Amusing Movie Translations

[Beanster1]

This was from this month's Citylife

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/2006/feb06/70_bitbob.php

Has anyone got any other examples of dodgy movie translations?

Numbers 7 and 10 are crackers

(I've got a feeling they use those crappy software translators!!!!)

No wonder Thais don't get half the movies!!

1. The Matrix "Blue pill, red pill" หมอนน้ำเงิน หมอนแดง (blue pillow, red pillow)

2. Sense and Sensibility "O, My goodness" โอ้ความดีของฉัน (Oh, all of my good qualities)

3. American Pie "Fine!" ค่าปรับ! (monetary penalty!)

4. Garfield "O, Mr pathetic, you have had a crush on her since high school" คุณพาเธทิค คุณชนหล่อนตั้งแต่อยู่ ม.ปลาย (O, Mr Pathetic, you bumped into her in high school)

5. Pirates of the Caribbean "What are you up to?" คุณจะขึ้นไปถึงไหน? (How far up are you going?)

6. Baby Genius "Shut up baby" ปิดประตูซะเด็กน้อย (Close the door little one)

7. Con Air "Mayday! Mayday!" วันแรงงาน! วันแรงงาน! (Labour day! Labour day!)

8. Monster "Do you want to take a shower" เธออยากแสดงอะไรให้ฉันดูไหม? (Would you like to perform for me?)

9. Helen of Troy "Farewell" แฟร์ดี (good and just)

10. 28 Days Later "Now you've pissed me off" ตอนนี้คุณปัสสาวะที่ฉันห่าง (Now you have urinated away from me)

11. The Terminal "Can you hear me?" กระป๋อง คุณได้ยินฉันมั้ย (Tin can, do you hear me?)

Beanster 1

[meadish_sweetball]

That's hilarious!

Please do not tell me those were the official translations, just the pirate VCD ones?

[Beanster1]

That's hilarious!

Please do not tell me those were the official translations, just the pirate VCD ones?

Good question, I would hope it's not the official translations for the theatres.

Wouldn't the pirated VCD's just copy the subtitles from the cinema release anyway???

[Plus]

No, they have some students typing away, translating from English subtitles on pirate DVDs.

[greenwanderer108]

Nation Junior

covered this subject over a year ago..

http://www.nationjunior.com/features/index.php?cID=2954

[skylar]

In the Titanic scene where Rose is on the raft and Jack is clinging to the raft before he lets go... they say their last words... and all the Thais just cracked up while my eyes were full of tears. However since I couldn't read Thai back then, I have no idea what the translation was! Anyone?

[greenwanderer108]

In the Titanic scene where Rose is on the raft and Jack is clinging to the raft before he lets go... they say their last words... and all the Thais just cracked up while my eyes were full of tears. However since I couldn't read Thai back then, I have no idea what the translation was! Anyone?

Even if they translated it correctly there...it's a pretty funny scene!!

If I remember right, it was

"Promise me Rose, you will never let go...promise, you will never let go!"

"I promise Jack, I will never let go...I promise, I will never let go."

And what does she do seconds later after such a faithful promise? Let's him go and he falls into the sea! Sure he was aparently dead already...so what was inteneded in the 'never let go' was her in life, not he himself...but that's for us to figure out, and I'm sure the producer must have figured it was so open for humorous punning there...I certainly got a kick out of it and I could imagine why the Thais would if they had translated it directly like that

[Rikker]

One thought from someone new to the board...

Could that have had anything to do with the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio's character is named Jack Dawson? I can only imagine the hilarity if they transliterated that as ดอสั้น, following the traditional Thai-ization of a farang name. Who wouldn't laugh at a movie where the main character is named Jack Short-dick (from the slang word ดอ from Khmer)? I know a guy named Dawson who lived in Thailand... it took him all of a week to figure out that he needed to find a new name. He eventually settled on ดาวสัน. Nice and harmless.

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Dawson"

ยินดีที่ได้รู้จักคุณดอสั้น

That must've been at least a partial factor in the Thai's response, don't you think?

[Hobgoblin]

What's worse are the translations from pirated movies that are still in cinemas... the "pirates", who obviously don't have the movie script to copy from.

In the movie, they said "He died of cancer", the subtitle said "He try to master"

What's funny is even those that are translated into Thai miss out on some of the English slang, and translate word-for-word. From a DVD of the TV show "Lost", the actor said "If dogs can smell pot and bombs, they should be able to find water". The Thai translation was all correct, except "pot" was translated as a "pot" for cooking, and not "pot" as in drugs, which is what was really being said.

[Kathe]

One thought from someone new to the board...

Could that have had anything to do with the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio's character is named Jack Dawson? I can only imagine the hilarity if they transliterated that as ดอสั้น, following the traditional Thai-ization of a farang name. Who wouldn't laugh at a movie where the main character is named Jack Short-dick (from the slang word ดอ from Khmer)? I know a guy named Dawson who lived in Thailand... it took him all of a week to figure out that he needed to find a new name. He eventually settled on ดาวสัน. Nice and harmless.

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Dawson"

ยินดีที่ได้รู้จักคุณดอสั้น

That must've been at least a partial factor in the Thai's response, don't you think?

Now you cracked me down on the floor....hehhehee Yeah, thai chorb kid lamok, but this is our charm ;-) The arts of language.

[penzman]

My wife cracks up most of the time when watching pirated movies, saying the translation is totally off from the movie's real story.

[Edward B]

ER (the series) in its early season in UBC: A doctor says "Take the stool (examination)" The Thai subtitle was "ไปเอาเก้าอี้มา" !!

[Insight]

Apparently on a dodgy copy of Hannibal at the beginning of the flick where Hannibal is serving his guests and says "Bon appetite", the Thai subtitles read "smoke marijuana".

[Rikker]

-->

QUOTE(Edward B @ 2006-04-24 04:10:40) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ER (the series) in its early season in UBC: A doctor says "Take the stool (examination)" The Thai subtitle was "ไปเอาเก้าอี้มา" !!

That's just a lazy translator. (Or perhaps a translator who, flipping through his dictionary, couldn't see how feces was relevant to the plot!)