match for people with deformities." In My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Uma Thurman's line, "We have a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment" was translated into Taiwanese as "We hold the highest standards for sexual harassment." The Times said that Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro was so upset with the English subtitles for his 2001 film The Devil's Backbone that he himself worked on the subtitles for last year's award-winning Pan's Labyrinth.

[tryavna]

In yet another, "She died in a freak rugby accident" became "She died in a rugby match for people with deformities."

Considering what a lot of professional rugby players look like, there may not be anything wrong with that translation.

[Kinsayder]

The Louis de Funès vehicle Le Gendarme et les gendarmettes (1982) became Never Play Clever Again when it crossed the Atlantic. No connection of course with a certain Bond movie that came out around that time.

Similarly, the renaming of Le Samourai as The Godson for its dubbed US release was an obvious attempt to cash in on the popularity of another movie.

[inri222]

Spanish :

One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest - Trapped With No Exit
On the Waterfront - Nest of Rats
Some Like it Hot - One Eve & Two Adams
North by Northwest - International Intrigue
High Noon - Alone In The Face of Danger

[Paupau]

High Noon - Alone In The Face of Danger

In Portugal - The Train Blew Three Times

[Kirkinson]

Kinsayder's cash-ins reminded me of another one. When Back to the Future was released in Germany, it was translated to Zurück in die Zukunft. Then a year went by and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was released. Since it happened to be a time travel story, it was released in Germany as Star Trek IV: Zurück in die Gegenwart which would mean "back to the present."

[unclehulot]

Some of the Hong Kong translations are in a category of their own. Here's a quote from a Wall Street Journal article on the subject:

Excerpted-from: The Wall Street Journal, Monday, April 13, 1998

by Hal Lipper, Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal

HONG KONG -- When it comes to translating movie titles, not every name will
do. So Hong Kong's movie distributors have created a cottage industry to
rename Hollywood titles for Chinese audiences.

"Major studios think up titles that are flat, boring and don't tell
audiences what movies are about," says Doinel Wu, who has spent more than
a decade renaming Western movies. "We create titles that are more
straightforward."

Hence, the Cantonese title for the film biography "Nixon" is "The Big Liar."
The title for "Boogie Nights" can be interpreted as "His Powerful Device
Makes Him Famous."

Since many of Hong Kong residents don't know Fargo is a city in snow-blown
North Dakota, the movie "Fargo" became "Mysterious Murder in Snowy Cream."
The words "snowy cream" are pronounced "fah go" in Cantonese.

The stakes are huge since English-language blockbusters dominate Hong Kong's
movie market and Chinese translations help sell the films to a wider
audience.

Mr. Wu's title are touted as among the best in the business. For the arty
thriller "The Professional," about a killer befriending an orphaned girl,
he concocted "This Hit Man Is Not as Cold as He Thought."

"The English Patient" was problematic. Few Hong Kong residents knew of the
novel and marketers say a faithful translation, like "The Sick Englishman,"
wouldn't have drawn audiences. Mr. Wu's title, "Don't Ask Me Who I Am,"
captured the story's mystery and passion.

"Good Will Hunting" was equally challenging. Mr. Wu's Chinese title,
"Bright Sun, Just Like Me," uses characters to imply more than can be said
with words. The first half alludes to the Chinese title for "Dead Poet's
Society," ("Bright Sun in Heavy Rain") which also starred Robin Williams
and was set at a school. The second half denotes a movie for young people
who boldly do what they like.

"Titanic" and "Air Force One" needed no translation, distributors decided.
But some of the local idioms don't travel well. "The Full Monty," a comedy
about six unemployed steelworkers who become strippers, uses a Cantonese
colloquialism meaning "Six Stripped Warriors." The Mandarin interpretation
is "Six Naked Pigs."

And some translations simply defy rationale. The Hong Kong title for "As
Good As It Gets," a comedy about a mean-spirited novelist, is "Mr. Cat
Poop." Its distributor declined comment.

[tryavna]

"Major studios think up titles that are flat, boring and don't tell audiences what movies are about," says Doinel Wu, who has spent more than a decade renaming Western movies. "We create titles that are more straightforward."

Hence, the Cantonese title for the film biography "Nixon" is "The Big Liar."

I see their point, but what could be a "more straightforward" title for a Nixon bio-pic than the man's name? If Titanic and Air Force One are recognizable names, then surely Nixon is. He even visited their country, for god's sake!

[agnamaracs]

I never liked "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" for Angst essen Seele auf. The name and the colon make the title unnecessarily awkward. The British title is just "Fear Eats the Soul," which is simpler. Even better is "Fear Eat Soul," which Criterion claims to be the literal translation (in the introduction to "Angst isst Seele auf", whose title is grammatically correct).

[Kirkinson]

Even better is "Fear Eat Soul," which Criterion claims to be the literal translation

If I remember my German correctly, "Fear Eat Soul" would just be Angst essen Seele. "Fear Eat Soul Up" (or "Fear Eat Up Soul") would be closer to the original. That little "auf" should not be underestimated. Angst essen Seele auf implies something like "fear eats soul for dinner and always clears his plate" while Angst essen Seele could just as well mean "fear has a bit of soul as a light midday snack."

[colinr0380]

This was quite a change from normal practice, since many anime releases at the time (perhaps cashing in on the idea that all anime were sex and violence filled) were often being 'fifteened' i.e. they had extra gratutious swearing added to their English dubs to get a 15, rather than a 12 or PG rating which might therefore make them seem more attractive to a teen male audience.

I don't think the 12 video certificate existed in the early days of Manga Video - it wasn't introduced until mid-1994, five years after the cinema version. And before then, a single "fuck" was enough to secure a 15.

A fun fact about bad language in anime! One of my favourite anime series, the three part Cyber City OEDO 808 (which I think caused some controversy about how extra bad language had been added to the English dubbed version) had one of the three main characters in the English dub voiced by Sean Barrett. He also did the voice overs for many different projects, such as wildlife documentaries for ITV (Survival, I think) and Channel 4, and was the male narrator (each episode did a male/female alternation of narrators) of the BBC's high profile millennium project, the 26-part People's Century documentary series!

It was very amusing to hear his distinctive voice used in heavyweight documentaries and remember back to the expletives the same voice was speaking during the Cyber City series!

[agnamaracs]

I've been watching some Almodóvar recently... when I popped in Live Flesh, I was expecting something that took place in a strip club. Fortunately, this was not the case.

This HAD to have been a marketing thing... the original Spanish title (Carne Tremula = Trembling Flesh) is much better and might be one of my favorite unused titles.

[colinr0380]

I think Ruth Rendell is more to blame for the title of that one.

[Jason]

I've always much rather preferred Herzog's original title Every Man For Himself and God Against All to the dreadful The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser.

[Via_Chicago]

The worst I've seen is the American title for Melville's Le Samourai: The Godson. #-o

What that has to do with the movie I'll never know, but you can bet that the studio releasing it in America wanted to piggyback on the release of a certain other "God" film in 1971.

[MichaelB]

There's a delicious rumour that Godard's Pierrot le fou was once released in the US under the title Crazy Pete...