Have you ever looked up some of the titles movies in English are renamed when they’re screened overseas? For example, Thor: Ragnarok was advertised in Japan as Mighty Thor: Battle Royale, presumably both because of unfamiliarity with the word ragnarok and also to cash in on the popularity of Battle Royale, the highest-grossing Japanese-language film at the time of its release.
In the video above, Abroad in Japan summarizes some of the strangest and funniest Japanese translations of movie titles, and we have more selections below, courtesy of Bomb Arrow.
It seems to become especially complicated when a movie has sequels, such as Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, and Despicable Me 3, which audiences in Japan know as Phantom Thief Gru and the Moon Theft, Phantom Thief Gru and the Minion Crisis, and Phantom Thief Gru and the Minion Great Escape, respectively. But perhaps the best series of sequel titles goes to the Fast & Furious franchise, with titles like these:
- The Fast & The Furious in Japan is Wild Speed
- 2 Fast 2 Furious in Japan is Wild Speed X2
- The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift in Japan is Wild Speed X3: Tokyo Drift
- Fast & Furious in Japan is Wild Speed MAX
- Fast Five in Japan is Wild Speed Mega Max
- Fast & Furious 6 in Japan is Wild Speed Euro Mission
- Furious 7 in Japan is Wild Speed Sky Mission
- The Fate of the Furious in Japan is Wild Speed Ice Break
Bad Japanese Movie Title #83: "The Fast & The Furious" is "Wild Speed" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/t9TEWg3fqQ
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 4, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #84: "2 Fast 2 Furious" is "Wild Speed X2" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/XIRXXKKaeF
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 5, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #85: "The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift" is "Wild Speed X3: Tokyo Drift" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/C0UWh8ZtKz
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 6, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #86: "Fast & Furious" is "Wild Speed MAX" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/ASFEhSJrzy
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 7, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #87: "Fast Five" is "Wild Speed Mega Max" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/3L44UgEv56
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 8, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #88: "Fast & Furious 6" is "Wild Speed Euro Mission" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/gUa6ebuFaf
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 9, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #89: "Furious 7" is "Wild Speed Sky Mission" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/LiQGGyOQDT
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 10, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #90: "The Fate of the Furious" is "Wild Speed Ice Break" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/QslKCKr89U
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 11, 2017
Not all of the translated titles are as creative, though. Many of them took a very literal approach, telling you straight up who the protagonists are, from a first-person perspective:
Bad Japanese Movie Title #127: "Semi-Pro" is "We Are Dunk Shooters" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/Vwwad3fZbm
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) September 20, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #56: "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" is "We Are Super Magicians" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/e7J8LE8RDW
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) July 8, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #113: "Goon" is "We Are Brawling Skaters" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/5Maih8RrSk
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) September 6, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #13: "Blades of Glory" is "We Are Figure Skaters" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/jcRX0Zoo78
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) May 24, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #106: "Anchorman 2" is "We Are Newscasters: History's Lowest!? Viewership Battle in New York" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/usPCrPcdbt
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 27, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #57: "Who's Your Caddy" is "We Are Hip Hop Golfers" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/EsQgcPbQyH
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) July 9, 2017
Some of the titles may be an improvement on the original:
Bad Japanese Movie Title #55: "Banlieue/District 13 Ultimatum" is "Ultimate 2: Muscle Never Die" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/eyGdcEG2oJ
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) July 7, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #38: "Thor: Ragnarok" is "Thor: Battle Royale" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/G1VPvLOJUh
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) June 18, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #10: "A Knight's Tale" is "Rock You" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/3hvApOW7IS
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) May 21, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #111: "Up" is "Old Man Carl's Flying House" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/CNBiksLAsD
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) September 4, 2017
Some only left us with questions:
Bad Japanese Movie Title #126: "Me Before You" is "To The Person I Hate The Most In The World" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/sJxptBvZs4
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) September 19, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #29: "Click" is "If You Could Choose Yesterday" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/MhSM1pA8k8
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) June 9, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #144: "Thanks For Sharing" is "My Lover Is A Sex Addict" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/vjnmSE0IyX
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) January 15, 2018
Some of the titles took a circuitous route to get where they’re going:
Bad Japanese Movie Title #96: "Boyhood" is "Until The 6 Year Old Me Becomes An Adult" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/mY4Eonbfvj
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 17, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #139: "Trainwreck" is "Amy Amy Amy" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/zmyqK3KHYP
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) October 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/Bomb_Arrow/status/892943259139485696
Some titles may have simplified things a bit in translation:
Bad Japanese Movie Title #92: "The Karate Kid" is "Best Kid" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/kXrBW2soJy
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 13, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #28: "Hot Tub Time Machine" is "GO!!!! With Bath" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/brgrqPS77P
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) June 8, 2017
Some of them possess disturbing implications:
Bad Japanese Movie Title #81: "Being John Malkovich" is "Malkovich's Hole" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/Ek1BU0aWLo
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) August 2, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #118: "Nine Lives" is "Men In Cat" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/p7KkY9LI7q
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) September 11, 2017
And some of them get right to the point:
Bad Japanese Movie Title #45: "Vacation" is "Oh! Idiot Vacation Family" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/yrPGEhXsl8
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) June 27, 2017
Bad Japanese Movie Title #74: "Cyrus" is "My Important Person and Her Shitty Son" #japanesemovietitles pic.twitter.com/BjsmvMxfr1
— BombArrow (@Bomb_Arrow) July 26, 2017
(Via Abroad in Japan and Bomb Arrow)
