Monkey King Hero Is Back (2015)

[Jomega Gibson]

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The paper aims to investigate how a Chinese heroic legend was reconfigured for Western viewers through the English-dubbed versions of a case-study film, Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015). The ultimate goal of the study is to shed new light on how dubbing practice may better cater to Western target audiences. Based on two macrolevel translation theories, three translation models, and the two microlevel translation strategies, this paper discusses the most commonly used film translation strategies for English dubbing in the case-study film and their implications for the effectiveness of translation. The findings suggest that driven by the target-audience orientation, English-dubbing strategies often use standard language constrained by linguistic and cultural disparities as opposed to dynamic, adaptive Chinese dubbing.

Though audiences marvelled at the animation, as the above comments reveal, the English-dubbed DVD version contains no subtitles, unlike other language versions. There are five versions of the film, dubbed in Chinese Mandarin, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Uygur, English and Japanese, demonstrating a solid sociocultural demand from audiences with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Such a variety of versions exemplifies the complexity and intertextuality in different dubbed and subtitled dialogues. For the Mandarin-dubbed version released in China, bilingual subtitles were often provided. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the context for the combined use of dubbing and subtitling and how it may impact film translation strategies. Comparing dubbing and subtitling strategies can provide new insights into how film translation strategies maximise and optimise the viewing experience. The main focus of this study is on dubbing practice. Only the English-and-Chinese-dubbed versions will be compared in this study. This is because the subtitles of the English-dubbed version cannot be traced, and relatively less academic attention is given to dubbing practices for Monkey King (as the literature below suggests).

This paper specifically explores how to better satisfy Western target audiences by comparing the Mandarin-dubbed and English-dubbed versions of Monkey King and their trailers and investigating the effectiveness of their translation strategies for appellations and idiosyncratic language. It is hoped that the comparison of different dubbed dialogues and its implications for the effectiveness of dubbing practices can fill the gap in discussion with a focus on the reception and promotion of these two different versions.

In contrast, internally focused relevance theory and two translation models will be used to analyse how the dubbing process maximises the appeal to the target audience. Through this prism, relevance theory serves as an appropriate departure point where viewers use their background knowledge to interpret cinematic signifiers (Prez-Gonzlez, 2015, p. 108; Desilla, 2009). In other words, target audiences interpret the contextual meaning in the film based on their readily accessible assumptions, looking for rhetorical preferences to be satisfied (Prez-Gonzlez, 2015, p. 120).

Causal models explain how translation is shaped in different contexts through the interaction of power, prestige and other market factors (Prez-Gonzlez, 2015, p. 92). In the case-study, to cater to Western audiences when consuming a Chinese legend, target audience-oriented dubbing strategies have been adopted, taking the Western market into account.

This study hypothesises that the English-dubbed version tends to adopt target text-oriented film translation, prioritising the smoothness of the filmic dialogue regardless of the idiosyncratic language about Chinese culture. These distinctive dialogues are deeply rooted in Chinese culture and heritage, based on the time-honoured story Journey to the West.

In this case-study, the English- and Mandarin (Simplified Chinese)-dubbed versions were extracted from the official DVDs for textual analysis, with the Chinese-dubbed film as the source text. English back translation will also be provided for Mandarin dubs, while the English-dubbed version is the main focus of our study, examining how the legendary Chinese story travels to the West through dubbing.

What both trailers reveal confirms the above hypothesis that the Chinese-dubbed trailer is source culture-oriented, intensifying its domestic agenda thanks to the added summative information. However, the English-dubbed version is target culture-oriented in that prior knowledge is needed for Western viewers to ensure smooth reading when encountering otherness embedded in ancient Chinese culture.

Dubbing norms challenge dubbers in Monkey King because the ancient Chinese culture includes many variants of appellations for the leading character Sun Wukong and its idiosyncratic language distinguishes the dubbing practice. The case analysis will therefore investigate these two features in the film.

The last example directly refers to dubbing humour in a situation where Pigsy ironically introduces his body figure. The introduction relates to the punishment Pigsy received after he angered Sun Wukong. Humour comes in because how Pigsy depicts himself completely contradicts what audiences see on the screen. The dialogues in MandarinFootnote 6 and English use explication, although the image of explication differs.

In sum, the idiosyncratic language of the Mandarin dubs in regard to the nursery rhyme goes untranslated in the English dubs. The English-dubbed dialogues frequently resort to the visual and acoustic effects of the film, often leaving the dialogues untranslated or generalised. However, the humorous effect in Example 6 is well maintained in the English dubs but with contrasting imagery compared with the source text.

However, the scope of this study is inevitably limited. More representative examples should be considered. It would be worthwhile to compare more language pairs by the effectiveness of dubbing and subtitling practice in future research. Since flexible and dynamic translation strategies have been used when dubbing a Chinese heroic legend to the West, further investigation can examine how target audience expectations affect translation strategies. Translators appear to expect Western target viewers to prioritise fantastic action scenes rather than the witty wordplay and time-honoured cultural heritage in the Chinese source text.

Parents need to know that Monkey King: Hero Is Back is a 2015 Chinese computer-animated film in which Jackie Chan plays the titular hero who is inadvertently freed by a little boy 500 years after a displeased Buddha banished him to an ice cage beneath the mountains. The intricate storyline might be confusing to kids. There is plenty of cartoon and martial arts violence, including scenes where characters fall off cliffs. The monsters have a demonic appearance, which could scare younger or sensitive kids. There's also some potty humor -- among the ragtag group who joins the Monkey King to fight the monsters, the cat is shown urinating, the pig has flatulence, and a young boy's nose is constantly dripping mucous, and there's scene in which another character picks her nose. It's also worth mentioning that the release of this movie was rescued by crowdsourcing; when some of the producers wanted a change in the story, the filmmakers refused to budge and went to the internet, and 109 families helped fund the movie, listing their young children as the producers. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.

Five centuries ago, the Monkey King (Jackie Chan) was free to reign and do battle with other kings, but his impudence angered the gods, and he was banished to an ice cave beneath the mountains. Five hundred years later, monsters emerge and take over a nearby village, scattering the villagers, including a little boy who ends up beneath the mountains and inadvertently frees the Monkey King from his cage. While a reluctant hero who is annoyed by the little boy's nonstop questions, he joins forces with a ragtag bunch -- including a cat and a pig -- and they must work together and find a way to stop these monsters. This is also a chance for the Monkey King to redeem himself and prove his heroism to the gods who banished him.

MONKEY KING: HERO IS BACK will engage tweens and parents looking for something different. It's an exciting computer-animated adventure that has become a cult hit in China, where it was released in 2015. The action is nonstop, the animation has some beautiful moments, and there is enough silliness to balance out all the demonic monsters seemingly around every bend.

While there is a slight tendency to get into Pixar clichs -- wacky animals with streetwise voices and lower GI issues, for instance -- these moments don't distract from the overall adventure and action that continues unabated from beginning to end. Some of the story, cultural background, and context might be lost on younger American viewers, but on the whole, once the movie takes hold, it doesn't let go.

When the funding for this movie fell short, the filmmakers turned to "crowdsourcing" on the internet -- and 109 children, with obvious help from their families, provided the funds to help pay for the movie's completion. How might crowdsourcing change the way movies are made? How is this different from the way movies have traditionally been made and marketed?

Monkey King: Hero Is Back is a 2015 CG-animated Chinese film from first-time director Tian Xiaoping. It was also the highest-grossing animated film released in China, surpassing Kung Fu Panda 2, before being surpassed in turn by Kung Fu Panda 3 (the record is currently held by Ne Zha).

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