“The King's Speech” is a 2010 British epic historical drama
film portraying the life of British King George VI, from seeking
treatment to overcome his stammer and competently deliver his speech with
little to no guidance from his speech therapist, from receiving criticism to
receiving applause from the audience.
A title is able to convey an overall impression of the
artwork, as it usually summarizes the content of the artwork, sets a tone or
creates an expectation for the work. When the movie was released in the
English-Speaking countries, it was called “The King's Speech”, a conclusion to
the movie that it was a movie depicting the ability of speech of the King or
the speeches made by a King. 
When “The King's Speech” was exported to other language speaking countries, some translation work and culture transfer has to be done. In mainland China, it was “国王的演讲”, the distributor in Mainland China translated the title from English to Chinese in accordance with the meaning. However, it was a different case in Hong Kong and Taiwan that the meaning and context conveyed by the title is re-contextualized.
In Hong Kong, the movie was titled as“皇上無話兒”.
It conveys that the King is speechless or his disability to speak. This version
of title adds a tone of humor and amusement to the first impression of the
movie and gives away some expectations that the audience would get a glimpse of the awkward and embarrassing
moments of a great King. Also, domestication strategy is applied in the
translation of title. In ancient China, a male monarch sovereign of Imperial
China was generally addressed as "皇上", but not “國王”
which is the translation of "King" in the Chinese. While the Hong
Kong distributor of the movie adopted the domestication strategy, that in
Mainland China adopted the foreignisation strategy with the word "國王"
in the title of “国王的演讲”, which
present
a foreign element within the text.
In Taiwan, the movie was titled as "王者之聲：宣戰時刻". This title is another version of a recap to the movie. At the end of the movie, George VI overcomes his stammer when he competently broadcasts an inspiring message as a King to his fellow citizen right after the declaration of war on Nazi Germany. His successful broadcast brings him the applause from the populace. It’s definitely a moment of victory to the King George VI. The Taiwan distributor of the movie emphasized this final scene in the title of "王者之聲：宣戰時刻", which represents the victory of King George VI with his cured stammer. While the movie title of the Taiwan version is positive, trilling and inspiring, that original title “The King's Speech” is neutral with a simple indication that it’s a movie about a King making speech.
From this case, we can see that, when translating a foreign text, culture transfer and a totally different focal point can be delivered through different forms and strategies in translation.
Which of the three titles you find the most appealing?
從字義上比較，國王的演講把the king's speech的意思完整地翻譯過來。雖然中國史上的王名作皇上，但由於該電影講述西方故事，因此遵循西方文化的翻譯更為貼切。
ReplyDelete香港版本皇上無話兒一譯當時掀起一陣笑話。眾所周知，話兒一詞前面加上指示代詞，便成了男性的特徵。當然，這個譯名的譯者的動機十分明顯，為了引起大眾注意，激發話題，達至宣傳之效。原來的speech，照常理我們會看作演辭演講，而話兒的字義似是心底話或說話，則不太符合原意。
王者之聲:宣戰時刻，令人即時有革命如箭在弦之感，王者之聲的翻譯頗為傳神。我未曾看過這套電影，不知故事內容，對戲名中所包含的信息則不作評論。
yim wing tat
I have watched the film. It is a very nice one.
ReplyDeleteI found that most of the translation of film names are translated word by word in mainland China. Sometimes it can be quite funny.
I think the Hong Kong version is a little bit unclear. As Tat has mentioned above, "話兒" can be understood in a different way. This will causes the misunderstanding of the audience about the film.
For me, I would pick the Taiwan version as the best one. From the translation, we can know a bit about the content of the film. Also, we can feel the intensity from the translated film name. This can attract the audience to watch the film.
By Kourtney
I have seen more examples about translation of films or cartoons in different places. Just want to share them to you! Here is the link: http://evchk.wikia.com/wiki/%E8%86%A0%E8%AD%AF%E5%90%8D
ReplyDeleteP.S. I was "impressed" by the translation of the popular Japanese cartoon- One Piece, which is translated as "一大塊“. HAHAHA
By Cosy
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the Chinese translation of a British TV drama In The Flesh on the Mainland Chinese Internet.
ReplyDeleteIn The Flesh is set at a fictional future that Britain had a zombie apocalypse but it has invented a shot that can restore the zombies, or what they call, the highly infected patients to normal peaceful human beings with the memories of their original life for a certain period after injection. These patients are sent back to their families and get injections constantly to keep themselves in good shape. When this drama came to the Mainland Chinese Internet, it got a few different Chinese translations on its title. They are :行屍肉心, 復生, 屍而復生 and 僵屍回家路.
I think the first two are fine though the first one is clearly trying to hook audience by using similar structure with the Chinese translation 行屍走肉, of the title of another popular zombie-themed American TV drama Walking Dead. This translation matches the story but the familarity it appears to give makes it look a bit funny and might lead audiences' expectation on the story in a wrong way as the focus and message they give are very distinctive. 復生 also matches the story and it has shown the tension in the story in a way better than 行屍肉心 does as 行屍肉心 points out the physical form of the zombies in In The Flesh while 復生 digs deeper by pointing out the actual state the zombies are in that they have come back to human life. 屍而復生 sounds interesting as it plays a pun on a Chinese idiom. But it actually doesn't make sense. 屍is a noun follows by a connective 而 which is supposed to connect two verbs to make sense. It matches the story but it is confusing. And the last one, well don't really want to comment the title of a Gothic fairy tale book.
Have any one watched In The Flesh? Plz share your opinion with me!
BY Marcella