Lost in Translation: Drama Titles That Steer You in the Wrong Direction

English is probably the worst language you could use to translate any Asian language into, because: 

[A] Its root differs from Asian languages. It stems from Germanic languages, while Asian languages fall into four major language groups: Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Dravidian and Altaic.

[B] There is significant cultural difference between native speakers of English and Asia, and lastly, 

[C] English is younger than most Asian languages.

[I] Incorrect Language Structure 

How Are You Bread has a lack of punctuation, which gives it a different meaning. In English the title would imply you are asking someone (person/s) how they turned themselves into a bread loaf. The correct title should be: 'How are you, Bread?' - this is personifying the bread and asking it how it is doing, which is acceptable in terms of artistic liberty.

[II] Literal Translation

Military Prosecutor Doberman – Apparently, Doberman is a moniker used by people as an inside joke to call Do Bae Man, the protagonist, who is a Military Prosecutor. I would have left it at 'Military Prosecutor Do-Bae-Man'. Too bad no one asked me.

Shut Up Flower Boy Band is another great example of a literal translation that makes no sense in the language it's translated to.  A 'flower boy' can be described as a man having a soft appearance, smooth skin, decent manners and wearing fashionable makeup and clothes (sic) (kkonminam in Korean). In English, it could be used to refer to a boy who sells flowers, thereby rendering the title nonsensical. Also, there should be a comma and a punctuation mark (!) in the title which could have possibly helped, if nothing else.

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas doesn't make sense in English unless the story is about cannibalism, which it isn't. The title is a metaphor used to express a wish to be closer to the female lead who suffers from a pancreatic illness.

Boys Over Flowers is a classic case of literal translation error. This cryptic title is because of a Japanese pun that doesn't translate well into just three words. More on this later.

The possibilities are endless, but I hope we can all agree that these titles as they currently stand make no sense whatsoever in English.

[III] Cultural Significance

The Japanese Umami – this is such a well known word that it's been added to English. 'Itadakimasu' literally translates as 'I humbly receive' and goes beyond a simple 'bon appétit' or 'enjoy your meal' (sic).

There are many words and gestures that get ignored, (during the translation and when we are busy reading them instead of watching the characters on screen) just because they have no English equivalent, nor would they have the same cultural impact in English-speaking countries. Anyway, cultural significance plays a role in poor translations, so I rest my case.

Why do we have to suffer these poor translations? Why can we not have a great title that fits our image of the drama? Why are we always left interpreting the title? So many why-s. 

Again, there could be multiple reasons but mostly this is because of one of the following:

1. Lack of Funds

Costs of hiring good translators are not considered in overall drama budget. Also, translation is rarely the main focus of the drama viewership, so the budget reflects this discriminatory behaviour! In most extreme cases, there is no translator so we get all sorts of drama titles. And subtitles? What's that? Granted things are changing with the coming of the Hallyu wave, but the change is slow.

2. Lack of Knowledge

^{Like Jon Snow, drama titles too cannot be unerring...}

3. Time Crunch

No time to think otherwise and same as above, translations are just not the main focus so how can the translators be given any time to prepare for a good translation? Time crunch is one of the most common reasons for poor translations and can be perceived as production crews' lack of knowledge by the viewers.

4. Ease of Marketing

Some manga, webtoons or novels (original source materials) are so famous that there is a ready-made audience that can easily identify the drama if you don't change the name, so why bother? This is compliant with the attitude 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.' The production house forgets that the newer audience for the drama is seeing the title for the first time. To them it makes no sense. This marketing decision is just propagating the mistake and publicising it to a wider world.

^{Different from Piggyback Marketing, Drama Baby here is a carry player.}

[A] Half-Baked Title

[B] Nonsense Title

Another reason is that the title made no sense to begin with and no one expected it to become an international hit as their target audience was local. This is true for a lot of the older dramas released in the aughts³, lower budget dramas, and sometimes just because they are 'born this way'.

Examples include Splash Splash Love, Adolescence Medley or Puberty Medley (there is no saving either version), The Inheritors or The Heirs, Waking Love Up & Forget You Remember Love.

[C] Loaner Title

The reason could also be that it isn't an English title per se as it is a local version of Korean-English (Konglish), Chinese-English (Chinglish) or Japanese-English (Wasei-eigo). To the language purists, this would be called pseudo-loanwords or pseudo-anglicisms, whereby these languages have adopted certain English words into their use.

Examples include Sararîman Kintarô, Orenji Mamalleideu (Based on a webtoon but the title is Konglish), Girl Gun Lady (or Garuganredi).

What is interesting is that these English words sometimes mean slightly different things in the language they are used, eg: Japanese kanningu (カンニング) does not mean "cunning" but "cheating" (on a test), and handorukīpā (ハンドルキーパー, "handle-keeper") means designated driver (sic).

[D] Bad Title

This is a case of all around bad choices. A bad title has no relevance to the storyline or does no justice to the actual drama it represents. This happens due to an active choice made by the 'powers that be' to change the original title, which was perfectly acceptable, into a trash title. And sometimes the original title may be a bad choice of words anyway.

This topic though is completely subjective to the viewer and I am sure will evoke differing opinions.

Examples include Eternal Love, Master Devil Do Not Kiss Me, The General's Lady (original emphasises the lady rather than the general), General & I, The Seventh Generation, Gank your Heart, and on and on.

We have already seen quite a few examples of drama titles suffering from translation losses. We will now categorize a few more titles based on the 'what' and the 'how' criteria. Additionally, we will ponder on the possible meanings of each translation. 

I am sure you have watched at least one if not more of the following dramas. So let's see if any of these titles has rubbed you the wrong way or your favourite drama has come under my microscope. 

a. The victims of Bad Grammar

b. The victims of Bad Punctuation

No translation nightmare can be discussed without the two popular Chinese drama titles based on the Eternal Love series of books. 

Eternal Love or 三生三世，十里桃花

The original translation would be 'three lives, three worlds: ten miles of peach blossoms'. Peaches are a sign of longevity and luck in Chinese culture. In Chinese literature, peach blossoms are regarded as a sign of spring and are often associated with love and marriage, because spring is traditionally regarded as a season of romance. 'Ten miles of peach blossoms' would then allude to an intense love entanglement_(source). What a beautiful thought!

So while I have no problem with the English version of the drama title, I do feel it robbed us of the romance that the original one evoked. This would almost be a [D] in my book.

Eternal Love of Dream or 三生三世，枕上书

The original translation would be 'three lives, three worlds: the book on the pillow/ pillow book' -  I don’t even know where to start with this. 

For English-speaking viewers, this title is a bit risqué. A pillow book in English refers to a book containing erotic images and texts, so I can understand why the producers might have thought it's necessary to change the drama title. Unfortunately, the one they chose also doesn't fare well with respect to making sense. 'Eternal Love of Dream' itself is grammatically incorrect, unless, of course, they mean to say someone is eternally in love with a dream. Actually, that'd still be incorrect since it would be 'Eternal Love for a Dream'. In my humble opinion, 'A Dream of Eternal Love' or 'Eternal Love in a Dream' would have been a better option. I am open to listening to your suggestions for the title as well.

Anyway, this is a case of [I], [II] and [A]. I shall also award it a [D] because I am generous like that!

Based on a Shoujo manga, Hana Yori Dango or Boys over Flowers is one of the most successful re-adaptations, and similar to the Eternal Series it suffers from a tragic drama title. Partly because it has become famous and everyone recognises the English name, and also because it means something completely different in Japanese, this erstwhile title has been renamed as Meteor Garden (Taiwanese Edition) and the most recent F4 Thailand with varied success. Let us objectively and subjectively understand this title.

'Boys over Flowers' is grammatically incorrect. In English, comparisons are made over like-minded objects/subjects. 'Boy' refers to a male child. Comparisons should be made with either a female child or child of any sentient species. A flower is the seed bearing part of a plant and therefore, not like-minded enough to be compared with a boy. (In case you don't understand what I meant earlier. Imagine the flower as the mother, so, you can't compare the 'mother' with a 'boy'. You can, however, compare the 'mother' with a 'father'.)

This is a classic case of literal translation error. The drama title '花より男子' is a Japanese pun. The word for boys & dumplings is interchanged in kanji and the Japanese phrase becomes 'dumplings over flowers', which means it's preferred to have dumplings which are of substance as opposed to something which is just pretty like flowers and only has face-value i.e. wanting a good/nice guy over a guy whose only saving grace is his looks_(source). 

This kind of tongue-in-cheek humour unfortunately falls through the cracks when it comes to literal translations. So we have a case of [I], [II], [A], and dare I say a little bit of [III] - loss of cultural significance as well?

Now, when it comes to choosing between the renamed Taiwanese or Thai version, I have a soft spot for Meteor Garden or 流星花園. The native title means 'flower garden' and, in my subjective opinion, retains the feeling of the original title without sounding completely idiotic. Do note this is my opinion and you may prefer F4 to it, which is perfectly fine as well.

The Japanese drama My Right Older Brother is actually 'My righteous older brother'. I am not sure why they edited out four letters during the marketing. This English version sounds licentious considering the 'brother' here is not really her brother but just bears an uncanny resemblance to him. You'd know what I mean if you saw the poster. I think it barely passes victimhood because it's generally known by its Japanese title 'Watashi no Tadashi Oniichan'.

Gloomy Salad Days, original Taiwanese title '死神少女' meaning 'The Grim Reaper Girl', sounds awkward but is surprisingly English. In the sense, the phrase 'Salad Days' is a Shakespearean idiomatic expression that means a youthful time, a period of carefree innocence, idealism and pleasure associated with youth _(source). Though the title lacks punctuation (Gloomy 'Salad Days'), it saves itself from the victimhood of poor translation.

The Inheritors or The Heirs in Korean is '왕관을 쓰려는 자, 그 무게를 견뎌라 – 상속자들' or 'Whoever wears the crown, bears the weight - Heirs'. I can't stand Oppa, but the original title sounds way better than the English version. 

^{MDL drama posters from clockwise: Love of Thousand Years, My heroic husband, Oh My General, General and I, The Seventh Generation}

It's weird how the link for Love of Thousand Years on MDL reflects a different name, but its original title is '九云辞' meaning 'The ballad of Jiu Yun', or the alternate title '三千鸦殺'  i.e 'The killing of three thousand crows'. I can understand why they didn't prefer the first option as it's a very common title but they could have gone for 三千鸦殺. The latter feels like a classic Chinese title and more culturally apt if I may say so.

The original novel title for My Heroic Husband is 赘婿 or 'Live-in son-in-law'. In English, it means 'House husband'. In the historical period which this drama is set in, being a house husband would have been a source of shame. I can understand how the English title is a form of sarcasm but I prefer the comedy of  the original.

Similar to the 'house husband' is Oh My General – originally 'The general above, I am below'. Looking at 'Eternal love of a Dream', I think we should all just be happy with this title, but if you think about the loss in significance as the drama is about a female general and her dandy-like husband. 'The general above me', though slightly risqué, would have probably been a better option. 

The novel 'A Lonesome Fragrance Waiting To Be Appreciated' became General and I. All that heartache wiped out by such a sundry title! Such a shame.

The new Chinese drama The Seventh Generation has a rather complicated problem. Based on a novel which has three alternate titles:

(a) '一时冲动, 七世吉祥' means 'On the spur of the moment, the seventh is auspicious' or  

(b)'一时冲动, 七世不祥' means 'On the spur of the moment, the seventh is ominous' or 

(c) the alternate English title 'Seven Unfortunate Lifetimes, All Thanks to a Single Moment of Impulse'

Never would I have thought that 'auspicious' and 'ominous' could be so easily interchangeable. Alas, all of these version sound better than the English title!

My reactions to poor translations have ranged from disappointment to laughter to finally resignation. While interpretation has become a hobby that I am forced to take up, it has become second nature to me to read between the lines. The day we get great translations for all languages seems too far away and a part of me wishes it never happens so I can keep reading funny titles, but meanwhile I hope you all ----------->