Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bluelake]

On the other thread (talking about cuss words), translations on Korean TV came up. As I mentioned there, I enjoy picking out mistranslations in the subtitles. One of my favorites was from the old Don Johnson flick, Dead Bang (from '89, I think). Some informant was talking about a multi-million dollar shipment of cocaine that would be entering the US. Of course, the shortened form, coke, was used. The Korean translation said there would be a multi-million dollar shipment of cola entering the US.

Another one (not really a mistranslation--more like a misunderstanding of cultural humor) was from the movie Naked Gun in the part where Drebin talked about a blimp accident:

Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.

Jane: Goodyear?

Frank: No, the worst.

The last part, in Korean translation (from what I remember--it was quite a few years ago), said:

Jane: Did you have a good year?

Frank: No, a bad year.

Of course, that was before Goodyear tires were known in Korea (and the blimp was completely unknown). Of course, most of the humor from that movie was lost in translation here in Korea.


What are your favorite mistranslations on TV or in the movies?

[jinju]

[mithridates]

Terminator 2. Somebody walks into the police office, policeman's about to shake his hand but he remembers a bit of beer had spillt before so he kind of makes an apologetic gesture and says "sorry, beer on my hands."

Korean translation: 어서오세요 (welcome).

[Merlyn]

This isn't about dialog that has been translated, but there have been a lot of funny/strange movie name translations as well. The other night I was watching this movie really late. I didn't know what the real name was but it was called "Devil's Scream" in Korean. I didn't think it was the real name of the movie, but it was about a Devil worship cult and they were trying to kill these kids in the woods. Anyway, all the worshippers were wearing black gowns and white-like Scream masks, hence the Korean translation. The real title I had to find on the internet and it was called Devil's Prey. Anyway, funny when they get kind of creative thinking of these titles. Any others you know of?

[bluelake]

[periwinkle]

In Ground Control, Margaret Cho says, "Bite me" when someone tells her to go back to work after her break. She says, "Bite me," and it's translated as "Mooliyo." I always laugh whenever I show that movie in class, and none of my students (some of these guys have studied in the states for awhile, too) get it.

My Korean isn't sophisticated enough to pick up on mistranslations, for the most part.

I went to Austin Powers 2 (Goldfinger??) while I was here in Korea. I swear, there wasn't a peep from the audience except for my incessant giggling. I think the translators just gave up on that one...

[seoulsucker]

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

In the dinner scene after they have their first encounter in the desert, Pitt's character says, "I missed you."

She replies, "I missed you too," with a very telling look.

Of course, the Korean translation was "보고싶었어" or something like that, and a very subtle, clever joke was lost on the audience. I, on the other hand, erupted in a pretty good chuckle.

A Feeling

Out of sheer curiosity, I purchased a soft-core Korean p0rno DVD with English subtitles. For comedic value alone it was worth the 5,000원

Boy to girl: "Man touch girl here, then crazy."

Girl to boy: "You are so hard-on."

Boy to girl: "We get rid of stress by fu(king $hit!"

Absolutely priceless.

[bluelake]

Another funny one in movie translations has to do with numbers; the translators are always messing up numbers of all kinds. One that comes to mind (although I don't remember the movie it was in) had to do with bullet weight. Bullets are weighed in grains (abbrev: gr.); there are about 15.4 grains in a gram. In the movie, the weight, in grains, was given; I don't remember, but let's say it was 154 (that would be about 10 grams). The translation said 154 grams (that's about 1/3 of a pound--that would be a *really* big bullet).