The language in the collected titles of action movies appears to be strong and rather simple. Most of the titles contain the name or brief and concise description or code name of the protagonists. There are 22 allusive titles, compared to 70 descriptive ones.
- Analyzing translator‟s purpose
The language in the translated titles remain strong. Most of the allusive titles are reentitled based on the movies‟ contents. This shows that the translators seemingly preferred to explain the title of action movies rather than keeping them allusive.
- Comparing the translations with the originals:
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In this stage, the translated titles of action movies released by CGV Cineplex were compared with the originals to discover how translators handle specific problems in the SL. Data analysis reveals that six procedures and two methods are employed in translating English titles of action movies into Vietnamese in CGV Cineplex from 2011 to 2014. The number of titles translated by each strategy is converted into percentage and demonstrated in the pie chart below:
Figure 3.3. Strategies employed in translating titles of action movies As can be seen from the pie chart, the most dominant strategy is adaptation with 29% (27 titles) of the selected movie titles translated by this method. In addition, almost all of 24 allusive titles (except “Zero dark thirty”, “The cold light of day” and “ATM”) are translated by this strategy. This shows a trend of turning allusive titles in English into descriptive ones in Vietnamese. From the above pie chart, 50% of the titles are either added some words of description or renamed based on the content of the movie or the main character.
For titles containing cultural words including “Zero dark thirty” and “Runner Runner”, the translators choose to explain the terms into Vietnamese. “Zero dark thirty” is a military term for “30 minutes after midnight”. Meanwhile, “runner runner” is a term in gambling, which describes the way a hand won in Texas Hold'em Poker if the turn (fourth) and river (fifth) cards saved it from losing.
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However, there has been almost no “one-to-one translations” (Newmark, 1988, p.188) for the two terms in Vietnamese. That might be the reason why the translator decided to explain the cultural term by literally translating its definition into “30 phút sau nửa đêm” in Vietnamese as in the case of “Zero dark thirty”. Meanwhile,
“Runner-runner” portraying Richie, believing he's been swindled, travels to Costa Rica to confront online gambling tycoon Ivan Block. Richie is seduced by Block's promise of immense wealth, until he learns the disturbing truth about his benefactor.
When the FBI tries to coerce Richie to help bring down Block, Richie faces his biggest gamble ever: attempting to outmaneuver the two forces closing in on him.
At the end, thanks to a trick, he could manage to put Block in jail and fly away on Block‟s private jet. Hence, based on the content of the movie, the translator decided to translate the title into “Át chủ bài” using adaptation strategy.
For the sequels there are always two parts in a title consisting of the trademark of the series and the name of the sequel. In Vietnamese, the translators preserved the movies‟ trademark by either directly duplicating the English trademark of the movie or using the already-released Vietnamese translations of the prequel to the movie. This might be due to the fact that those movies are very familiar to Vietnamese audience; consequently, preserving their trade mark would help to attract audience.
- The evaluation of the translations
Data processing indicated that translated titles of action movies also fall into four quality categories. The majority of the translations only meet translator‟s standard. This is illustrated in the pie chart below:
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39%
10%
41%
10% All criteria
Only assessor's standard Only translator's standard No criteria
Figure 3.4. Quality of translations of animation titles classified according to Newmark‟s TQA framework
The results shows that thirty-six translations (39%) fully achieved the standards of translator and assessor in the quality assessment framework proposed by Newmark (1988). The original titles along with their translations are given in the table below:
Source Text Target Text
The Dictator Kẻ độc tài
Priest Giáo sĩ
The host Vật chủ
The November Man Sát thủ tháng 11
The Man with the Iron Fist Người đàn ông có tay đấm sắt Guardian of the Galaxy Vệ binh dải ngân hà
He who dares Kẻ liều lĩnh
Fair game Trò chơi sòng phẳng
The Warrior's Way Con đường chiến binh
World War Z Thế chiến Z
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The last stand Chốt chặn cuối cùng
The lone ranger Kỵ sĩ cô độc
Source Code Mật mã gốc
Man on a Ledge Người đàn ông trên gờ tường
Man of steel Người đàn ông thép
Wrath of the Titans Sự phẫn nộ của các vị thần
Battleship Chiến hạm
Godzilla Quái vật Godzilla
Fury Cuồng nộ
Iron Man 3 Người sắt 3
Star Trek: Into the darkness Star Trek: Chìm vào bóng tối GI Joe: Retaliation GI Joe: Kẻ báo thù
The Hunger Games: Catching fire The Hunger games: Bắt lửa Thor 2: Dark world Thor 2: Thế giới bóng tối Legendary: Tomb of the dragon Legendary: Mộ rồng Mission Impossible: Ghost
Protocol
Nhiêm vụ bất khả thi 4: Chiến dịch bóng ma
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island Journey 2: Hòn đảo huyền bí
Captain America 2: Winter Soldier Captain America: Chiến binh mùa đông X-men: Days of future past X-men: Ngày cũ của tương lai
Transformer 4: Age of Extinction Transformer 4: kỷ nguyên hủy diệt The Dark Knight Rises Kỹ sĩ bóng đêm trỗi dậy
Savages Những kẻ man rợ
Night at the Museum: Secret of the
Tomb Đêm ở viện bảo tàng: Bí mật hầm mộ
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Lucy Lucy
Jack Reacher Jack Reacher
Rise of the Planet of the Apes Sự nổi dậy của loài khỉ
Table 3.5. Translations of action movie titles fully meet the TQA framework Analysis of source texts indicates that these thirty-six titles are all descriptive and the translators when translating them into Vietnamese do not modify this characteristic. In other words, all the translations remain descriptive.
The source texts are formed with a simple noun-phrase or a word, so the translators just choose to use faithful translation to handle them. The language in the target text is strong, which is suitable to action movies. For example, “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” was translated into Vietnamese as “Nhiệm vụ bất khả thi: Chiến dịch bóng ma”. Besides, “Priest”could be translated into Vietnamese as
“linh mục, thầy tu”. However, these translations sound neutral in Vietnamese and would fail to convey the movie‟s genre - action. By choosing “Giáo sĩ”, which is quite intense in Vietnamese, the translation sounded much more like an action movie. These translations also satisfy the translator‟s standard because they doreflect the movie‟s content and also movie‟s genre.
With some titles translated by descriptive or expansion strategies, adding some words to make the title clear is necessary while it is still faithful to the original title. For examples, “Godzilla” is translated into Vietnamese as “Quái vật Godzilla”
(Monster Godzilla). “Godzilla” is extremely large and destructive and is an ancient alpha predator. Because in real life, there is no such an animal by the name
“Godzilla”, there is no equivalent in Vietnamese to translate the name. In addition, if the title had been translated by transference, audience might have found it challenging to realize the movie‟s genre and content because they did not know what “Godzilla” is nor its meaning. Adding “quái vật” to describe and explain
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“Godzilla” appeared to be a good choice. Similarly, “The November Man” features an ex-CIA operative who has to fight individually in a deadly game involving high level CIA officials and the Russian president-elect. Western people often believe that November is the month of the dead (Month of the Souls in Purgatory, n.d.).
Besides, acording to a character in the movie, the November man is the protagonist‟s spy nickname because “after you passed through, no one lived”.
Therefore, in this case, the pharse “November man” should not be understood as
“Người đàn ông tháng 11” (The man of November) but it implies the lead charater‟s remarkable ability of killing his foes. As a result, it is correct to translate the title into Vietnamese as “Sát thủ tháng mười một”.
For the titles of movie series, the translators employ the strategy of couplets with the combination of transference (applied for the series‟ title”) and faithful translation. By doing so, the translations remain faithful to the source texts and also reflect the movie‟s genre by helping audience recognize the brandname of the series they have already known. For example, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”,
“Legendary: Tomb of the Dragon” were translated into Vietnamese as “The Hunger Games: Bắt lửa”, “Legendary: Mộ rồng”.
In addition, the following nine translations (approximately 10%) only meet the assessor‟s standard:
Source Text Target Text
The cold light of day The cold light of day
Fast and Furious 6 Fast and furious 6
Fast and Furious 5 Fast and furious 5
Super 8 Super 8
Xmen: First Class Xmen: First class
Transformers 3: Darkmoon Transformer 3: Darkmoon
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Safe House Safe house
Men in Black III Men in black III
ATM ATM
Table 3.6. Translations of action movie titles only meet the assessor‟s standard For these titles, as the translators decide to use the procedure of transference to translate the English titles into Vietnamese, it can be concluded that they are absolutely faithful to the source text. However, audience who do not know English might find it difficult to read the long titles such as “The Cold Light of Day”, “Jack Reacher”, “Transformer 3: Dark of the Moon”. In addition, it is quite hard to know the movie genre when looking at these translations. In English-speaking countries,
“ATM” alone may be enough to provoke a sense of action and curiosity. However, Vietnamese audience might feel hard to understand the title and the genre of the movie.
There are thirty-eight translations meeting the criterion of translator‟s standards. These titles are translated by either adaptation based on the movie contents or descriptive equivalent as shown in the table below:
Source Text Target Text
Dead man down
Kẻ báo thù In time
Thời khắc sinh tử Chronicle
Sức mạnh vô hình Act of Valor
Biệt kích ngầm Safe
Mật mã sống Dark Shadows
Lời nguyền bóng đêm Edge of Tomorrow
Cuộc chiến luân hồi Bait
Bẫy cá mập
65 Interstellar
Hố đen tử thần Total Recall
Truy tìm ký ức The mortal Instruments: The city of
bones
Vũ khí bóng đêm: Thành phố xương
Runner runner Át chủ bài
Escape plan Vượt ngục
Need for speed Đam mê tốc độ
The Pyramid Bí ẩn kim tự tháp
Dracula Untold Ác quỷ Dracula: Huyền thoại chưa
kể
The Maze Runner Giải mã mê cung
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ninja rùa
The Prince Mật danh
Cowboys and Aliens Cao bồi và quái vật ngoài hành tinh Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Jack Ryan: Đặc vụ bóng đêm
The lone survivor Sống sót
The Adjustment Bureau Bản đồ định mệnh
The Tourist Du khách bí ẩn
Whitehouse down Giải cứu nhà trắng
Pacific Rim Siêu đại chiến
Equalizer
Thiện ác đối đầu
The Avengers Biệt đội siêu anh hùng
Real Steel Tay đấm thép
Immortals Chiến binh bất tử
Contraband Phi vụ ngầm
Tower Heist Siêu trộm nhà chọc trời
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Resident Evil: Retribution Vùng đất dữ: Báo thù
Spiders Nhện khổng lồ
Limitless
Trí lực siêu phàm Now you see me
Phi vụ thế kỷ
RED CIA tái xuất
Premium Rush
Tốc độc kinh hoàng
Table 3.7. Translations of action movie titles only meet translator‟s standard The Vietnamese titles are not word-for-word translations of the original titles.
Instead, they are reentitled or added a few words of explanation based on each movie‟s content. For example, “The Avengers”, which is also the name of a team with many superheroes, was modified in Vietnamese as “Biệt đội siêu anh hùng”
(Superhero Squad). Similarly, “The Prince”, which is the codename of an assassin in the movie, is reentitled in Vietnamese as “Mật danh” (Codename). In Vietnamese, the word “mật danh”, which means a name used for a person or thing in order to keep the real name secret, might provoke a sense of action and curiosity. Despite bearing from little to no resemblance to the original titles, all of these translations were successful in conveying movie genre and faithful to the content of each movie.
There are 9 translations failing to meet any criteria in the TQA framework.
These translations did not bear any resemblance to the meaning to the original title.
Neither do they precisely reflect the movies‟ contents. They are listed in the table below:
Source Text Target Text
2 guns
Điệp vụ 2 mang Stolen
Cướp siêu hạng Oblivion
Bí mật trái đất diệt vong
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The Wolverine Người sói
I Am Number 4 Số 4
The Darkest Hour Giờ đen tối
Underworld Awakening Thế giới ngầm trỗi dậy Prisoners
Lần theo dấu vết Abduction
Truy kích
Table 3.8. Translations of action movie titles failed to meet the TQA framework Some titles appear to be misunderstood by translators, which leads them to be mistranslated. For example, “Wolverine” seems to be mistaken for a type of wolf, entailing the title being translated as “Người sói” (Wolfman). In fact, Wolverine is long-lived mutant with the rage of a beast and the soul of a Samurai, James "Logan"
Howlett's past is filled with blood, war, and betrayal. Possessing an accelerated healing factor, enhanced senses, and bone claws in his hands that, along with his skeleton, are coated in adamantium, Wolverine is the ultimate weapon. This character was inspired by real wolverines, which are “a heavily built sort legged carnivorous with a long brown coat and a bushy tail, native to northern tundra and forests in Eurasia and North America. In Vietnamese it should have been translated into “Người chồn” not, “Người sói” (Man-Wolf, who is another character of Marvel). Similarly, “Stolen” is an action movie featuring a thief and his finding a way to rescue his daughter by stealing FBI credentials to find the current address of the kidnapper and also by stealing the bank gold within 12 hours. First of all, the word “steal” is defined by Oxford dictionary as “taking something without the permission or knowledge of the owner and keep it”. Meanwhile, “Cướp” (verb) in Vietnamese is an equivalent to “Rob” (the action of taking money by using violence) in English. Thence, due to mistaking between “steal” and “rob”, the translator changes the meaning of the title. In addition, the title “Cướp siêu hạng”
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appears to focus on a grand robber and this is by no way related to the movie‟s content nor the movie‟s main character.
Besides, there are also a few cases in which the translators wanted to turn allusive titles into descriptive ones by re-naming movies based on their content.
However, it might be due to lack of thorough researches; the new titles, despite sounding ear-catching, did not accurately reflect movies‟ content. For example, the content of “Oblivion” is that one of the few remaining drone repairmen assigned to Earth, its surface devastated after decades of war with the alien Scavs, discovers a crashed spacecraft with contents that bring into question everything he believed about the war, and may even put the fate of mankind in his hands. Meanwhile, in Vietnamese the title is translated as “Bí mật trái đất diệt vong” (The secret of the annihilated Earth).