Name: 21 Strangest Movie Translations in Japanese
Uploaded: 2020-03-24T11:25:03.000Z
Duration: 9 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I went to the cinema where I found myself sitting through numerous trailers for upcoming movies

And there was one trailer that really caught my eye. It was for a film with Chris Hemsworth

Now to you and most audiences around the world you know this movie as 'Thor Ragnarok'

The latest movie in the seemingly never ending Marvel Cinematic Universe

But here in Japan it goes under a completely different name and one that is far more eye-catching

In my opinion because over here Thor Ragnarok is actually called Mighty Thor: Battle Royale

Now everybody knows the words 'Battle Royale' makes everything better and when I saw it

I was really excited at the time because I thought it was some kind of Japan exclusive

But unfortunately it turned out it was just Thor Ragnarok

With a different name it got me thinking what other Western films have been rebranded for Japanese audiences?

And it turns out there are some spectacular examples

So today, I wanted to share with you 21 film titles they've been translated for Japanese audiences often with questionable results

I mean looking at these film titles it can often feel like viewing them through an alternate universe or something

Take for example, the 2003 movie 'Anger Management' with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson

'Anger Management' had a much more positive spin on it when it was released in Japan

Avoiding the word 'anger' altogether and instead calling it 'New York Style Happy Therapy'

'New York Style Happy Therapy', I don't know about you, but happy therapy to me, sounds like some sort of sinister dystopian

education program and that image of Jack Nicholson doesn't do any favours

The movie 'Being John Malkovich' doesn't come off, too well

'Being John Malkovich' is a film title that could have probably been translated into Japanese quite easily

And yet instead it was simply retitled as

'Malkovich's Hole', I'm not... I'm not too sure what hole is before being referred to there

But it certainly conjures up some different imagery to the Western title doesn't it?

The Fast & Furious franchise in which Vin Diesel

drives a car that has been completely rebranded over here the 'Fast Five' for example is known in Japan as

it sounds like a brand of condoms as opposed to a billion-dollar franchise

including the sequels 'Fast and Furious 7' known in Japan as

Still say what you will about 'Wild Speed Megamax' at least they put some degree of effort into

rebranding the franchise unlike 'American Pie: The Reunion', which they rebranded over here as

I'm not even joking that's genuinely the title and yet somehow

I suspect more time went into rebranding that title than was spent writing the script of the actual movie itself

Another franchise which was branded to questionable effects was the 'Final Destination' franchise

Now in the movie 'Final Destination 3' a lot of people die when a roller coaster

falls off the tracks and the Japanese title of the movie kind of

spoils that surprise somewhat because 'Final Destination 3' over here is known as

'Final Dead Coaster'. Roller coaster, dead coaster

It seems like someone was trying to think up a clever pun

The title for 'Final Destination 5 'continues this spoileriffic trend

In 'Final Destination 5' lots of people die when a bridge collapses

And with that piece of information in mind, let's see if you can guess the title of 'Final Destination 5' in Japan

Congratulations. You got it right 'Final Deadbridge'

And yet somehow, It's still not the worst spoilers

you'll find in a Western title that's been adapted for Japan

That award goes to one of my favorite James Bond movies 'You Only Live Twice'

which in Japan is simply called '007 DiesTwice'

Yeah, it's not it's not quite as romantic and mysterious as the original title is it?

Here's another few movies where the adapted titles give away

a little bit too much information in order to reel in potential audience

has a bit more of a blunt rendition in Japan where UP is called:

That's said, at least by reading the title you know kind of what it's about

Unlike the next title which wins the award for worst translated movie ever.

now you might think 'The Karate Kid' is a title that would work well in Japan right?

Especially given that the word Karate is a Japanese word and yet NO.

In Japan, 'The Karate Kid' is called 'Best Kid'

The one title that didn't need to be translated or adapted, and they still did it.

Here's a few other titles that probably didn't need it either.

'The Shawshank Redemption', one of the best titles of the '90s is:

and if only Andy Dufresne had been able to ascend into the Shawshank sky...

would have been a far more pleasant means of escape than crawling through that sewage pipe.

Now fair enough, Green destiny does have some relevance. It's the name of the sacred sword in the movie.

And yet it still lacks some of the poetic punch of the English title.

To me, 'Green Destiny' seems less like a martial arts movie and more like a documentary about vegans

but the most unpleasant sounding film adaption has to go to 'Nine Lives'

A movie in which Christopher Walken turns Kevin Spacey into a cat called Mr. Fuzzypants

and I'm genuinely not making up that synopsis, but the Japanese title is quite literally called 'Men in Cat'

I'm not even going to go there to be honest.

Still in my opinion some of the titles that they've adapted do actually sound better

For example, 'The Evil Dead'. Sam Raimi's 1981 classic is:

Which sounds more like life advice than a movie title

'Olympus Has Fallen' in which Gerard Butler saves president Harvey Dent is:

and 'Tooth Fairy', a movie in which the Rock becomes uhh...

becomes a tooth fairy... is there anything he won't do?

It has a much more violent edge in the Japanese version where it's called:

But I've saved my two favorite ones until last.

the third movie in the 'Evil Dead' franchise in which the protagonist, Ash Williams,

ends up in medieval times taking on well, an army of Darkness

But for whatever reason the artwork and the title seemed too dark for Japanese audiences, and it was retitled as...

Taking a violent antihero and making him sound like someone who volunteers at Walmart

But shockingly shit title aside, actually quite like the artwork on this one. The retro kind of artwork

Especially how they managed to fit Bruce Campbell's name, the name of the actor, onto the Campbell's Soup tin at the bottom there.

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21 Strangest Movie Translations in Japanese

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