silly translation...

Yesterday evening, Ina and I watched Vantage Point on DVD. There was a scene where the characters spoke in Spanish.

We looked at each other... where are the subtitles?

Since neither of us speak espanyol, save for uno dos tres... we scrambled to get the subtitles feature up. First try, chose the wrong option... director's commentary. Couldn't care less what the director thought about the scene. Next... English. But where's the translation??

Then Ina said "Kita try Malay lah Along. Try je..."

Ok lah... better than nothing. And voila, I can now understand Spanish :) It wasn't really Malay... it was Indonesian. Indon pun Indon lah...

We continued watching, too lazy to turn the subtitles off after the scene (also because we weren't sure whether there would be more spanish conversations after this).

Then there was a chase scene... running, driving... your staple Hollywood blockbuster type of action scene. A character swore as he swerved to avoid another car as they sped down the narrow streets of Salamanca. "Shit!" he said.

When I saw the translation I laughed, no... more like howled... like mad.

Guess what it was??




"Berak!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH... Ina and I gelak sampai tergolek-golek.

That was not it. There were more cursing. I forgot what the character said. I think something along the lines of "Shit! Shit!"

and the translation was "Tai... Berak!"

Oh my God...

That was not all. 3/4 through the movie, there was a scene where one of the characters said "Stop! CIA!"

You wouldn't believe what the translation was... I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. I laughed even louder. I think the whole kampung might have heard me.

Get ready for it...



Ajensi Jawa Intelek.

I kid you not! I'll even get a screen shot for you, when I have the time.

Dear oh dear... what a classic case of *lost in translation*.


p/s: for those of you who don't know, I'm half Jawa... which tickles me even more ;)