GUARDIANS IN CHINA: LOST IN TRANSLATION

Poor Chinese subtitles are being blamed for preventing Guardians of the Galaxy from becoming the kind of hit in China that it has in most of the rest of the world. The state-run China Daily said today (Friday) that moviegoers are complaining that the Chinese translation of the English dialogue "not only spoiled the fun of watching it, but also made it difficult to understand its humor." On Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, a user proficient in English with the handle Gudabaihua said that he had found 80 translation errors. But, beyond those errors, he observed, "the subtitles failed to show the original feel of the movie, such as jokes, puns and homophones." He questioned the "professionalism" of the translator. Guardians earned $31.2 million in its first weekend at the Chinese box office — not bad, but still less than two other superhero movies this year, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of Future Past.