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December 09, 2023

Drama, Please! Fun translations from youtube videos

drawing of a tv and coffee cup
I have watched a lot of mini Chinese tv dramas, sometimes call shorts as they are short shows that are a few minutes long for each episode but they are combined into long movies. Some of these does fall into the trap of 'no logic dramas' but still kind of entertaining. But these shows have atrocious English subtitles which I believe are auto-translated or machine translated according to the sounds of the actors' voices. This means there were a lot of awkward, amusing, inaccurate use of the English language. Here are some amusing translated titles, character names and dialogues.

Some amusing titles:
(Most of these shows have no titles but they have synopsis for a title.)

01 - For the sake of mother, marry a vegetable

02 - The genius Cinderella and the strangely ill CEO kissed and fell in love in the toilet

03 - After my rebirth, I married my ex-third uncle!

04 - Five babies fell from the sky, CEO daddy, we found you!

05 - My husband is too dangerous! The cold-faced general begs for stickers every day after marriage

06 - Madam, the president is pretending to be lame again!

07 - Divorced the president and green tea made things difficult for me...

08 - A billionaire live streaming expert returns to his hometown, but is called a young lady?

09 - Contractual flash marriage, please queue when the president chases his wife

10 - The boy who secretly loves himself is the CEO

11 - The amnesiac tyrant's powerful strategy for innocent female stars

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some unusual translated character names:

For female characters:

12 - 'Uncle Ming'

13 - 'Clear Soup'

14  -'Grandma Yan'

15 - 'Commander Peng'

16 - 'Mourning Heart'

For male characters:

17 - 'Pear Sausage'

18 - 'Third Auntie'

19 - 'Fat Sheep'

20 - 'Pay Bank'

Other names:

21 - 'Neighborhood Potatoes'

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some awkward translated dialogues:
(I admit these might be more amusing with context but I like how they are put together.)

22 - "If you get fat again, believe it or not, I will kill your cat bed."

23 - Person 1: "Do you think our house is a toilet? Come when you want and leave when you want?"  
      Person 2: "You are quite self aware."

24 - "My massage skills are quite good. After all, it's not in vain that I've been pressing my sister's buttons for more than ten years in one day."

25 - "Dad, I advise you. It's better to memorize some drama training, we will die soon."

26 - "General, for the sake of being so vague, this time I will make an exception and punish you."

27 - "Will he wake up after seeing the soul of the corpse emperor?"

28 - "I should also go out for a cloud tour."

29 - "It's impossible for us to hum."

30 - "You showed off your three-legged cat kung fu again and let people run away."

31 - "No matter what, as long as I can sleep with her hand, the forest will be straight."

32 - "What on earth did you bring me? Foreign air?"

33 - "I'm stupid. Do you have any opinions?"

34 - "I'm barefoot and not afraid of wearing shoes."

35 - "How can 15 people move?"

36 - "Don't smoke other guests."

37 - "No one can stand alone under the tree."

38 - "Tell the truth. In your heart, is there really no smell of smoke?

39 - "My innocence is so dangerous."

40 - "Oops, I can't see with my eyes."

Do you watch shows that are not in your language and watch with subtitles?

8 comments:

  1. Interesting - though I suspect we do no better with our translations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elephant's Child: Translation can sometimes be a bit like the person who does the translation because there is no exact correctness sometimes.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Christine: Thanks. And thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  3. Hilarious, LOL! I've never seen Chinese TV shows like that, but when we were in Japan there were a lot of weird little soap opera things on TV. I think they were actually Korean, dubbed into Japanese. Either way, didn't help me understand them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debra She Who Seeks: I think I prefer subtitles instead of dubbing. Dubbing just sort of makes the actor seems a bit off.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  4. Subtitles can be fun especially when done by outside companies or when dubbing is... shall we say, not the best. I like subtitles over dubbing though. Would rather watch and hear the original language. anyway, these are a hoot. I like #7 lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Greg: I don't like dubbing much either. But of course there are some shows where the actors are dubbed even if they are speaking the same language.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete

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