Today I saw a trailer of The Lady, a film about  Aung San Suu Kyi . However, the Chinese translation of the title is 以爱之名，翁山苏姬，which means ‘In the name of love,  Aung San Suu Kyi’. The  phrase ‘In the name of love’ added in Chinese was clearly not in the original.

It inspires me to look at a few western film and TV film titles that have been translated into Chinese.  English film titles commonly have 2 or 3 versions in Chinese, to cater to different markets in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

Chinese film titles seem to be more explicit, or funnier than their English originals. Here are 6 more interesting ones:

1) Predator :

终极战士（Ultimate warrior) and 铁血战士（Iron blood warrior)

2) V for Vendetta:

V 字仇杀队（Letter V  Vendetta team) and V 怪客 (Stranger V) 

3) Dr. Who:

神秘博士 (A mysterious Doctor) – (In Chinese, this ‘doctor’ means someone with a PhD degree!)    and   异世奇人 (A magical person in Other worlds)

Doctor Who -- a mysterious man with a PhD degree?

4) Trainspotting:

猜火车 (Guessing the trains) — I must say, this is my favourite one! Continue reading →