See What I Mean?
Before I started translating Parasite, I received a very long email from Bong Joon Ho, where he mentioned all the issues that he anticipated we would have to deal with in the subtitles.
IN A RUNNING GAG IN BONG JOON HO’S , a Korean-American member of the Animal Liberation Front played by Steven Yeun tattoos “Translations are Sacred” on his arm. His boss, Jay (Paul Dano), has violently reprimanded him for selfishly mistranslating the wishes of the film’s young heroine—a joke topped by the tattoo’s own distortion of Jay’s original complaint, “Translating is sacred!” Last January, with the Golden Globe for in his hand, Bong gently nudged audiences in his acceptance speech: “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” In light of our truly international film culture, we give voice to a key mediator in cross-cultural), in addition to working as a film critic and journalist.
