A Study Of Subtitles Translation On The View Of Aesthetics In Scenario Translation

In recent decades, with the development of science and technology, film hasbecome a main form of cultural communication due to the proliferation of affordabletechnology for making films. Film is not only the carrier of culture, but also itsproduct. In China, with the deepening of reform and opening-up, every year a lot offoreign films rush into Chinese market. Influenced by foreign filmic culture, Chinesefilms develop quickly and become influential in international film market. Filmsubtitle translation, as a new-emerging and special translation form, serves as thebridge in film communication. So it is important to further explore subtitle and itstranslation."Film and TV works are special literary genre, so aesthetics in scenariotranslation follows the rules of ordinary literary translation on one hand and realizesits special characteristics on the other hand." In Chapter VI of Scenario Translation&Dubbing (2005), Prof. Ma Zhengqi describes the aesthetic rules for ordinarytranslation and literary translation, and then highlights the aesthetic rules for scripttranslation. Scenario Translation&Dubbing introduces some basic skills for scripttranslation on the following five aspects, including "spoken dialogue principle":translation of dialogue should follow everydays’ speaking habits and be easy to bespoken and understood;"sound-picture counterpoint principle": script translation is alittle like a two-man act, which means to match sound to character’s mouth shape, soas to let audiences believe the sound is spoken out by the characters themselves;"principle of suiting both refined and popular tastes": in fact, this is a principle toprovide service to and be responsible for audiences;"character personality principle":accurate understanding of people’s characteristics is a key point to realize vivid andlifelike translated work;"emotional principle": translator shall do his best to "get incharacters", to learn the character’s deep heart and to understand the exact meaning ofcharacter’s words, so as to express the real feelings and emotions of the character inthe translated work. These principles will be introduced below in detail in the paragraph of script analysis.The thesis adopts the English subtitle of the film Red Cliff which was directed byHong Kong famous film director Wu Yusen as a case studies. Adapted from thehistory in Three Kingdoms Period, the film transmits Chinese history and itstraditional culture. Excellent subtitle translation promotes the recognition of Chinesefilms in the international market. In order to make the target audience have a goodunderstanding of a foreign film, the subtitler must take the aesthetic rules and methodsinto consideration. With the help of these methods, Chinese film will get furtherdevelopment and more and more Chinese films which have excellent subtitletranslation can enter international market. When seeing these films, foreign audiencewill not concentrate much on comprehending the subtitles. Instead, they can focus onenjoying the film itself. This will facilitate the spread of Chinese culture abroad.