10 Hilariously Terrible Translations Of Famous Movie Titles

1. The Shawshank Redemption Is Called "1995: Fantastic" In Taiwan

It's a long road to get from a title like The Shawshank Redemption to one like "1995: Fantastic". In fairness, it's a difficult title to translate. It makes sense in the context of the film - the inmates are in Shawshank Prison, and they find redemption. But if you have no idea what the film is about, it doesn't tell you anything. What's a "shawshank", and how is it redeemed? Morgan Freeman even felt the confusing title is one of the reasons why the film initially did poorly at the box office.

So how did Taiwan respond to the difficulties of translating the title for an adaptation of a little known Stephen King novella? Plenty of other countries dealt with the thorny issue by jamming in words and phrases that dealt with the film's themes. Italy called it "The Wings Of Freedom". Irael went for "Walls Of Hope" and Mexico chose "Dreams Of Escape".

Faced with those good examples of how to do it, Taiwan instead chose to ignore what the movie was about and simply declare how brilliant it was (and it seems, how delighted they were to be getting 1994's best movie a year later than everyone else). "1995: Fantastic" was born, a title which might sound like a feel-good comedy skewering the mid-90's, instead of an at-times-harrowing portrayal of prison life that begins in the 1940's. It's great that whoever translated The Shawshank Redemption in Taiwan really liked it, but they ended up giving it an even more abstract title. For all that it explains the movie, they might as well have stuck with the original.