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Monday 28 April 2014

Movie Subtitles

So the other day Ben (you remember Ben... my partner back at Fly fm, he used to be round like Doraemon but nowadays he is sporting a new buffed up Hulk Hogan look) called me up out of the blue and invited me for a movie.
Ben often does this when his wife is not available to teman him for dinner or a movie or both, and in this case, as I guessed, Stella was off to Langkawi and Ben wanted to watch a movie and have Japanese for dinner. Surprise surprise. But Ben is so lovable, you instantly forgive him.

Anyways, we decided to watch Oculus, the much talked about horror movie of the moment. Before agreeing to go, Ben asked me over the phone "Before you say yes or no, I want to watch a horror movie. You are okay with horror movies right?"
YES I LOVE HORROR MOVIES. The scarier the better. Last Raya, I dragged my cousins to MBO Citta Mall for a midnight screening of The Conjuring. They never forgave me. 
Even my Aunt who had earlier supported my cause, was upset with me afterwards. But everything is fine and dandy now, and she has given me two of her most loved designer handbags. So yeah, we are good. 
Anywaysssss... so Ben and I headed out for Oculus. I did not find the movie very scary, but nevertheless good. I see it is more of a psychological thriller than a horror movie. Ignore the bad reviews, it is decently rated on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. 
But the real story I am here to tell is the subtitles that accompanied the movie. Sometimes when watching movies at cinemas, I wish just like Astro, I am able to switch off the subtitles.
At one point, one of the characters said "You should talk to your fiance"
And the subtitles translated the sentence as "Awak patut periksa kewangan awak." Ben and I could not help but stifle our giggles.
Later on another character yelled out "Horse shit!" And yes, you guessed it, the subtitles read "Tahi kuda!"
I truly wonder who these subtitlists are. Are they simply given the job so we would have a translation, without any quality control whatsoever? 
What ever it may be, go watch Oculus, you may or may not enjoy it, but at least you can make up your own conclusion as opposed to telling people "Mak Jah sebelah rumah cakap cerita tu merepek." 
Here's the trailer, taken from my BFF, Youtube.
Ps : Look out for James Lafferty, from the used to be famous One Tree Hill. He has grown up to become a very bad actor. Sorry, I had to warn you. 


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