Chinese Subtitling

The use of Cantonese in subtitling Recent years, using cantonese in subtitling or not have been debated by translators and studies. In this essay I will discuss the use of Cantonese subtitling in films is good or not, through the film: Ice Age 4 Continental Drift (2012). Ice Age 4 is a animation comedy about the the main characters (Manny, Diego, and Sid) begin another adventure after their continent is set adrift. Using an iceberg as a raft, they battle sea creatures and pirates as they explore the new world. Firstly, comedy films unlike any other genres of films, it emphasis is on humor. So, subtitle in comedy film not only used to help the audience understand the context, but also to use to make them laugh, if we use

For example, at 1:08:16 “Can’t you stop with the precious.” the standardized Chinese translation is “你不要再寶貝了。”. However, if we rewrite it into “ 婆婆你依個時候就唔好咁癲啦。” in Cantonese the comic effect could keep in the translation for the audience. Also, at 1:02:56 “It’s enough.” if the translator just directly translated it into “夠了。”, the tone of this translation is not funny at all, but we translated it into “你唔好癲啦。”, it would effectively convey the character’s original feeling and evoke Hong Kong audience greatest empathy. Besides, at 1:03:01 “Only without any of the joy.”, formal Chinese is translated into “只是一點都不有趣了。”, this translation is equivalent with the original text, but just not funny. However, if we use Cantonese translated into “佢都癲得幾勻巡。”, by using domestic words “勻巡” to create a context and funny atmosphere which Hong Kong audience are familiar with. As Hongkongers mainly use Cantonese in daily conversation, and Cantonese actually has a great different with standardized Cantonese, using Cantonese slang and idioms could make the translation much