Chinese to English subbers please note that in English these actions result in death. It is confusing for us English-speaking viewers to see a character who we are told has been assassinated, murdered or drowned come back into the story. If these actions/activities are not successful or final, it is an “attempted assassination” or an “attempted murder” or a “near-drowning”.
This is a small issue, but it does interfere with understanding the story and it can be upsetting when a favourite character has apparently been “murdered” or “assassinated” when it was only an attempt on their life.
I assume you mean this for characters who immediately show up after and not the characters who are believed to be dead, only to show up later as a plot-twist, right?
Yes, that’s what I mean - not a plot twist. It’s a simple translation issue, which can cause major misunderstandings but yet can be easily fixed. I’ll try and get some examples, but it is very common.in Chinese historical drama subs - haven’t noticed it in Korean series. A character might say, for example, that the emperor was assassinated last night when it was just an unsuccessful attempt at assassination and the emperor is still alive. It can change the whole meaning and flow of the story.
Committing suicide is another example of the same thing. In English, if someone commits suicide they are no longer alive, otherwise it’s just an attempt.
I hope these are just series that came with pre-subs from Viki, not series that have been edited by volunteers or were still in the process of being edited .
You can send your suggestions and notes to the cm of the show that you see this or any other detail you feel should be different. We are always open to members’ messages and polite suggestions.
Thanks, will do. I’ll also try and find some examples, with the original Chinese that is being translated. Perhaps it is a context thing and the subbers don’t always have the context for what they are translating.
That’s why editors are important, I have many times before come back to some episodes to change some words, because of the next episodes that I saw.
If a subber makes that mistake, it can be forgiven, but it’s worse, if the series is being edited by someone.
Haha, I know, not only at Viki, whenever I read that someone committed suicide, and he/she still walks around. I am like, oops, what happened?
Excluded are of course some fantasy stuff, where some people really do come back to life.
Slightly unrelated but not very…
In Korean, the expression sallyo juseo can mean either “spare me” or “save me”.
It’s very confusing, because the subbers always get it wrong!
The first time I happened to see this was in W Two worlds. The male lead was on a terrace, the bad guy came to him and was trying to throw him down in the void. Okay? So the male lead was crying “Save me, save me!”
And I was like… “Why is he asking the assassin to save him, when he obviously wants him dead?”
The second, third time I encountered this, I asked a Korean person, and she confirmed what I had started to suspect, about the dual meaning of the verb.
.