As a Lithuanian, I often find myself baffled by the way we translate foreign movie titles. In our country, Superbad became Hard Nuts, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was transformed to The Power of Feelings, and This is the End was renamed to Christmas Cakes, Drugs, and Sex. Turns out, we're not the only ones doing this.
As one linguist said, while the practice of translation is always a work of adaptation, it is much more so when it comes to translating movie titles. For instance, how should the Russian villain in a typical Hollywood production be presented in Moscow cinemas? And what do we do about cultural references? In addition, there is the fact that the title of a movie is supposed to summarize and condense a two-hour story. Therefore, the translator must rifle through nuances, overtones, examples of polysemy, as well as a number of other approaches.
What makes it even more difficult is that the reader has no context to understand the translated title of the film; a title should be evocative and should work with no other references than its own semantic values and connotations. The translator can't use contextual elements to supplement or clarify the meaning. And, as you will see in this list by Bored Panda, sometimes the end result can be pretty far from the original.
#1 Mr. Cat Poop (China)
#2 If You Leave Me, I'll Erase You (Italy)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#3 Die Hard: Mega Hard (Denmark)
#4 I Will Marry A Prostitute To Save Money (China)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#5 Meth Dad (Slovakia)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#6 The Urban Neurotic (Germany)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#7 Mom, I Missed My Plane (France)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#8 This Hitman Is Not As Cold As He Thought (China)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#9 Big Liar (China)
#10 My Boyfriend Is A Psycho (Russia)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#11 Rita Heyworth, Key To Escape (Finland)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#12 It's Raining Falafel (Israel)
#13 Son Of Devil (China)
#14 Knight Of The Night (Spain)
#15 Vaseline (Argentina)
#16 I'm Drunk And You're A Prostitute (Japan)
#17 Pigs And Diamonds (Mexico, Spain)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#18 The Unbelievable Trip In A Wacky Aeroplane (Germany)
#19 Santa Is A Pervert (Czech Republic)
#20 Six Naked Pigs (China)
#21 Austin Powers: The Spy Who Behaved Very Nicely Around Me (Malaysia)
#22 He's A Ghost! (China)
#23 My Partner With The Cold Snout (Germany)
#24 One Night Big Belly (China)
#25 Sexy Dance (France)
#26 The Hole Of Malkovich (Japan)
#27 The Gun Died Laughing (Israel)
#28 Warm Shots (Czech Republic)
#29 If You Drink, Don't Marry! (Brazil)
Image credits: cinema.magic
#30 Super Power Dare Die Team (China)
#31 His Powerful Device Makes Him Famous (China)
#32 Floppy Coppers Don’t Bite (Germany)
#33 Meetings And Failures In Meetings (Portugal)
#34 American Virgin Man (China)
#35 Captain Supermarket (Japan)
#36 The Eighth Passenger Three (Israel)
#37 Zany Son-In-Law, Zippy Grandkids, Sour Father-In-Law (Thailand)
#38 Just Send Him To University Unqualified (China)
#39 007 Dies Twice (Japan)
#40 Odd Couple, Wacky Trip, Go Together In Time For Birth (Thailand)
#41 The Teeth From The Sea (France)
#42 Dimwit Surges Forth (Thailand)
#43 Mysterious Murder In Snowy Cream (China)
#44 Full Of The Nuts (Germany)
#45 A Twin Seldom Comes Alone (Germany)
#46 Excitement 1995 (China)
#47 Inspector Harry (France)
#48 A Supertough Kangaroo (Spain)
#49 Hey, Where Are The Babies? (Sweden)
#50 17-Year Old Girl's Medical Chart (Japan)
#51 Urban Neurotic (Germany)
#52 Super Speeding Cleaning Evil Accounts (Thailand)
#53 Satan Female Soldier (China)
#54 Please, Do Not Touch The Old Women (Italy)
#55 Super Cool (Latin America)
#56 Juno: Grow, Run & Stumble (Mexico)
#57 Cat, Don't Touch His Hat! (Croatia)
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