DVD Chinglish ......

‘Genuine’ DVDs can be found everywhere in China, often tucked into the back of handbag stores (now why would the store owners be wanting to hide their ‘genuine’ DVD section?!). Some of the DVDs have blurbs in English, some in Korean and some in Chinese. But, my favourite ones are the ones with Chinglish blurbs. These are often very direct, honest and poorly translated descriptions of the movie. Often, the blurb is not a simple translation of the original one but most likely a Googled review and normally not a very good review.

For example, a description of ‘Jane Eyre’…..

’A dark an stormy production of Charlottle Bronte’s gothic novel, with Welles making arguably the best Rochester ever. Is there an item you’d recommend instead of or in addition to this one Let the world know! Enter the item’s ASIN (what’s an ASIN?) in the box below, select advice type, then click Submit. Don’t bother unless you can’t find the version with Timothy Dalton I watched that version first Then this one. This one ws so poorly done in comparison that I got up and mopped the kitchen floor while ith played and fast forwarded through the non-talking scenes While the acting was good enough the script leaves too much unsaid. It is difficult to see why the two main characters would bother falling in love with each other. The plot just wasn’t developed enough to warrant it. So many key parts of the story are missing I highly recommend the version with Timothy Dalton and Zetah Clarke, if you can find it.’

Then there is the subtitle issue. A TV show I watched recently (The IT Crowd – fantastic British comedy) has quite unusual subtitles appearing – a mixture of English and Chinese. One subtitle will appear in Chinese, the next in English and so forth. So, if you were only able to speak (and read) Chinese, you would only catch half the storyline.

The dubbing also provides ongoing amusement as well. Sometimes, the DVD cover will be in well written English, the subtitles will correct but the entire movie is in Chinese. So far, I have had the pleasure of watching ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Walk the Line’ in Chinese – I can’t say that I would recommend watching Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman sing romantic songs in Mandarin.

Despite my amusements, I can’t complain. Never before have I watched or owned so many DVDs. In fact, before I moved to China, I didn’t own a single DVD. Now, with the very cheap prices for ‘genuine’ DVDs, I own well over 100. I may possibly need all these DVDs when I live on a ranch in the Rocky Mountains with nothing to do during the night times!