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The adaptation of foreign film titles for Russian distribution is a process that sometimes defies logic. Even in situations where there is no hard-to-translate pun or other linguistic subtleties, domestic localizers sometimes give out such gems that you wonder.
Such titles sometimes completely kill a picture, scaring off viewers who are waiting to see some kind of trash based on an inadequate title. Of these localizations, you can make the top 20 or even the top 50, but we will traditionally limit ourselves to the top ten and try to squeeze in the most interesting.
10 The Shawshank Redemption | 1994
Let’s start with the classics in every sense of the word: the classics of cinema and the classics of the “creativity” of our localizers. The original title of the film is The Shawshank Redemption, which can be translated as “salvation”, “redemption” or “liberation”. Yes, the word “escape” is even more appropriate in meaning, but it will spoil the whole plot!
In the picture, until the very end, there are only slight hints that Dufresne is preparing an escape, so without knowing the name, you can suspect anything, but for some reason the domestic viewer was deprived of such luxury.
9. My boyfriend is crazy | 2012
What movie do you imagine when you see this title? Even if you have already watched it – abstract yourself and imagine what could be called “My boyfriend is a psycho.” With 99.9% certainty, it can be argued that a teen comedy for girls that you watched and forgot will come to your mind.
In fact, the film Silver Linings Playbook (a collection of rays of hope) is a tragicomedy with a deep meaning, for which Jennifer Lawrence received an Oscar. The target audience of the film simply did not go to see it, and those who went just because of the title felt deceived.
8. Telekinesis | 2013
An ignorant person can argue: the main character really has the most powerful telekinesis, so this name reflects the essence better than the original “Carrie”.
Yes, that’s right, but there is one thing: the film is based on Stephen King’s book “Carrie” and is already the third film adaptation. This means that “Carrie” already has an impressive fan base, among which there are both those who read the book and watched the picture of Brian De Palma or David Carson, but “Telekinesis” is an empty phrase.
7. Home | 2010
Start of what? Have you ever asked this question? Apparently, the distributors in Russia also did not bother, “Slapping” on the poster the first thoughtful word that came to their mind.
The original word for “inception” translates to “introduction,” which fits perfectly with the theme of the film, which is about injecting ideas into someone else’s brain.
It can be seen that Christopher Nolan himself did not think much about the name and made everything simple, but elegant. Why do we like to complicate things so much?
6. Cross the line | 2005
An excellent biopic with Joaquin Phoenix about the life of musician Johnny Cash is an example of how our localizers are able to select antonyms.
The original title of the picture is Walk the Line, referring to one of the artist’s songs. It can be translated as “to walk along the line, along the edge”, which is what the film was made about. In it, the main character walks along the edge, constantly at the risk of breaking loose, but the love and support of June Carter do not allow him to cross that very line, and only here, in Russia, Johnny Cash still crosses it.
5. Game without rules | 2010
And again antonyms, this time even more meaningless and merciless. Have you heard the football expression Fair Play, which means fair play? Then you can easily translate the phrase Fair Game, which means essentially the same thing.
Even if you try hard, it’s still hard to even imagine how and why “Game by the rules” turned into “Game without rules”.
4. World War Z | 2013
And here the logic is quite clear: you can clearly see how the “brilliant” marketers worked, who decided to “hype” on the loud title of the work of HG Wells.
In the original, the film is called World War Z, that is, World War Z, which, as it were, is not the same as the War of the Worlds.
Just think: in the film there is not a single even the most seedy alien or rusty spaceship, but at the same time there is a war of the worlds. Marketing lvl 80, what can I say.
3. Monsters on vacation | 2012
Even a person who has never studied English will surely be able to understand that Hotel Transylvania is not monsters on some kind of vacation. It’s just “Hotel Transylvania” which refers to the homeland of all vampires, but the name seems to be too boring.
What do kids love? That’s right, holidays. Who lives in Transylvania? Vampires, werewolves, monsters. We add up and get an acceptable result, which people will definitely go for. That rare case when the obvious stupidity in the adaptation did not spoil the box office of the project.
2. Friendship and no sex? | 2013
Ask yourself, would you go to the cinema to see such a movie? Would you invite your girlfriend, or even your spouse, to the session? Hardly. The name clearly defined the tape in the category of youth or even teens, although in fact it is not.
Yes, this is a story about young people (starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan and Adam Driver), but there is no vulgarity, an abundance of below-the-belt jokes and drunken student parties that end with the arrival of the police.
The foreign press dubbed the picture as “prohibitively sweet”, in which there is more romance than comedy. Sex, as such, is almost non-existent.
The original name sounds What If, but it can be translated as “What if?” or “What (would) be if?” Russian adaptation and Russian adaptation and no logic.
1. Military diver | 2000
The biographical drama about the first American black graduate of the naval school, who became a diver, came out under the proud title of Men of Honor, that is, “People of Honor”.
The US Navy, officers, huge ships, harsh army life – all this goes well with the name, direct associations arise. And what associations does the word “diver” evoke in you? Not a diver, but a diver?
Why not go further and call a sniper a shooter, an athlete a runner, and a sapper a bomber? If you see something like this on the poster of your cinema, don’t be surprised.