Chapter One General Information about Movie
With the development of the international culture communication, more and more people pay close attention to the movie which is regarded to be an important part of culture media. As a window of language culture, films have been increasingly watched by people in the cinema or on television than ever before. Just as Bao Huinan has said the movie title is the brand of the movie. When we hear about an English movie for the first time, the version of Chinese is so significant. For the audience, it’s the translation that attracts them to decide to watch it for further information. Hence the translation of movie title is of great importance. In the following parts, I will introduce the general information about movie and its title.
1.1 Genre of Movie
According to He Ying, films are usually pided into three categories: documentary films, scientific and educational films as well as feature films (2001, p. 57). In this thesis I will concentrate on the title translation of feature films which can be classified into adventure films, fantasy films, comedy films and lyric films (He Ying, 2001, p. 57).
Firstly, adventure films refer to exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales. Action films, horror films, Westerns, and crime films are included. This kind of film usually has a title which can affect people’s emotion easily. Examples are The Da Vinci Code, The Silence of the Lambs, and Gone in 60 Seconds.
Secondly, most of fantasy films are scientific illusion. Titles of this type aim to attract audience and reveal new and strange things to the audience(He Ying, 2001, p. 57). There are lots of films belonging to this type, such as Star Wars, King Kong, Somewhere in Time, and Superman.
Thirdly, comedy films are those works that have a happy ending. Comedy films are designed to bring laughter for the audience. Titles of this type of film are abundant with humor. Films such as Meet the Parents, Night at the Museum, Home Alone and The Mask belong to this category. 从交际翻译理论看英语电影片名翻译(3):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_21770.html