weird translations of film titles

[I couldn't find a thread about this subject - please tell me if there is one.]

The DVD of Five Easy Pieces shows the title in a number of languages. The German title is Ein Mann Sucht Sich Selbst (A Man Looks For Himself), whereas the Portuguese call it Destinos Opostos (Opposite destinies).

What's the strangest translation, furthest away from the original, that you have come across?

Also, in Finland "The Rules of Attraction" was titled "Fuck the Rules". That's not a translation, they actually changed the English name to another English name.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), 30. maaliskuuta 2006 22:31 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Actually, we had a whole thread about this:

favorite mistranslated movie title

But I can repost my comments from there:

"Hal and The Big Love" is what Shallow Hal was called in Finnish. Here's some more translated Finnish movie titles (retranslated to English):

Total Recall = "Forget or Die"

The Running Man = "Run or Die"

Flirting with Disaster = "Super Cool Family Roots"

Blades of Glory = "Dudes With Skates"

Rules of the Game = Fuck the Rules (This isn't a Finnish translation. The 2003 movie which was originally called "Rules of the Game" had a different English title in Finland, it was called "Fuck the Rules". In English. I guess they thought teen audiences would find foreign profanities in the title cool.)

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles = "Quickly to Chicago"

Can It Be Love = "Hormone Mice in Bikini Paradise"

Private Benjamin = "The Girl Who Did Military Service"

Soylent Green = "World in the Year 2022"

Monty Python and The Holy Grail = "Monty Python and The Crazy World"

Going Greek = "Wankers"

Inspector Clouseau = "Hide the Chicks, the Police Is Coming"

― Tuomas, 6. huhtikuuta 2009 21:24 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

When Airplane! was released in Finland, its Finnish title was "Hey, We're Flying!". Naturally, Airplane II was then called "Hey, We're Flying Again!". This lead to a flurry of comedies (which had absolutely nothing to with Airplane!) being given similar Finnish titles, so we got:

* "Hey, We're Diving" (Up Periscope)
* "Hey, We're Spying!" (Scandalous)
* "Hey, We're Doing Time!" (Doin' Time)
* "Hey, We're Laughing!" (Kentucky Fried Movie)
* "Hey, We're Clubbing!" (Police Squad)
* "Hey, We're Cutting!" (Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again)

― Tuomas, 6. huhtikuuta 2009 21:39 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Total Recall = "Forget or Die"

love this one!

Here's some more Finnish title translations:

Jingle All the Way = "My Dad is the Turbo Man"
Citizen Kane = "Lust"
A Hard Day's Night = "Yeah! Yeah! Here We Come!"
Groundhog Day = "My Day as a Groundhog"
Monkey Business = "Darling, I'm Getting Younger!"
Short Circuit = "A Robot Falls in Love"

I always found Man Bites Dog to be a crap renaming of C'est Arrivé Près De Chez Vous (It happened close to you.)

Thanks for all this, Tuomas.

Bah! When I did my search I didn't think of looking up the word "mistranslated"!

The Hey We're... 'series' is extraordinary. It is particularly strange when titles are 'translated' into foreign languages by re-naming them in (presumably more familiar) English. Happy-Go-Lucky was 'translated into French' as Be Happy.

Flirting with Disaster = "Super Cool Family Roots"

^ That is great as is the Total Recall one.

Jingle All the Way = "My Dad is the Turbo Man" - AWESOME.

haute tension (fr.) => switchblade romance (uk)

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/521275_10151231835597132_594051427_n.jpg

Absentia was released in Japan as "Maneater Tunnel".

whoops, should have posted this to the other thread. oh well.

Just learnt that Ghostbusters in French is "S.O.S. Fantômes"

Ray Parker Jr should totally redo the song with that as the refrain.

Some of the Finnish ones ITT are so amazing.

A Hard Day's Night = "Yeah! Yeah! Here We Come!"

'Just putting my socks on, la!'

Hey Tuomas, what does Ghostbusters' Finnish title - Haamujengi - translate as? Google Translate is failing me here.

Oh wait, I figured it out. Ghost Gang.

Ghost Gang would make a pretty good band name circa 2009.

Gang Gang Ghost

Even as a kid I thought "Ghost Gang" was a stupid name for the movie, because it isn't about a gang of ghosts, rather than a gang who chases and captures ghosts. Though that's hardly the only case of inaccuracy in Finnish titles... For example, the title of "ER" (the TV series) was translated as "Intensive Care", even though it doesn't even take place in an intensive care unit. It seems whoever translated it thought Finnish viewers would be more familiar with the ICU than ER.

Similarly, for its first season "Beverly Hills 90210" was known as "L.A. Beat" in here, apparently because the Finnish network though local viewers wouldn't know what "90210" means, and would be more familiar with the name "L.A." than "Beverly Hills". By the second season they got rid of that "translation" though, and started airing the show under its original title.