Hacker News Reader

Comment by Daub | Hacker News Reader

Once or twice I have 'translated translations' of Chinese movie subtitles. The basic translation done by a Chinese native who speaks Engkish, with my contribution being to bash the English into shape. I do this in discusiion with the director. I wish more subtitles were done in this way. Rubbish subtitles are endemic in the industry.

View on HN

I encountered this with Hero, when the single giant calligraphy character that is critical to the film had a different subtitle in the cinema and on the DVD. One of these days I'd love to read a deep dive into how that aspect of the film is understood by native speakers. Which I suspect might be longer than the film itself, dealing as it does with the politics of Chinese unity.

I see that in other places too. I fear it reduces the films to the level of camp. Do the directors not think it matters? Do they not have easy access to fluent speakers of English?

I have seen this more in art house movies and frankly cant understand why it is not a larger issue. I once offered this service to a director I liked, only for him to refuse it. His final subtitles were atrocious.

It takes more than a fluent speaker to write good literature. And that's the rub - you need someone who is themselves capable of writing good literature, regardless of whether it's original or a translation of an existing work.

The errors I'm talking about could be fixed by any fluent speaker.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com