movie titles: bad translations!

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chicagofrog's Avatar
history *is* moralizing
I noticed a few years ago how difficult it is to talk about movies with foreigners (of all countries) who may have seen the same movie but know it under a completely different name.

some are just inaccurate, while others really suck, losing the original meaning or making things too clear (or less, it depends...)

if you know of some examples in yr country of origin, it is surely interesting and may even be quite funny.

guess what French Aux frontières du réel is? it means something like At the Limit of the Real...

well, that's X-Files!!

La Quatrième Dimension= the Fourth Dimension
=
Twilight Zone!!

but again, why do they translate a title like DeVito's Duplex into Our House in the UK?

even Dirty Harry is now clean! in France, the translation being just Inspector Harry...

so try and guess what these movies can be (here with their title re-translated into English):

Las Vegas Parano (1995)
Ocean's Teeth (1975) !!!!
Johnny Goes To War (1971)
Violences in the City (1979)
It Was Tomorrow (1979)
Evil's Thirst (1958)
Suspended Death (2003)
An Exceptional Man (2001)
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My favorite ever is the Japanese title for Leaving Las Vegas, which translates back as I'm Drunk and You're a Prostitute.
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2wrongs's Avatar
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Originally Posted by Holden Pike
My favorite ever is the Japanese title for Leaving Las Vegas, which translates back as I'm Drunk and You're a Prostitute.
It was actually released in theaters with that title?
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chicagofrog's Avatar
history *is* moralizing
Originally Posted by 2wrongs
It was actually released in theaters with that title?
everything's possible... I'm Drunk and You're a Prostitute is more distant from the original title than the French Las Vegas Parano just like Japanese as a language is more distant from English than French is.
(and one less to guess from the list above! )



Las Vegas Parano (1995)
Ocean's Teeth (1975) !!!! Jaws
Johnny Goes To War (1971)
Violences in the City (1979)
It Was Tomorrow (1979)
Evil's Thirst (1958)
Suspended Death (2003)
An Exceptional Man (2001)
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chicagofrog's Avatar
history *is* moralizing
Bravo!!!!!!remains:
some help?
Johnny Goes To War (1971) Johnny...

Violences in the City (1979)
It Was Tomorrow (1979)
Evil's Thirst (1958) Evil's...
Suspended Death (2003)

An Exceptional Man (2001) beautiful uhhhhhhh what?



chicagofrog's Avatar
history *is* moralizing
Originally Posted by Pyro Tramp
An Exceptional Man (2001) A Beautiful Mind
yyeeepppeeee yeah!



Originally Posted by 2wrongs
It was actually released in theaters with that title?
Yes, the Japanese title for Leaving Las Vegas translates as I'm a Drunk and You're a Prostitute. Like I said.



chicagofrog's Avatar
history *is* moralizing
even if it may be funny sometimes, i usually find so distant translations dumb:
do y'all really think that Violence(s) in the City is better than Over the Edge? or that it adds something?



Standing in the Sunlight, Laughing
It seems less catchy to me, but then I don't speak the language it was translated into. Does that tend to happen often when there's no corresponding colloquialism?

Chi-frog, what languages do you speak and which was first?
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I'm not old, you're just 12.
Originally Posted by chicagofrog

but again, why do they translate a title like DeVito's Duplex into Our House in the UK?
Because they don't have the term Duplex over there?
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The People's Republic of Clogher
There's the old The Madness of George III chestnut (which may be apocryphal), which had it's title changed. Stateside audiences might have not bothered to watch it, having failed to catch the previous two Madness of George films........
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No, Nebbs, The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max (1979) are two different films. The first sequel was originally called Mad Max 2 in Australia, while it was re-titled Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and then simply The Road Warrior for the U.S.

In any event, it has nothing to do with translation (they speaky English in Australia, dig?). It was renamed for the U.S. because the original Mad Max flick barely got a release in America, so it was deemed the 2 in the title would have been unnecessarily confusing.



My life isn't written very well.
Sorta reminds me of the automobile issue that happened in Mexico a few years back. In Mexico nobody was buying a car called The Nova, until some genius realized that in Mexico NO-VA means "won't go"! They changed the name...
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All good people are asleep and dreaming.
As Good as It Gets

"Title of this movie was translated as "Mr. Cat Poop" in Hong Kong. Apparently it came from the name "Melvin" which is pronounced very similarly to the Cantonese colloquial word for cat poop."

Trivia for As Good As It Gets

My source was IMDb.

I win!

Yeah for me!



All good people are asleep and dreaming.
Originally Posted by chicagofrog
Johnny Goes To War (1971)
Johnny Got His Gun

Probably better known for being the Metallica video "One."

Not a great movie, but worth checking out.



Standing in the Sunlight, Laughing
Originally Posted by r3port3r66
Sorta reminds me of the automobile issue that happened in Mexico a few years back. In Mexico nobody was buying a car called The Nova, until some genius realized that in Mexico NO-VA means "won't go"! They changed the name...