Chinese Translation of New ‘Avengers’ Film Leaves the Fans Confused

The grand opening of ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ made the Chinese fans leave the theaters feeling disgruntled. The cinema-goers complained that the translation in the Chinese subtitles was not up to the mark. Viewers said that few of the translations in the movie were far too literal and the audiences let out a collective cower as the heroes’ lines of badassery and quips were turned into something else.

A Hollywood Reporter reported that:- At one point in the movie, Captain America says, “I’m home,” which was translated into Chinese, as “I’m good.” Not just this, a line that meant having to wait for too long, was translated as “I am very old.”

Further, when Captain America advices by saying “You get hurt, hurt ’em back. You get killed… walk it off.” As per the Chinese subtitles, the meaning of this line became “Run fast if someone tries to kill you.”

In one of the scenes, Iron Man says “We may not make it out of this,” that got translated in Chinese as “Let’s back off now.” Furthermore, the line “son of a bitch” was translated to Chinese as “my old familiar friend”, “go be a hero” turned into “you are my hero”.

Irritated web users pointed fingers at Liu Dayong, who was the main translator for the Chinese subtitles. But he was defended by Wang Jinxi (responsible for the movie’s translation quality). Defending Liu and his team, Wang Jinxi said that they had to go through almost 20,000 words within 10 days as well as the total cost was even less than 2,000 yuan. Further, he added that Liu has also been recovering from a surgery.

But this isn’t the first time that a Marvel film has been criticized for its muddled and confusing Chinese translations. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ that was released last year, was subtitled by Liu’s student Jia Xiuyan, and reports say that the subtitles were filled with errors. The title of the movie itself was translated as “Interplanetary Unusual Attacking Team”.

The Chinese theaters have begun correcting the translations. But it seems that the confusion in the translations has not stopped cinema-lovers from pouring into the theatres across China. The movie had a record-breaking opening on its very first day (33.9 million USD), making it the China’s biggest weekday opening of all time.

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