Movie titles

Titles of some of Ghibli's movies are different than the originals ... I do not know Japanese, but the Polish titles sometimes differ from the titles in English...

or in other languages ​​too have noticed this? Examples:

English title:
"Only Yesterday"
"Porco Rosso"
"Oceans waves"
"Spirited away"
"The Cat returns"

Polish title:
"Powrót do marzeń"
"Szkarłatny pilot"
"Szum morza"
"Spirited away:w krainie bogów"
"Narzeczona dla kota"

polish translation of the title:
"Return to dreams"
"Scarlet's pilot"
"Sound of the sea"
"Spirited away:in the lands of the gods"
"Fiancee for cat"

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Interesting. The Norwegian releases are mostly pretty faithful to the original titles, though Spirited Away was changed to Chihiro og Heksene (Chihiro and the Witches) and Howl's Moving Castle became simply Det Levende Slottet (The Living/Moving Castle). For some the English translation of the titles were used, such as Porco Rosso and Whisper of the Heart.

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One thing that bugs me about titles: I don't know japanese, but I've understood that Sen to Chihiro no kamikakuchi means something like Sen's and Chihiro's magic transformation. So the european title Spirited away actually has very little to do with the japanese title. And O-Jay88, Howls moving castle is Liikkuva linna (The moving castle) in finnish as well

I, myself, do not speak japanese other than a few words, but I believe that the Japanese titles are usually quite different from the English title versions. I think that the titles reflect what the translators think will most appeal to that languages' users... (if that made any sense) lol

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quote:

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Originally posted by husky51
I, myself, do not speak japanese other than a few words, but I believe that the Japanese titles are usually quite different from the English title versions. I think that the titles reflect what the translators think will most appeal to that languages' users... (if that made any sense) lol

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Post last edited by Heidi80 on 08.22.2011, 10:02 AM.

hahaha, yes... living and being raised mostly in Southern California, I was immediately aware of that and my movie title reads, "Laputa, Castle in the Sky". True, it is a Japanese language, English sub, so that is probably the reason for that one.

I must have mims-understood some of the posters over the years, because I was of the impression that most of the Japanese titles were different from their English translations. I think 'Ocean Wave" was one of them...

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Originally posted by Heidi80
In the US, they couldn't put the word Laputa in the title, because there is a large spanish speaking population and in spanish la puta means whore or bitch. (Helen McCarthy: Hayao Miyazaki. Master of animation).

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I've always found that funny, though maybe they could have used the word Raputa instead . Of course, it was Jonathan Swift who first used the word laputa for his flying island, on which Miyazaki based his version, and he was fully aware of its negative meaning in Spanish. Miyazaki, on the other hand, did not discover its real meaning until after he had made the film.

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quote:

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Originally posted by husky51
I must have mims-understood some of the posters over the years, because I was of the impression that most of the Japanese titles were different from their English translations. I think 'Ocean Wave" was one of them...

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Here's what I understand the Japanese titles to mean...

風の谷のナウシカ - Kaze no Tani no Naushika - Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (exact match)
の城ラピュタ - Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa - Laputa Castle of the Sky (almost exact match)
火垂るの墓 - Hotaru no Haka - Grave of the Fireflies (exact match)
となりのトトロ - Tonari no Totoro - Neighbour Totoro (alternatively, 'next to Totoro')
魔女の宅急便 - Majo no Takkyubin - Witch's Delivery Service (a minor change, probably because people think of Macbeth before Kiki when they hear 'witch')
おもひでぽろぽろ - Omoide Poro Poro - I think this one is tricky to translate, but the sense I get of it is "Memories like teardrops". I'm not sure but I think Poro Poro is onomatopoeia for the sound of teardrops. So that's pretty different from "Only Yesterday", but I guess it still gets the idea of reminiscing across.
紅の豚 - Kurenai no buta - Crimson Pig. "Porco Rosso" is a direct translation into Italian, so I suppose it still counts as an exact match.
海がきこえる - Umi ga kikoeru - I can hear the sea. "Ocean Waves" isn't a direct translation but presumably, when you hear the sea, you actually hear the waves ^^
耳をすませば - Mimi wo Sumaseba - If you listen closely. (I'm not sure where they came up with "Whisper of the Heart"...).
もののけ姫 - Mononoke Hime - Princess Mononoke is an exact match... "Mononoke" isn't really easy to translate in a short space so I guess they left it in Japanese.
千と千尋の神隠し - Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi - Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro, or the Mysterious Disappearance of Sen and Chihiro. (Spirited Away is just a contraction of this, maybe because Sen 千 and Chihiro 千尋don't work as well in English. Without the kanji it's not apparent that Sen is just Chihiro with a character stolen). Kami 神 means 'divine' and kakushi 隠し means 'conceal' so I think "Spirited Away" does a good job of capturing both the direct meaning and the supernatural imagery of kamikakushi.
(猫の恩返し - Neko no Ongaeshi - The Cat's Repayment. (Ongaeshi means paying back a favour... but "return" also has that meaning, eg. to 'return a favour', or 'return on investment'. So The Cat Returns might be a clever play on words for The Cat's Return).
ハウルの動く城 - Hauru no Ugoku Shiro - Howl' Moving Castle, or Howl's Shifting Castle (exact match)
ゲド戦記 - Gedo Senki - Ged's war history. (But "Tales from Earthsea" is the original book's title on which it was based, right?)
崖の上のポニョ - Gake no Ue ni Ponyo - Ponyo on a Cliff. I think Disney shortened this title for their own stylistic reasons.

I left out Pom Poko, My Neighbours the Yamadas, and the new releases like Arietty because I haven't seen them yet and don't know much about them...

So I think most of the titles are very close translations of the original, with a few exceptions, which are usually for good reasons. Ocean Waves is probably the most puzzling one, since "I can hear the sea" is a better translation and, in my opinion, a more thought-provoking movie title. Whisper, too, but maybe they decided that "Whisper of the Heart" would appeal more to a mostly female target audience by making it sound like a love story.

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Post last edited by Mush on 08.24.2011, 02:51 PM.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mushka
ゲド戦記 - Gedo Senki - Ged's war history. (But "Tales from Earthsea" is the original book's title on which it was based, right?)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Mushka

魔女の宅急便 - Majo no Takkyubin - Witch's Delivery Service (a minor change, probably because people think of Macbeth before Kiki when they hear 'witch')

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I agree. Actually, I wonder how 'cute' the average Japanese person's impression of the word Majo (witch) would be. Because for me, 'witch' immediately conjures up "double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble". Which isn't very cute. But they probably have cuter witches in Japan.

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Doesn't look or sound very cute to me:

http://www.scaryforkids.com/snow-witch/

Great thread though!

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