The Null Device blog: The Backstroke of the West

A look at English subtitles on a Chinese pirate version of Revenge of the Sith. Curiously enough, the subtitles seem to have been translated from the Chinese translation by someone with All-Your-Base-level English-language proficiency, who somehow didn't think of checking them against the spoken dialogue. Which is how we end up with "Revenge of the Sith" becoming "Backstroke of the West", a fighter pilot saying "He is in my behind", characters using the word "fuck" randomly, and, best of all, "Jedi Council" translating as "Presbyterian Church".

There are 3 comments on "The Backstroke of the West":

Posted by: Peter
http://www.frogworth.com/blog/
Thu Aug 11 00:43:12 2005

Er. It could be... conceivable... that with some of these things (especially, perhaps, this one), they're actually made up by someone? Like, as a joke?

Posted by: kvaternion
http://kvaternion.psychosium.dk
Thu Aug 11 07:27:07 2005

and by concievable he means indubitably

Posted by: amby
http://
Sat Aug 13 20:12:27 2005

You think so? Surely you guys must have seen this <a href=http://www.angelfire.com/rings/ttt-subtitles/> masterpiece of translation.</a>

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