Example 16
Original 何來雄渾激情之有？挑！
Replacement
Dubbed 何來雄壯熱情之有？呿！
Subtitle Don’t you think it’s sanctuary and wonderful?
Example 17
Original 挑，答唔出呢？
Replacement
Dubbed 呿，說不出來吧？
Subtitle Shit, I don’t think you are capable of telling anything.
As mentioned in Chapter Four, ‘挑’ is a euphemism of the Cantonese swearword
‘屌’ (‘fuck’). In examples 16 and 17, the ‘挑’ acts as a discourse marker24 instead of swearing. It is also used to emphasise the tone and emotion to match the character and visual clues. Example 16 is said by Tong Bak Fu, who uses ‘挑’ to enforce how much he looks down on Chuck Chi-Shan（祝枝山）. By replacing
‘挑’ with ‘呿’ (ㄑㄧㄝˋ), the emotion is replicated and is represented in the same way as the original. The translator uses the same method to translate ‘挑’
24 A discourse marker is a word or phrase used to organize what is communicated by introducing a boundary, e.g. 'You know,' 'I mean,' 'Anyway' (Source:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/discourse-marker?s=t).
to ‘呿’ in example 17. Example 17 is said by Wah Man, a son of the Wah family, questioning Wah On (Tong Bak Fu) and his abilities. Again, the ‘呿’ is to replace
‘挑’ and act as a discourse marker, without any vulgar connotations attached.
Example 18
Original 朱茜，你！
Borrowing
Dubbed 朱茜！
Subtitle Chussy!
朱茜 (Chussy) is the name of Tong Bak Fu’s mother, which acts as a euphemism of ‘豬閪’ / ‘豬屄’ (‘pig cunt’ / ‘pig pussy’) because ‘朱茜’ and ‘豬閪’ sound similar in Cantonese. ‘朱茜’ can also be pronounced as ‘豬西25’, a toned down version of the swearword that is commonly used nowadays by the younger generation26. The translator uses a literal translation approach and keeps the name ‘朱茜’ in use. But instead of saying it as ‘茜’ (qiàn;ㄑㄧㄢˋ) in Mandarin, the translator pronounces it as ‘西’ (xī,ㄒㄧ), keeping the coherence as the Cantonese version. If the dubbed version uses ‘朱茜’ (qiàn;ㄑㄧㄢˋ) instead of ‘朱茜’ (xī;ㄒㄧ), it is simply a name, taking away the wordplay factor. The mispronunciation may be caused by the Cantonese pronunciation, but there is no way of knowing at this
point.
Example 19
Original 小喇叭！朱茜你係咪想玩嘢啊？
Omission
Dubbed 朱茜，你是不是非要玩死我才甘心？
Subtitle Damn you, Chussy, do you want to play tricks?
The Cantonese phrase ‘小喇叭’ is omitted in the Mandarin rendition. It does not make sense to interpret ‘小喇叭’ as a ‘trumpet’ in this context, because it is simply strange to randomly mention a musical instrument. The phrase ‘小喇叭’
mimics the sound of the phrase ‘丟那媽’ (‘屌那媽’; ‘fuck that mother’), as they both sound similar in Cantonese. It is understandable to omit this in the translation because the Mandarin version is dubbed to be a family-friendly film for the Taiwanese market. Any sort of swearing is forbidden.
Example 20
Original 哦，原來就係小李老母飛刀，真可惜！
Equivalence
Dubbed 哦，原來是小李他媽的飛刀，真可惜！
Subtitle Oh, what a pity.
Example 21
Original 你老母出術陰我？ Literal
Translation
Dubbed 你他媽的耍詐陰我？
Subtitle Damn you, how dare you trick me?
The Cantonese version of example 20 can be interpreted as follows: (1) splitting them up into meaning units as ‘小李’ (‘Siu Lee’) / ‘老母’ (‘mother’) / ‘飛刀’
(‘flying dagger’); or (2) as a single unit as ‘小李老母飛刀’ (‘mother fucking flying dagger’). The second interpretation derives from the vulgar phrase ‘屌你老母’
(‘fuck your mother’). Due to censorship, the dubbed version has obviously toned it down to ‘他媽的’ instead of using its equivalent ‘幹你娘’. Moreover, the translator has adapted the wordplay approach and translated ‘老母’ (‘mother’) as ‘他媽’ (‘his mother’), the idea of Siu Lee’s mother remains in the translation.
Similarly, example 21 uses ‘他媽的’ as a curse phrase to emphasise how angry Tong Bak Fu is when he finds out Madame Wah has tricked him. It is interesting to note that Cantonese curse words and phrases tend to exclusively target mothers instead of fathers, e.g. ‘motherfucker’, ‘son of a bitch’, ‘幹你娘’, ‘屌你老 母’ etc.
Example 22
Original 原來就係尋晚拍檯拍凳個粉腸啊！
Adaptation
Dubbed 就是昨天晚上拍桌子打椅子，害我們睡不著那個混蛋？
Subtitle Oh, you are the jerk who disturbed my sleep last night.
‘粉腸’ in example 22 is a euphemism of ‘撚樣’. Example 22 translates ‘粉腸’ as ‘混 蛋’, keeping the insult factor in the Mandarin version. The translator adapts the idea of insulting someone, but takes away the vulgar connotation rooted in the
will be impossible in a G-rated film, ‘混蛋’ is most likely to be the only option available to the translator.
Example 23
Original 汝家池塘多鮫魚
Adaptation
Dubbed 汝家澡盆雜配魚
Subtitle For the grave of your father
Example 24
Original 你老母兮親下廚
Omission
Dubbed 你老娘來親下廚
Subtitle My god father has screwed your grandma
Examples 23 and 24 contain heavy wordplay in both the original and dubbed versions. Firstly, in example 23 ‘汝家池塘多鮫魚’ can be interpreted as: (1) ‘the Lu family’s pond has many sharks’; (2) ‘the Lu family’s pond is so fucking extra’;
and (3) ‘the Lu family’s pond has many mating fish’. (1) is the literal translation of ‘汝家池塘多鮫魚’; the ‘多鮫魚’ in the second interpretation of the line ‘汝家池 塘多鮫魚’ sounds similar to ‘多鳩餘’ (‘so fucking extra’); (3) is the definition the Mandarin version adapts: ‘汝家池塘[有很]多鮫[交(配的)]魚’. Although the ‘池塘’
(‘pond’) is translated as ‘澡盆’ (‘shower bucket’), both ‘池塘’ and ‘澡盆’ contain water, which does not affect the outcome. In example 24, the Mandarin version has omitted the swearing altogether because it is not necessary to include it. ‘兮’
in Cantonese sounds like ‘閪’, but it does not fit into the dubbed version, for one, it is not necessary to include a swearword in this line; secondly, the Mandarin language does not have an equivalent to achieve the same effect as the original version.
Example 25
Original 你唔戇居，係笨實啲啫。
Equivalence
Dubbed 你不糊塗，就是笨了點。
Subtitle You are not stupid. But you are very stupid.
The Mandarin rendition only translates the ‘笨’ (‘stupid’) in ‘笨實’. ‘笨實’ does not exist in Cantonese or in Mandarin as a proper phrase; it is a euphemism of the Cantonese swearword ‘笨𡴶’ (‘stupid dick’). As mentioned in Chapter Four,
‘𡴶’ means ‘dick’ in Cantonese. The word ‘𡴶’ is used to emphasise how stupid Madame Wah is by voluntarily taking the poisonous pill offered by Tong Bak Fu.
The Mandarin rendition combines ‘笨’ (‘stupid’) and ‘啲’ (‘little’) from the original and comes up with ‘笨了點’ to represent the same idea of the original.
Moreover, it does not make sense to use ‘stupid dick’ to describe Madame Wah,
because she is a woman and has no penis.
Example 26
Original 今日穿祥兄居然對到嘔十九幾兩血，可謂曠古爍金，小
弟拜服拜服！
Generalisation
Dubbed 今日穿祥兄居然對到嘔出幾十兩血，可謂空前絕露，小
弟佩服佩服！
Subtitle But, why are you hurt in playing this game?
I wonder how powerful the words are!
Example 27
Original 有個時期我係靠畫唐寅嘅假畫為生。
呢幅春樹秋霜圖已經畫過百九幾次，熟晒嘅喇 。
Generalisation
Dubbed 有個時期我是靠畫唐寅的假畫為生。
這幅春樹秋霜圖已經畫過幾百次，熟的很。
Subtitle I earned my living imitating the drawing of Tong Yan.
I have imitated this ‘Spring and Autumn’ over 100 times.
Example 28
Original 佢嘅戰鬥數值竟然去到百九幾萬
Generalisation
Dubbed 他的戰鬥數值居然高達幾百萬呢
Subtitle He is so powerful.
Examples 26 to 28 consist of the rendition of numbers. All three of them adapt a generalization approach dealing with the numbers. The Cantonese versions ‘十九 幾兩血’ (’19 something tael of blood’), ‘百九幾次’ (‘a hundred ninety something
times’) and ‘百九幾萬’ (‘1.9 something million’) appear to be grammatically incorrect because as seen in the previous examples, Cantonese swearword can be added in between words and phrases. For example, ‘撚’ can be added into the phrase ‘好攰’ (‘so tired’) to create the phrase ‘好撚攰’ (‘so fucking tired’).
Linguistically speaking, it is one of the unique characteristics of Cantonese swearwords. A similar comparison can be drawn against the use of ‘fucking’ in English, e.g. ‘abso-fucking-lutely’. The ‘九’ (‘nine’) in the above examples should be interpreted as a euphemism of ‘㞗’ (‘cock’), instead of the number ‘nine’. The dubbed version has generalised ‘十九幾’ (’19 something’) and ‘百九幾’ (‘a hundred ninety something’) and translated them as ‘幾十’ and ‘幾百’. The Mandarin-speaking audience is then provided with a ‘clean’ version and whereby they will recognize the phrase spoken as ‘many times’.
Example 29
Original 妖！
Adaptation Dubbed 媽的！
Subtitle Damn!
As for example 29, the dubbed version also uses ‘媽的’ which mimics the original idea to curse, or to express anger, but takes away the vulgar connotation. ‘妖’ is a non-vulgar version of ‘屌’ (‘fuck’), by changing ‘妖’ to ‘媽的’, it keeps the cursing factor in place. Example 29 can also be interpreted as a discourse marker too.