On the translation of English Movie titles

On the Translation of Movie Titles

浅析英文电影片名的翻译

Author: XU Xiaoning

Supervisor: Feng Xiaoling, Lecturer

(College of Foreign Languages, Shandong Agricultural University, tai’an 271018) [Abstract] The translation of movie titles has become a popular topic in modern life. As is known to all, how to translate the movie title has become a controversial topic in the field of translation for a long time. The translation of western movie titles is quite different from the translation of Chinese movie titles. In the process of the translation, sometimes movie titles will have different translations owing to the different translators, because everyone has his own idea, experience and knowledge. Movies are a very important part of cultural interchanges. Therefore, the culture of the countries is becoming a major content to present in the films. This paper points out the characteristics and importance on the translation of movie titles and calls on the translators to pay more attention to it. The linguistical, cultural and commercial features characterize the film titles. So the title t ranslation isn’t a process to change one language to another. This article analyzes the current situation and existing problems on the translation of movie titles and introduces several basic approaches on the translation of movie titles, and then put forward some requirements on the title translation and to translators. Finally, we reach a conclusion: the translation of movie titles has its unique characteristics as a special form of art. Although there are many problems on the current translation of movie titles, we can still translate movie titles better and better, as long as we master the basic translation approaches and principles, and strengthen the requirements for ourselves.

[Key Words]movie titles; characteristics; current situation and problems; approach; requirement

【摘要】当今社会，“电影片名的翻译”已经成为一个流行的词语，众所周知，如何译好电影片名已成为翻译界热烈讨论了很长时的话题；西片的片名不同于中国电影片名，在翻译的过程中，由于译者的想法、经验和知识不同，翻译也会有所不同。电影是文化交流非常重要的部分，所以，各国的文化成为电影中所要表达的内容。本文指出了电影片名的特点和重要性，并号召译者对其重视，其中语言、文化、商业特征描绘了电影片名，因此影片片名的翻译不只是一种语言向另一种语言转换的过程。本文分析了目前电影片名翻译的现状以及出现的问题，介绍了电影片名翻译的几种基本方法，并由此提出了对电影片名翻译和对译者的要求。最后得出结论：电影片名作为一种独特的艺术形式，有着独一无二的特点。尽管目前的电影片名翻译仍然存在着许多问题，但是只要我们能够掌握基本的翻译方法和原则，加强对自身的要求，就一定能够译出高水平的片名。

【关键词】电影片名;特点;现状和问题;翻译方法;要求

1. Introduction

The movie is more an industry than a comprehensive art. A good movie needs a wonderful title, which is known by the people in the street. Every time they hear about a film, they always get to know its title first. And they decide whether or not to see it. The pleasure of watching a movie comes as much from its content as from its title. The translations of the movie titles require using a few words to express the topics of the movies and at the same time, people shouldn’t forget it after seeing it. Therefore, the translation of movie titles is very important.

2. Features of Movie Titles

Everything in the world has its own feature, so do the movie titles. They can’t exist without their own features. o make the titles more impressive, people use many rhetoric devices are used in the translation of the

film titles, such as simile, metaphor, oxymoron and the like. The features of the translation of film titles will be expounded from the linguistical, cultural and commercial perspective as follows.

2.1 Linguistical Feature

Firstly, movie titles must be concise. No matter what type of a movie is, as the first channel to understand the movie for audience, it is usually only a few words. “Conciseness " is a prominent feature of movie titles. A long movie title not only lost the character of titles, but also makes it difficult to be remembered by the audience. Secondly, movie titles must be easy to be understood. The movie, as a mass media, faces a large number of audiences who are different in age, occupation and education degree, so the titles of movies must be easy to be understood. Finally, movie titles must be vivid, attractive, able to attract the audience's eye, and can also give the audience a sense of beauty. For example, Dances with Wolves is translated into 《与狼共舞》.The translator in this example has adopted some rhetorical devices to achieve this sense of beauty.

2.2Cultural feature

The movie is a special art form of cultural products. The existence of the movie must be able to reflect its people's way of thinking and cultural values. Different language determines the different ways of thinking, behavior and language expression of different peoples. Some English movie titles come from the legend of its culture or the adaptation of English idioms. For example, Seven-year Itch is translated into 《七年之痒》，Red Shoes《红菱艳》.The translator has injected the “红菱”, which is a Chinese cultural image ,into the translation and created a new cultural image successfully. This new image can be understood and accepted easily by the majority of Chinese audiences.

2.3 Commercial feature

As a kind of industry, there is no doubt that the final purpose of a movie is to obtain commercial profit. That’s why film investors try every ways to attract people’s eyes.They rack their brains to seek the high competitiveness of the movie market and put a lot of manpower, material and financial resource from scripting, filming to showing. All of these investments must be rewarded from the box office and finally obtain high profits. Therefore, movie titles have the commercial feature inevitably.

Just for the sake of high benefits from their investment, they didn’t even care much about whether the translation of movie titles has deviated from the theme of the movies. Most of the time, those improper translations are beyond the understandings of the majority of the audiences. So, even the national conditions have been taken into consideration, it is necessary to find a junction between the market and art. The translation of movie titles should pay attention to both the art value and the response of the market. But most investors do the translating work only to pursue the advertising benefit. Some examples will tell us how this commercial features of the movie titles act.

3. Current Situation and Problems on the Translation of Movie Titles

3.1Current situation

The film is a kind of artistic form people love to see and hear. And it is also the main channel of cultural transmission. Moreover, it has the influence that other forms of art do not have. On one hand, the world economic cooperation and culture exchange stimulate the development of the emerging movie translation career. Its operation includes the drawing of materials, translation and showing all over the world. On the other hand, the spread of the cable television and the improvement of the VCD (DVD) also promote the movie transmission.

However, the translation of movie titles does not match the rapid development of the movie. There are only a few impressive translations of movie titles, which are some classical movies a long time ago. For example, Waterloo Bridge(《魂断蓝桥》)，The Bathing Beauty(《出水芙蓉》)，Gone with the wind(《乱世佳人》). Nowadays, because of the blind pursuit of commercial profit, the movie market becomes chaotic, so does the translation of the movie titles. Excellent translation works are difficult to see, but irregular translations can be too numerous to enumerate. Due to the lack of theoretical guidance and systematicness, the translations of movie titles are in

chaos. The phenomenon that one movie has several translations are very common. For example, the Ghost in America has four translations:《幽灵》or 《鬼魂》（in the mainland），《人鬼情未了》（in Hong Kong），《第六感生死恋》（in Taiwan）.And the Saving Private Ryne has three translations:《营救士兵莱恩》（in Hong Kong），《营救士兵赖仁》（in Taiwan），《拯救大兵瑞恩》（in the mainland）.What’s more, the Truman Show has seven translations:《特鲁门节目》、《特鲁门时间》、《真人显示》、《真人活剧》、《真人show》、《楚门的世界》、《戏剧人生》.

3.2Problems on the translations of movie titles

3.2.1One movie has several translations and different regions always have their own unique translations

The mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan are different in customs, political, economic and culture, so they always have different understandings of the same thing. As for the translations of the movie titles, the mainland is relatively conservative and takes a more literal way. However, Hong Kong and Taiwan have a great variety and their translations always pay more attention to the business. For example, Once Upon a Time《美国往事》（in the mainland），《义薄云天》（in Hong Kong），《四海兄弟》（in Taiwan）. The Thirty-nine Steps《三十九级台阶》（in the mainland），《步步惊心》（in Hong Kong）.Some other translations that are converted by Cantonese or southern Fujian dialect have obvious local color. Instead of eliminating the barrier caused by language, these translations increase the difficulties of cultural exchange between the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

3.2.2 Excessive pursuit of advertising effect and making great commercial speculations on the translation of movie titles

It was said that the Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? has been translated into 《谁怕又贞又淫的女人》by a certain newspaper of Hong Kong, and 《谁怕维吉尼亚州的狼》in Taiwan! As we all known that Virginia Wolf is a famous American stream-of -consciousness novelist, so these two translations make people feel confused. And the reason is nothing more than the excessive commercial speculations. In recent years, more and more foreign movies have been imported into the Mainland through legal and illegal ways. Driven by the huge commercial profit, those producers of pirated DVDs often kick up a cloud of dust on the translations of movie titles. For example, the Dog (狗)has been translated into 《万里大逃亡》，Air Force(空军) into 《血战九重天》，True Lie(真实谎言) into 《魔鬼大地》，Things are Tough All Over（事事棘手）into 《糊涂宝贝上错床》.(包惠南，2001:95-97)

3.2.3 Apply the translating model of some big films and overly uniform

The confusion on the translations of movie titles is, to some content, the result of the fierce competition in the film and television market. In order to stimulate the audience's curiosity and the desire to buy, some investors programmatically follow the mode of some successful translations. After the hit of the 《魔鬼总动员》which was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, those movies he starred in has always been added the word “魔鬼”. For example, Raw Deal was translated into 《魔鬼杀阵》, Eraser into 《魔鬼毁灭者》, even the comedy Kindergarten Cop(幼稚园特警) had been translated into 《魔鬼孩子王》. Later, there are a lot of movies applying the word “总动员”, such as 《玩具总动员》, 《夺命总动员》, 《危机总动员》, 《海底总动员》and so on. Similar high-frequency words are 《xx俏佳人》, 《xx战警》.

4. Approaches on the Translations of Movie Titles

Translation of movie titles should not only have a certain cultural taste, but also a good commercial effect and not only be faithful to the original, but also in line with the language habits and aesthetic orientation of domestic audiences. Translation of title should be on the basis of in-depth understanding of the content and style of the movie, with the appropriate translation techniques and methods to reach the re-creation of art. There are several ways to translate the movie's title.

4.1 Literal translation

In the title translation, we should remain the content and form of the original movie title in great extent according to the characteristics of source language and large language, which is called literal translation. Some

film titles need not be considered and designed again by the translators, just use literal translation that can get the maximum effect―transmitting the original meaning and keeping the unity of the original naming and con tent of the film titles. It is a great surprise that Chinese and English can reach the word in lots of translations. For example: A Walk in the Clouds (《云中漫步》), Dances with Wolves (《与狼共舞》), Rain Man (《雨人》), True Lies (《真实的谎言》), Roman Holidays (《罗马假日》), A Streetcar Named Desire (《欲望号街车》), A Beautiful Mind (《美丽心灵》), Air Force One (《空军一号》), Philadelphia (《费城》), Casablanca (《卡萨布兰卡》), The Pearl Harbor (《珍珠港》), Pride and Prejudice (《傲慢与偏见》), Schindler’s List (《辛德勒的名单》), Artificial Intelligence (《人工智能》), The Queen (《女王》), The Ice Age (《冰河世纪》). Other movie titles are also literal translation because of their overall consistence although they have some variances in word order and structure. For example: The Silence of the Lambs (《沉默的羔羊》), The Grapes of Wrath (《愤怒的葡萄》), All Quiet on the Western Font (《西线无故事》), A Room with a View (《看得见风景的房间》). To be attention, people should notice that other film titles, which are adapted from famous books, also employ the literal translation. For example, “The Old Man and the Sea”(《老人与海》), “The Godfather”(《教父》), “Anna Karenina”(《安娜·卡列尼娜》). This approach can avoid the misunderstanding of the audiences who may be strange to them, and on the other hand, the effect of famous books’ titles can attract the eyes of the audiences. 4.2Transliteration

We use transliteration less, but it is really indispensable. When the movie title is the name of a person, place, substance, we can translate it through the transliteration. Transliteration retains the rhythm of its original title, and attracts wide audiences with its strong exotic features. For example: Tess (《苔丝》), Rocky (《洛奇》), Gandhi (《甘地》). However, it is proved that translations of pure transliteration are very few for many movie titles that are the name of a person or place not being so familiar to Chinese audiences. Therefore, we should combine the transliteration with free translation at times in order to achieve better results. For example, Patton (《巴顿将军》), King Kong (《金刚》), Forrest Grump (《阿甘正传》), Titanic (《泰坦尼克号》), Madam Currie (《居里夫人》), Shrek (《怪物史莱克》), Elizabeth (《伊丽莎白女王》), Tarzan (《人猿泰山》), Ben Hur (《宾赫传》). Transliteration can also be seen as a kind of literal translation, but its rhythm is stronger than the literal translation and easy to remember. For example, Harry Potter (《哈利波特》), which has shocked the world, is a transliteration.

4.3Free translation

Free translation can be divided into words adding, words reducing, flexible translation and the Chinese “four letter pattern” or “seven letter pattern”. 1) Translations of so me movie titles always need to add some words in order to help audiences understand the subject of the movie, such as Stolen Hearts (《偷心计划》), Swordfish (《剑鱼行动》). The words “计划” and “行动” has been adding into the translation in order to help audiences obtain the general contents of these two movies. But we should add words properly anyhow on the premise of following other criterions. For example, the words“午夜” and “凶” which has been added into the translation of The Ring (《午夜凶铃》) has created the thriller atmo sphere of the movie. And the word “快” which has been added into the translation of Chicken Run (《小鸡快跑》) not only increases the sense of rhythm, but also delivers a kind of intension and exciting. 2) In contrast with words adding, words reducing is to shorten the length of the translation. Usually, several Chinese characters can express a very profound meaning. For example, the translation of Lovely(《可人儿》) not only delivers the beautiful image of the clever girl in the movie, but also gives the audiences a g ood imagination. However, its another translation “可爱女孩” looks more insipid and complicated. Other similar translations are Take the Lead (《领舞》), In the Heat of the Night (《炎夜》). 3) Flexible translation is to translate a movie title on the basis of its content in spite of the form and structure of original title. The translation of Sleeper (《豪情四兄弟》) has delivered the subject of the movie clearly and also translated the culture successfully. Its subject is to interpret the true love between four brothers in a prison and one of its leading actors is called “sleeper”. The word “sleeper” can also refer to a person who has been in prison

for nine months in addition to its literal meaning. Obviously, few Chinese audiences could figure out the hidden cultural connotation of it, so maybe the 《豪情四兄弟》is not the best, but it really meets the movie’s content and the audiences’ orientation. Another classical translation of flexible translation is Rebecca (《蝴蝶梦》). It brings to the target audiences not only the translation itself, but also the enjoyment on the level of text and culture. 4) Chinese has relatively more disyllables, while among the disyllables, four-word and seven-word, between word and sentence, is more flexible and reads well. So the application of four-word and seven-word is considered of great importance, and four-word (seven-word) occupies quite a few parts in the translations of movies’ titles. For instance, The Big Parade is translated as 《战地之花》, Enter the Dragon as 《龙争虎斗》, Waterloo Bridge as 《魂断蓝桥》, Madison Country Bridge as 《廊桥遗梦》, You Can’t Take It with You as 《浮生若梦》, Blood and Sand as 《碧血黄沙》, Lolita as 《一枝梨花压海棠》,Guess who’s Coming to Dinner as 《谁来赴宴君且猜》, Lady Hamilton as 《忠魂鹃血离恨天》, Raisy Clover as 《春花秋月奈何天》.

4.4 Creative translation

If the original title is too narrow and simple, or lack of correspondence in Chinese vocabulary, or failed to attract audiences, and we can’t translate it by literal translation, transliteration or free translation, we should translate it in a creative way from the movie itself despite the form and content of original title. Creative translation is the most difficult on the translation of movie title, but it is also the most liberal one. For example: 1) the Inception which was a big hit of 2010 has been translated as 《盗梦空间》. The hero of the movie has a special skill that he can implant dream into someone else’s brain and this skill is called “Inception” which its literal meaning is “beginning and birth”. When an idea is implanted into the brains of others, it will make someone else’s life begin to change and this is why it is named by “Inception”. This movie has another two translations: 《开始》and 《奠基》, which are both lack of clear direction and audiences can not understand it easily. But the translation 《盗梦空间》can attract the audiences’ eyes efficiently and create enormous commercial benefits. 2) The movie Erin Brockovich was adapted from a true story: Erin Brockovich, a single mother with no legal background, won the largest case of environmental pollution compensation in the history of the US with her amazing courage and perseverance. The movie was named by the heroine’s name “Erin Brockovich”, which was known to every American family, in order to express tribute. However, this name was not so familiar to Chinese audiences, so the translator translated it creatively as 《永不妥协》, which not only expressed the central idea of the original movie, but also aroused the strong curiosity of Chinese audiences. Another similar examples are: Of Mice and Men(《芸芸众生》), Pinocchio(《木偶奇遇记》), Top Fun(《壮志凌云》), Pocahontas(《风中奇缘》), Halloween(《月光光，心慌慌》), Volcano(《地火危机》), Ghost(《人鬼情未了》), Patch Adam(《妙手真情》), Earthquake(《惊魂夺命》), Speed(《生死时速》), Mind hunters(《八面埋伏》).

5. Principles and Requirements on the Translations of MovieTitles

5.1Four principles on the translations of movie titles

Title is the concentration of the whole movie, the translation of the title is different from the general literature, and it is both spiritual products and commercial products. So the translations of movie titles should follow the four principles below.

5.1.1The informative value principle

The form of the translations of movie titles should be unity with the contents of the original film i.e. the equivalent of the value of information. This is the most basic translation principles. The translator should try their best to translate the information of the source text into the target language text, and let the audience who do not know the source language get the main message of the movie. Otherwise, the translation would have no meaning and value. The information here refers to not only the information in form, but also the tone and style of the original text. Therefore, an appropriate translation should not only accurate in meaning, but also faithfully in the style and tone of the original title. Taiwan of China once translated The Sound of Music into 《仙乐飘飘处

处闻》，which is almost suitable to all kinds of music movie. What’s more, translated True Lies (《真是的谎言》in mainland), and Anna Karenina(《安娜?卡列尼娜》in mainland) into 《魔鬼大地》, 《爱比恋更冷》, which is deviated from the story of the movie. It is not only puzzling, but also misleading the audience; as a result, an unexpected influence appears in the audience.

5.1.2The cultural value principle

Cultural characteristics is the most difficult to translate in the process of movie title translation. Translations of movie titles are not only the exchange of two languages, but also the communication between two different cultures. The movie as a part of culture, it inevitably reflects the personality characteristics of the culture it belongs to. We need to understand the cultural background of different languages when we translate a movie title. The purpose of translating English movie titles into Chinese is to let the Chinese audience understand and accept these movies easily. So we should combine Chinese culture skillfully in the process of translation, then we can achieve satisfactory effect.

Let’s see Seven, a famous psychological adventure movie in 1995. This movie tells a criminal tale with much philosophical significance by using strong visual assault and dark and gloomy background: A mad murderer considers himself as the God, and then kills others one by one according to the seven capital offenses in the Catholicism. The seven capital offenses refer to the seven faults which common people often make: gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy, and wrath. Seven a very mystical numeral in religion, is everywhere in this movie: seven crimes, seven penalties; rains seven times; the whole tale happens in seven days; even the final result is decided at seven in the afternoon on the seventh day by the criminal, which suggests the sin and penalty of fatality. But, we can image that if we translate Seven into Chinese 《七》simply, the Chinese audience can never have the same cultural association and approval. As a result, the movie title is translated into 《七宗罪》when it performs in public, which points out the main line of the story and the most essential regional in embodying the informative value.

5.1.3The aesthetic value principle

As people’s living standard rise, people's aesthetic level is also enhancing. This objectively requires translations of movie titles should also have some artistic quality. Therefore, the translation of movie titles should consider the aesthetic expectation of target audience. A good translation should not affect the audiences’ understanding, not be too rough and have a kind of rhythmic beauty.

For example, Gone with the Wind is adapted by the best-selling book of the same name. The Chinese translation of this novel is 《飘》. However, as a movie name,《乱世佳人》is more appropriate than 《飘》from the aesthetic perspective. We can find many similar examples: Bathing Beauty (《出水芙蓉》), Die Hard (《虎胆龙威》), You Can’t Take It With You(《浮生若梦》), The Legend of the Fall (《燃情岁月》), Prelude to A Kiss (《一吻倾情》), Moonlight (《披星戴月》), It Happened One Night (《一夜风流》), The Secret Agent (《间谍末日》). These translations are concise and comprehensive and deliver a strong message between the lines. 5.1.4The commercial value principle

The movie is both a cultural and commercial art, so we should take the commercial factor into consideration in the process of translation. The economic benefits of a movie lie in the degree of its title attracting audiences and the quality of a translation is directly related to the box office income. In order to make the movie adapt to the market better, we should make some changes according to the content of the movie when it is necessary. When we do this, not only should we consider the form of the translation, but also the content of the movie and its spirit. For example, In the Bedroom (《不伦之恋》), The Net (《网络惊魂》), The English Patient (《英伦情人》), Ghost (《人鬼情未了》), Sister Act (《修女也疯狂》), The Rock (《勇闯夺命岛》). These translations can be seen as the perfect combination of artistic value and commercial value, for its meeting of audiences’ tastes and requirements.

5.2 Requirements on the translations of movie titles

The translation on the movie title should follow the general principles and methods of translation as one category of translation, but it also has its characteristic as a part of cultural exchange. The quality of title translation directly affects the movie culture exchange and the consequences of business (何跃敏，1997). From the perspective of translation, the quality of title translation is the witness of the translators’ skill and attainment. Just like any other translation, title translation also has the problem of comprehension and expression. Only does a translator have a de ep understanding of the original movie’s content and background, he can translate the movie title better. So there are requirements not only on the translation of the movie title, but also for translators. Four requirements on the translation of movie title: A. fit in with the content of original movie, reflect the theme of original movie, highlighting the style of the original movie; B. concise and comprehensive, easy to remember; C. conform to the language standard of Chinese, and is suitable for the appreciation habit of Chinese audience.

Five requirements for translators: A. Broad range of knowledge; B. Good knowledge of literature; C. Strong ability of movie aesthetic appreciation; D. Rich translation theory; E. Serious translation attitude.

6. Conclusion

The movie is a popular form of entertainment and also an important part of cultural exchange. And the translation of the film titles is a special process of re-creation. It isn’t simple to obey the content and the forms of the original titles, but a hard exploration to the film themes, social problems, the ethnic association and national condition. Different movie titles have different characteristics and require different translation methods. Translators should take all factors into consideration. Translation is also a process of cultural communication owing to the differences of the principles of the translation, the linguistic customs of the foreign countries and the characteristics of the movie titles. This communication is not only to the audiences, but also to the translators themselves. Translators should make every efforts to benefit the entertainment culture of the public and thus to benefit the translations of film titles. After all, the purpose of the film is to satisfy the audiences, the films businessmen and to get maximum income.

As we all known, there are a lot of problems in the current field of title translation and there are many challenges for us to translate the film titles better, so we should combine our translation theory with the practice of translation and master the trick of the translation of film titles, then everything will become OK!

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Acknowledgments

After finishing my B.A thesis, I really felt that I had come a long way. Many teachers and classmates gave me supports and helps in the process of writing this paper. I’d like first to take this chance to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor lecturer Feng Xiaoling, who generously gave me her kindly help and instructions during the whole process of my paper writing, for her patience and guidance for this thesis. Thanks also go to Mr. Su Zhang-hai, who lent me lots of valuable materials. Most important of all, I want to give my thanks to my mother university and all teachers in the College of Foreign Languages.