Lost In Translation: Chinese movie titles (part 2)

A subject I've featured before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog is the fact that when English movies are translated into Chinese, their original titles sometimes become lost in translation.

"Who you gonna call?"
"Super Power Dare Die Team!"

Here's another batch of movies with unusual Chinese titles...

1) Ghostbusters

When Ghostbusters was released in China, it was renamed rather unusually as, 'Super Power Dare Die Team'.

Imagine if Ghostbusters had been called 'Super Power Dare Die Team' in English. The theme tune just wouldn't have quite the same ring to it!

"Who you gonna call?"
"Super Power Dare Die Team!"

Ghostbusters > Super Power Dare Die Team

2) The Piano

A ten fingered pianist.

For the benefit of anyone who has never seen The Piano, the plot involves a character called Alisdair cutting off his wife Ada's finger with an axe, so that she can no longer play the piano.

Anyone familiar with Chinese movie names will know that a running theme is that the translators often rather foolishly reveal massive plot spoilers in the translated title. For example, The Sixth Sense was known in China as 'He's A Ghost!'.

So as you'd expect, in a determined effort to spoil the plot, The Piano was renamed in China as 'Wretch! Let Me Chop Off Your Finger'.

The Piano > Wretch! Let Me Chop Off Your Finger

3) The Shawshank Redemption

"Wow! I'm in prison! How exciting!"

Sticking with the theme of plot spoilers, you might assume that the title for 'The Shawshank Redemption' would be something equally revealing, such as 'There's A Tunnel Behind The Poster'.

However, rather bizarrely, the translation for The Shawshank Redemption has seemingly no relevance to the movie whatsoever, as in China it was renamed 'Excitement 1995'.

To recap, The Shawshank Redemption is a movie about a man who is wrongly imprisoned for a double murder he didn't commit. That's not generally something that would make you feel excitement!

As the icing on the cake, The Shawshank Redemption was released in 1994, not 1995, so presumably the translator couldn't count!

The Shawshank Redemption > Excitement 1995

A gorilla on its way to a decisive battle.

4) Planet Of The Apes

When translating Planet Of The Apes, the Chinese translators were obviously thinking of the following joke...

Why shouldn't you get in a fight with a monkey?
They use gorilla warfare.

...because the Chinese title for Planet Of The Apes was 'Decisive Battle Of The Gorilla Star'.

Planet Of The Apes > Decisive Battle Of The Gorilla Star

5) Deep Impact

Earth And Comet Collide

As peculiar as some Chinese movie names are, Deep Impact is one example where the Chinese title does exactly what it says on the tin.

To recap, Deep Impact is a movie about a comet which collides with Earth, so what better to call it than 'Earth And Comet Collide'.

Deep Impact > Earth And Comet Collide

6) Transformers

Ghostbusters was one movie where the theme tune was ruined by the Chinese title translation, and Transformers is another, because the literal translation of the Chinese title for Transformers is the rather long-winded, 'Transform Buddha’s Warrior Attendant'.

As a reminder, the theme tune for Transformers went...

"Transformers,
Robots in diguise."

...so in China the theme tune would go...

"Transform Buddha's warrior attendant,
Robots in disguise."

Transformers > Transform Buddha's Warrior Attendant

That's a train, I guess.

7) Trainspotting

With some Chinese movie titles, the translations are confusingly bizarre, but to be fair, in the case of Trainspotting, so is the English title!

So keeping with the bizarre theme, in China 'Trainspotting' was known as 'Guessing The Trains'.

Trainspotting > Guessing The Trains

8) Solo: A Star Wars Story

If I was naming Solo: A Star Wars Story, I would have named it 'Disappointing Star Wars Story'. However, in China the literal translation from the 'Solo' promotional poster is 'Knight Errant Solo: Star Wars Unofficial Biography'.

I'm not sure where the 'unofficial' came from, because I'm pretty sure 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' was an official Star Wars movie!

Solo: A Star Wars Story > Knight Errant Solo: Star Wars Unofficial Biography

9) The Naked Gun

The Naked Gun

One movie where I think the Chinese title is actually more appropriate than the English title is The Naked Gun, because in China 'The Naked Gun' was known as 'The Gun Died Laughing'.

The English title doesn't really make sense (which admittedly is kind of the point), but The Gun Died Laughing at least makes a little bit of sense, because The Naked Gun is a very funny movie, so if a gun watched this movie, it would definitely die laughing (figuratively).

So on this occasion the Chinese translator gets a big high five from me!

The Naked Gun > The Gun Died Laughing

Fish generally mobilising on the seabed.

10) Finding Nemo

Finally, Finding Nemo was a movie that took place on the seabed, so what better to call it than 'Seabed General Mobilization'!

Finding Nemo > Seabed General Mobilization

Related blog posts:
10 Chinese code words to avoid censorship
Lost in translation: Chinese movie titles (part 1)
10 interesting Chinese words and expressions