Translation tools in multilingual Korean films: changing ideas of translation

ABSTRACT

This article examines Bong Joon-ho's, Snowpiercer and Park Chan-wook's, Decision to Leave with a view to identifying how different languages are used for characterization and a narrative, and the extent to which the meanings encoded in the interplay of different languages in the film are delivered to the audiences relying exclusively on English subtitles. We focus on the role played by these different languages and a translation device (e.g. translation machines) appearing in films. We argue that both translation devices and different languages used are carefully designed and devised by the directors not only to contribute to audiences’ meaning-making processes and to enhance affective engagement with the film but also to challenge linguistic hierarchies. Translation machines are even used to defamiliarize languages used by characters and to maximize audiences’ experiences. Yet, these are not necessarily considered during translation, which may deprive audiences relying on subtitles of affective experiences. This study ultimately argues that the differing approaches to representing translation demonstrate different public understandings of translation.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilingualism
• Korean films
• characterization
• translation devices
• technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Lee (2014) and McPhail (2018) provide an in-depth discussion of the relation between English language skills and language anxiety and the use of English in Korean media.

2 Others interpret this as an attempt to subvert English supremacy, in the way Jung (2017) argues that

the mistranslation is a clever subversion of the supremacy of English. The subtitle is a command to learn English — something that every Korean student has heard throughout his/her life — but to actually understand what K is saying, you would have to know Korean.

The use of untranslated Korean in Bong's films also echoes Venuti's argument that ‘[f]oreignizing translation in English can be a form of resistance against ethnocentrism and racism, cultural narcissism and imperialism in the interests of democratic geopolitical relations’ (Venuti, 2008, p. 16).There are other translation-specific lines in the film, such as ‘never mistranslate’ and ‘translations are sacred’. Jung appraises it as Bong ‘play[ing] with the idea of translation, both its necessities and inherent limitations, and the inevitable comedy that arises out of that space’ (Jung, 2017).

3 Worldwide gross figure: $86,758,912 (Box Office Mojo, 2020).

4 The US gross Figures based on Box Office Mojo (https://www.boxofficemojo.com/, accessed 27 May 2020).

5 Regarding this point, Bong said ‘[i]t's a stretch to simplify The Host as an anti-American film, but it certainly contains a metaphor and political commentary about the US’ (Thakur, 2020).

6 Its co-founder, Harvey Weinstein, was found guilty of two accounts in a sexual assault and rape trial in 2020.

7 The translation is ours. The Korean source reads: ‘paeudŭrŭn chagugŏrŭl hal ttae kajang maeryŏk itta. kaeinjŏgŭro kajang sirhŏhanŭn yŏnghwaga <keisyaŭi ch'uŏk>ida. changtchŭina kongni kat'ŭn chungguk yŏbaeudŭri ilbon keisya k'aerikt'ŏro k'aesŭt'ingdwae taesanŭn yŏngŏro handa. kŭrŏmyŏnsŏ kakkŭmssik punwigi naeryŏgo ‘sayonara’rago marhanda. utkyŏsŏ malmuni makhyŏtta. sŏyang kwan'gaegŭi sisŏnŭro pwassŭl ttae sanggwanŏptanŭn kŏda. kat'ŭn tongyangimyŏn hanaro mungttunggŭrijanŭn kŏda. kŭrŏn nŭkkimi toege sirhŏtta. […] ŏch'ap'i SF yŏnghwago illyuŭi saengjonjaga kich'ae t'a innŭn kŏnde, noaŭi pangjuch'ŏrŏm tayanghan kukchŏgŭi saengjonjaga t'anŭn ke matchi anna?’

8 A classic, egregious example is in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), where a Japanese character is mocked for not pronouncing the difference between /r/ and /l/.

9 A similar filmic device using characters’ names for a particular purpose is also identified in Okja. Bong explains in various interviews (Jang, 2017; Kim, 2017a, 2017b; Wise, 2017) that it was his decision to give the character such a specific name (i.e. Mija and Okja) due to his personal preference for mixing ‘ill-assorted’ elements and for challenging audience's expectations by having such an old-fashioned Korean name as a film title to be played by some non-Koreans. He also wanted to give the super pig character a specific name so that it can be more clearly shown that Okja is regarded as Mija's family member, not just an animal, because generally names are not given to livestock.

10 For example, https://fyeahsnowpiercer.tumblr.com/post/110794080566/okay-so-the-scene-when-nam-is-first-freed-in-the (last accessed 25 Feb 2023).

11 This can be substantiated using collocation corpora and semantic prosody analysis but this discussion is beyond the aim and scope of the current article, thus will not be pursued here.

12 The version of the subtitle provided here is an official translation, which is also evidenced in the translator of this film Darcy Paquet’s (2022) reflection on his own translation.

13 Supervicon ST_Movie (2022, July 23) k'anyŏnghwaje kamdoksang pakch'anuk kamdogŭi sinjak 'heŏjil kyŏlssim' kwan'gaekkwaŭi taehwa haesŏk [An interpretation of communication with audiences of Decision to Leave, a new film by director Park Chan-wook who won the best director award at Cannes] [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmY8bG9r2SQ (last accessed 11 March 2024).

14 This also highlights the need for localization, appreciating the different types of English (British, American, Canadian, Australian, and so on).

15 https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-01-06/golden-globes-parasite-foreign-film-oscars (last accessed 27 November 2023).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyung Hye Kim

Kyung Hye Kim is an Assistant Professor in the department of English Interpretation and Translation, Dongguk University, South Korea. Her academic interests lie in corpus-based translation studies, critical discourse analysis, and multilingualism in media translation. Her publications include ‘Museum Translation as a political act: narrative engagement for affective experiences in the War and Women's Human Rights Museum in Seoul’ (Museum Management and Curatorship 2020).

Jinsil Choi

Jinsil Choi is an Assistant Professor in Tabula Rasa College, Keimyung University, South Korea. Her academic interests include media translation, corpus-based translation studies, and pre-modern Korea in translation. She is the author of Government translation in South Korea: A corpus-based study (2022).

Jonathan Evans

Jonathan Evans is a Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is the author of The Many Voices of Lydia Davis (2016) and coeditor of The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics (2018). He is deputy editor of The Journal of Specialised Translation.