中國片英譯名不可笑 嘲笑者自己可笑

References: 趣話中國電影的英文譯名; 笑死人的中國片英文翻譯; 笑死人的中國影片片名翻譯 (clicking a title to open).

《Farewell My Concubine》――再見了，我的小老婆 （這可是《霸王別姬》的英文譯名啊。）
別了，虞姬!
A word-by-word translation is "the emperor leaves his woman (霸王與他的妃子告別)." But you can easily see that this doesn't tell much about the story. What actually happened is that the emperor, 西楚霸王項羽, and his army were encircled at 垓下 (Gaixia). Knowing that there would be no chance to survive the overwelming enemies, the emperor sat down with his concubine, 虞姬, for the last dinner. To entertain the emperor, 虞姬 played a sword dance in front of him and when she finished dancing, she killed herself with the sword in the hand. She didn't want to become a burden of her husband and the loyal guards in the coming deadly battle.
-《貴妃醉酒》 The drunken Concubine (貴妃: a senior rank concubine of the emperor; drunken: 喝醉了的,喝醉了酒後有些搖搖晃晃的樣子).
-《十面埋伏》 Ambushed on all sides.

《Romatic of Three Kingdoms》――三個王國的羅曼史（居然是《三國演義》）
The word "romance" can mean 談情說愛 or 傳記文學, 生動的虛構. So, the correct interpretation of the title is 關於三個王國的演義. (演義: 半真半假的虛構故事)

《Ashes of Time》――時間的灰燼（《東邪西毒》。這個譯名意味深長，無論你是東邪還是西毒，武功再高還不是最後都成了時間的灰燼？）
It's true, all those, with their names in the hall of fame or shame, will be gone, becoming the ashes of time.
I like this title. Actually, it is closer to what Louis Cha (金庸) had in mind when he wrote the novel "Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶)." The author made the idea clear in 楊過's reflection at the time when he visited the burial ground of 北丐 and 西毒 who were both great martial art masters and meanwhile fierce opponents fighting against each other restlessly when alive, but, by then, were buried together with their graves laying side by side.

《Saviour of the Soul》――靈魂的救星（啊呸！真不要臉！《九一神鵰俠侶》）
There is nothing to be ashamed of with this translation! You have to understand this is the idea of Louis Cha himself. Cha arranged the life experiences of 郭靖 (the saver) and 楊過 (the savee) to be totally different, yet he made both heroes and role models in a society where the ordinary people were largely defenseless when a disaster took place.

《All Men Are Brothers: Blood of the Leopard》――四海之內皆兄弟：豹子的血（《水滸傳》，《水滸傳》有個英文譯名就是《四海之內皆兄弟》）
I'd say it's an attractive movie title.

《Chinese Odyssey 1: Pandora『s Box》――中國的奧德賽1：潘多拉寶盒（《大話西遊之月光寶盒》。這個絕對是入鄉隨俗了，不過好象都挨不上邊耶）
Ingenious! Odyssey: a series of romantic stories or fairytales, mmh, this time, it is about ancient China, instead. A pandoras's box? That makes me wonder what would happen when the devils are let go loose.

《Chinese Odyssey 2: Cinderella》――中國的奧德賽２：灰姑娘（《大話西遊之仙履奇緣》。至尊寶成了孫悟空，灰姑娘穿上了水晶鞋，天才啊！）
Yes. Everyone knows Cinderella is the name of a princess who once lived a low life. And the actual movie story is juicier: now that the girl is a fire-on-the-wick goddess who lived in Tathagata(如來佛)'s superpower lamp and the prince charming turns out to be, you guess it, a monk!

《Woman-demon-human》――女人-惡魔-人類（《人鬼情》。失戀中的譯者）
Love for ever and be with you dead and alive.

《In the Mood for Love》――在愛的情緒中（《花樣年華》。戀愛中的譯者）
It's better than "in the time of blossom" or "the grape's ripe for picking up."

《Seventeen Years》――十七年（故弄玄虛。《回家過年》）
This is at least better than a word-by-word account of 回家過年, e.g., going home to spend the New Year. Instead, the story the movie is set to unfold is likely to be a recall of some of the most unforgetable details in one's memory covering a time period as long as seventeen years.

《Third Sister Liu》――第三個姐姐劉（《劉三姐》。典型的不動腦筋）
A typical case of laziness? What do you mean? Let me ask you this: what do you call the three brothers in a family who are 大哥,二哥,三哥? If you call them the eldest, the second, and the third (youngest) brother, then, you must call 劉三姐 Liu, the third sister.

《Dream Factory》――夢工廠（《甲方乙方》。夠牛的）
The story began as a bunch of wierd guys got a crazy idea and moved to set up a business to bring real-life experience to those with absurd fantasies. It was a game to be played by the customer standing for one side (甲方) and the guys for the other (乙方). In the game, silly things once happened in the past were brought back in real life again. The movie showed what a dream factory could possibly produce.

《Flirting Scholar》――正在調情的學者（別人看《紅樓夢》看到詩，你看到了……？《唐伯虎點秋香》）
A scholar flirting around.
-flirt: to behave amorously without serious intent; to show superficial or casual interest or liking, e.g., flirted with the idea.

《From Beijing with Love》――從北京帶著愛（到香港換不了菜。《國產007》）
If you are familiar with the 007 series of movies since the 1960s, you would know that "From Russia with Love" was a box-office hit.

《A Better Tomorrow》――明天會更好（「玉山白雪飄零，燃燒少年的心...」。《英雄本色》）
This suits well for the movie story about an ambitious young man confident on his ability to defeat any potential challengers.

《Flowers of Shanghai》――上海之花（《海上花》）
Is it about a woman then lived in Shanghai?

《Steel Meets Fire》――鋼遇上了火（翻譯遇上了鬼？《烈火金剛》）
No. The translator is alright. All he did was to substitute a fancier word-pair, steel and fire, for an old pair, john and jane. This, as you see, makes the title suit better for a story about a boy and a girl. However, the translator did provide another view that alludes to the idea of steeling oneself in a hard situation. To confirm this, he cited the old sayings of "the real gold proves its worth in a blazing fire" and "a great soldier shows his strength in setbacks on battleground." What concerned the translator was that these sayings are all too commonplace to be used for a movie title. Now, you decide if he is reasonable.

《Royal Tramp》――皇家流浪漢（《鹿鼎記》。為什麼不譯成 「皇家馬德里」？
鹿鼎記: The Duke of Mount Deer, or 鹿鼎公傳. This title is comparable to Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo(基度山伯爵).

(唉, 做一個帖真的很累啊!)

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