Chinese Star Yang Di Watched Oppenheimer At A Malaysian Cinema, Says The Mandarin Subtitles Were Full Of Mistakes

We all know how important subtitles are when you are watching a movie that’s in a language you don’t understand.

Chinese actor-host Yang Di, 37, was recently on an episode of Chinese infotainment show Informal Talks when he brought up an interesting observation about movie subtitles in Malaysia.

According to Yang Di, who caught biographical thriller Oppenheimer in a cinema during a visit to Malaysia, the show’s Mandarin subtitles were “not bad”.

Not perfect, but not bad.

He then explained that the subtitles neglected to take into context the meaning of “doctor” in the show, which in this case, meant professors who held doctorates.

“In English, doctor also means professor. However, in Malaysia, the subtitles were simply translated as ‘Doctor (医生) Lee is here’ instead of ‘Professor (博士) Lee is here’,” he said.

In Mandarin, it makes a difference when addressing someone as ‘Doctor’ (医生) or ‘Professor’ (博士).

Yang Di admitted to being “slightly confused” when watching the film.

He asserted that the show’s subtitles were done by a software, and said that he found the method “strange”.

“Sometimes, being too good at English is a mistake,” he joked.

Other than the doctor-professor mix-up, Yang Di was also confused by another scene which involved a key.

In English, a ‘key’ can refer to a physical item, or a crucial point. Similar to the previous example, they are represented by two completely different words in Mandarin, depending on context.

Oppenheimer was seen throwing out a key in a scene, but instead of translating it into ‘key’ as in ‘lock and key’ in Mandarin, it was subtitled as the ‘key’ point of something.

Yang Di then added that he was able to spot the mistakes with the subtitles despite his poor command of English. He rewatched the movie upon his return to China.

“Perhaps [Malaysians] weren’t expecting someone from China to be watching the film there!” he reasoned.

Yang Di’s recount has since raised chatter online amongst Malaysian netizens, with many saying they don’t read the subtitles when watching movies at the cinema. As such, they’ve never realised the issue.

“We don’t read the Mandarin subtitles. Isn’t it enough to just listen to the English dialogue?” questioned one Malaysian netizen, while another said: “We generally don’t read the subtitles at all.”

Photos: Rojaklah