Saturday, February 22, 2014

淺談電影中文譯名

諺語有云:「唔怕生壞命,最怕改壞名」。中國人真有智慧,這句話不但可以應用在人們的身上,也適用於外國電影的中譯名字。

數年前的電影中文譯名都好像沒有那麼差勁。現在的... 都不外乎三大類 — 不是毫無創意的「直譯」,便是無聊「食字」,還不是嗎?那必定是奇奇怪怪不一定符合電影情節純粹為了吸引觀眾而改的一個跟以前叫好叫座電影相似的名字,簡稱「番炒」。較近期例子有:


「直譯」代表

上映了兩星期但好像沒有人有興趣看的The Book Thief 《偷書賊》。若果譯名能加點新意,可能電影會更受歡迎。


「食字」代表

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World《末日倒數緣結時》


我欣賞高明的「食字」,如把The Others譯作《不速之嚇》,既是成語又帶得出意思。不過「娘」味濃如《末日倒數緣結時》的就可免則免。請注意那個「緣」字,那個字型,我的天!


「番炒」代表

Her 《觸不到的她》


上星期情人節看了Her的優先場。港譯《觸不到的她》,是韓國電影《觸不到的戀人》的「番炒」。個人偏愛電影的台譯《雲端情人》,認為這比較能表達出Her科技和愛情的元素。


American Hustle 《騙海豪情》


超級不喜歡「豪情」這經常出現的兩個字,感覺有點三級... 是我腦子的問題麼?《騙海豪情》很明顯在「番炒」Ocean's Eleven《盗海豪情》。


不過事實上最不喜歡的都是那些自以為「少少鹹多多趣」的譯名,例如:

The King's Speech 《皇上無話兒》


是0個趣呀!這個譯名簡直是破壞了這部奧斯卡最佳電影!

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我平日較多在銅鑼灣和中環遊蕩流連。由於那些地方都是老外/海歸的集中地,在戲院用電影英文名字購票多數是沒問題的。不過在其他地區的電影院的情況便不是那麼樂觀:

在我家附近有兩家戲院。而離我家近一點的是我常往的戲院之一。雖然音響和座位都不及鬧市旺一點的好和新,但當你只是想穿着街坊裝簡簡單單看齣戲,地點更勝一切。

可惜的是,本人居住在一個非常住宅區的住宅區,戲院的客源都是上了年紀的本地人。他們都喜歡用電影的中文譯名買票(很多人其實連自己想看的電影的名字也說不出來)。以前的我會在這戲院用電影的英文原名,誓死不讀出那些可怕的譯名。經歷過幾次售票員不知我在說甚麼的尷尬事後,為了逃避要重複又重複的命運,現在的我只好瞞住良心死死氣,希望發了頭一粒音,售票員便會道出:「小姐,請選擇座位」。

你可能覺得我應該預先在網上購票,但在節省$8至$10的手續費和保住自我良好感覺之間,我還是會選擇前者。


* 我要澄清我並不是一個崇洋的港女。有時候「直譯」、「食字」、「番炒」都不是那麼可惡。亦有些時候,中文譯名比英文原名還好,如上面講到的Seeking a Friend for the End of the World《末日倒數緣結時》。那個長到母親也忘記了的英文原名,叫人怎樣不失霸氣的讀出?

Saturday, February 08, 2014

Life Update: ARGH I HATE 2014 ALREADY Edition

All evidence suggests that 2014 is the year of sickness and health-related issues. In the past ten days, I have sprained my foot and had two wisdom teeth taken out. Now I can walk properly again, but the right side of my face is so swollen that I'd rather stay home.

Because I really like taking unflattering pictures of myself:


I LOVE rom-coms. It's all good as long as annoying actresses such as Sarah Jessica Parker stay out of it. How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days is the first movie I own. That was 10 years ago. With the current McConaissance, "10 years ago" feels like the Stone Ages. There's no denying it - what's not to love about rom-coms? Predictability aside, they are funny and sweet sometimes they make you sick. Frankly, predictability is not even a problem. You don't have to hide behind your fingers praying to God for a happy ending. Because the moment you pop your rom-com DVD into the DVD player, you have signed up for one.

The true problem with rom-coms: they set unrealistic romantic expectations. If they were real, I wouldn't be here blogging about rom-coms after watching them on my laptop on my bed with a swollen jaw. Instead, there would be someone tall, handsome, with a nice smile and eyes as deep as the ocean holding an ice bag to my jaw!

The reason to this rant is that I have just watched The Proposal upon my friends' recommendation.

The Proposal

1. I LOVE YOU SANDRA BULLOCK.
2. Still don't understand the "hotness" of Ryan Reynolds and how he's managed to marry two of Hollywood's hottest actresses - Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively (hate Blake Lively but she's pretty).
3. I laughed so much. My jaw hurt but it was OK.
4. Amazing scenery! Interesting fact: IMDb says no filming was done in Alaksa, where the movie was set.
5. I love the ending omgomgomgomgomgomg. I melt and melt all over again if that's possible.


Yesterday I watched New York, I Love You and Don Jon.

New York, I Love You

After spending three days in the city of New York last November, I have fallen in love. Not that I think it's a great place to live, but it's definitely a great place to travel or spend a few months in. I picked up New York, I Love You at the movie rental place, thinking it would be a more rom-com version of Paris, Je T'aime. I miss my carefree exploration of cities, a tribute to New York would surely take me back to the city for two hours? That wasn't right. There are segments that I like, but overall New York, I Love You was a lot darker and messier than its predecessor. I didn't get to see much of NY, just numerous dark street corners. It didn't feel like a tribute to New York at all, the same stories could have taken place in another city...


Don Jon

I was looking forward to watching Don Jon. You know what happens every time? Expectation leads to disappointment and it was the same for Don Jon. I feel that several elements that I couldn't pinpoint were missing. Perhaps it was the lack of character development? Perhaps it was the repetitiveness of several scenes? It was an interesting movie to seat through though. And no doubt about it, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a smart guy. He wrote/directed/starred in a movie about a porn addict and cast Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore as two women who changed his character's life!

I love Julianne Moore and I think she's much more beautiful than ScarJo. In fact, I've liked her for 10 years!!! Her at the 75th Academy Awards. SO PRETTY.



P.S. NEW LAYOUT! After creating a new layout for Fish and Tadpole, I thought my blog could do with a simplistic layout too. So I made a similar header and stole the code I wrote for F&T and voilà! Now the italic and big text come in colour, the blog post area is also wider, allowing for larger images. Hopefully these will increase the readability of the blog~ Still not sure about the red and orange theme though... gonna play around with the codes a little bit.