Chinese versions of Western film titles

cinnamonfern

So..."transforming - buddha's warrior attendants"? 《金刚》 is also "King Kong", right?

orangina

I notice that 金刚 also means "pupa of certain insects" so 变形金刚 sounds to me like Metamorphosis. I like it. Kafkaesque alien big-rigs.

bodawei

Thanks Connie - a good one this cause it has two bizarre versions in one! (I refer to the Chinese version of King Kong). From Wikipaedia:

金刚 is Vajrapāṇi (from Sanskrit vajra, "thunderbolt" or "diamond" and pāṇi, lit. "in the hand"), who is one of the earliest bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism. He is the protector and guide of the Buddha, and rose to symbolize the Buddha's power. Vajrapani was used extensively in Buddhist iconography as one of the three protective deities surrounding the Buddha. Each of them symbolizes one of the Buddha's virtues: Manjusri (the manifestation of all the Buddhas' wisdom), Avalokitesvara (the manifestation of all the Buddhas' compassion) and Vajrapani (the manifestation of all the Buddhas' power).

Seems it not such a bad version of Transformers after all.

bodawei

My post below spells it out a bit - the same word is used for King Kong. I guess we can see the link between Transformers and King Kong.

bodawei

Orangina, I like your new avatar. :)

orangina

thanks! It is a self-portrait I did about 10 years ago.

bodawei

I think you may have cracked the code. :)

And left me with an image of big trucks with tractor wheels.

bodawei

Oh, that is amazing, on at least two levels. I nearly (you may not believe this) said 'is that a self-portrait?', and then thought to myself 'that is even too reckless for you'. Did you study fine art?

orangina

hmmmm.... define "study"......

Not formally, or even consistently. But I am eccentric and I like looking at things and playing with paint, does that count?

bodawei

That's good enough for me. Particularly the way you started with 'I am eccentric..'. I like looking at things too and carry a camera. But playing with paint is something else.

bodawei

This was explained on another thread .. and I can't remember where it is now! (It's where I got Connie's quote.) But I think they said that 碟 is a reference to information held on computer disks 碟中谍 - 中 here probably has an 'among' meaning, and really the title just has a nice visual symmetry.

cinnamonfern

Ah - found it! http://chinesepod.com/lessons/river-town-tourism

It's in an Upper Intermediate Lesson, which is waaay beyond my level of understanding - and why I didn't see that discussion.

cinnamonfern

Is it because 上海外滩 is the full name of The Bund?

bodawei

That's the spirit - I have no idea. :)

Apparently 'monty' in English means 所期望的一切.. I never knew that.

I'm not helping.