Korean Job Discussion Forums

Mashimaro · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: location, location

Saw this one a few days ago

A woman says "Smartass!"
The Korean subtitle is "똑똑한 S!"

Who would have known S is more well learned than the other 25 letters of the alphabet..

stevenisi · Joined: 17 Jul 2006

I'd like to see the replies to this one. Bet there won't be too many people knowledgeable enough in both to know..thus the bad subtitles.

albazalba · Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Location: Hongdae

In the musical fame, The line was "where is the john?" and the Korean subtitle said "존 어디서?"

Mashimaro · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: location, location

Peeping Tom · Joined: 15 Feb 2006

In "Ambush Makeover" (which I don't recommend), a woman said:

"I want to dress hip."

Translated into Korean it became:

"I want to dress like a hippie."

SPINOZA · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Location: $eoul

I've said this before but here goes:

Predator, on Superaction.

Black guy yells: "hey! get the f*** over here!"
Korean subtitle: "여기야!"

More funny than terrible, since "get the F over here" is untranslatable I would imagine.

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 8:56 pm Post subject:

I can think of two:

One was a movie with Go So-young as an adult adoptee looking for her parents. The English subtitle she kept saying "I have a long foot finger, I have a long foot finger". Couldn't understand what the hell she was talking about, so I stopped reading the subtitle and started listening to the dialogue "긴 발가락, 긴 발가락" Rolling Eyes

Wayne's World:
Wayne say's "It certainly is excellent!....NOT!"
Korean subtitle: "안좋아요!"

Leslie Cheswyck · Joined: 31 May 2003 Location: University of Western Chile

Definitely lost in translation.

In Young Winston we have the Churchill's voiceover boasting of graduating Sandhurst 9th out of 150. Of course, the subtitler lops off a zero and has him 9th out of 15.* There's just no excuse for that.

*Actually Mr Churchill finished slightly lower than 9th.

JeJuJitsu · Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Location: McDonald's

Plastered all over the buses I ride is a poster for a play "Mama Mia."

ㅁㅏ마 ㅁㅣㅏ

struck me as pretty funny

Roch · Joined: 24 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul

mithridates · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:55 am Post subject:

Watched The Island the other day. Some people were looking forward to going to "The Island" and were in a great mood. One guy really excited says "it's really happening!" Korean subtitles: something like "안 좋은 예감이 들는군요" - somehow they're extra prescient when speaking in Korean subtitles.

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

The problem with subtitling is that studios are paranoid about copies getting onto the market so the just present the translators with the script but no actual copy of the movies....

Mostly this is fine but sometimes you need to see the movie to understand the nuance of the situation and that is where it tends to go wrong...

So don't blame the subtitlers, blame the movie companies....

mithridates · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 8:16 pm Post subject:

Yes, and they also rarely give them enough time either. Sometimes characters will have accents that liven them up but that's not apparent in the script, etc. It can really suck to be a movie translator sometimes, or so I've heard.

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Peeping Tom · Joined: 15 Feb 2006