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19 movie posters seen through the eyes of Japan, from “Malkovich’s Hole” to “Captain Supermarket”

Master Blaster Mar 17, 2014
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As we’ve seen before, with many international releases the names of films can sometimes be vastly different from the original. The changes are made for a variety of reasons due to language, culture, or style. This begs the question: How much of an impact do these title changes make on the people who see them?

Just for fun, we took 19 movies from other countries that have had their names changed for Japanese audiences, translated them back to English and put them in their original posters.

So join us after the jump for such gems as Academy Award-nominated Nairobi Bees, Love is Deja Vu with Bill Murray, and cult classic Captain Supermarket. What, never heard of them!?

Sometimes the names are changed to be more detailed than the originals. Apparently simple titles like Frozen or Despicable Me raise concerns with filmmakers that potential moviegoers in Japan won’t get hooked. Sometimes it’s helpful to let people know that Frozen, for example, was largely influenced Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen.

アナと雪の女王 (Frozen)

Original image: Amazon

In the case of other animated works, giving a little more of the plot was in order. After all, titles like “Despicable Me” don’t really tell audiences an awful lot…

怪盗グルーの月泥棒 (Despicable Me)

Original image: Amazon

マルコヴィッチの穴 (Being John Malkovich)

Original image: Amazon

レミーのおいしいレストラン (Ratatouille)

Original mage: Amazon

カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家 (Up)

Original image: Amazon

As you can see, when doing this the titles can get rather lengthy. But that doesn’t stop those in charge from adding in as many extra details as possible. Check out these wonderfully verbose efforts!

素敵な相棒フランクじいさんとロボットヘルパー (Robot & Frank)

Original image: Amazon

It’s almost as if some movie posters had left the extra negative space ready for just such an occasion.

世界で一番パパが好き! (Jersey Girl)

Original image: Amazon

Of all these, The Butler got the rawest deal. As if poor Cecil hadn’t had a rough enough life, now the Japanese title makes him out to be some kind of cry baby.

大統領の執事の涙 (The Butler)

Original image: Amazon

And then there’s the title for the cult classic Army of Darkness which has quite a couple flaws. For starters, this title gives away the funny little surprise twist at the end of the movie. Also, I don’t think S Mart was a supermarket per se considering he bought his boomstick there.

キャプテン・スーパーマーケット (Army of Darkness)

Original image: Amazon

However, the awesome Japanese poster more than makes up for this. The cans of Bruce Campbell Soup that Ash is standing on are a particularly nice touch.

Original image: Aazon

The rest of the Evil Dead series is given an arguably better title in Japanese.

死霊のはらわたII (Evil Dead II)

Original image: Amazon

Speaking of title improvements, I was always bothered by the name Apocalypse Now. Supposedly inspired from a hippie button that read “Nirvana Now” it sounds clunky and dated these days. Apparently someone connected to the Japanese release agreed, but I’m not really sure what this title is supposed to mean either. Is it supposed to be the apocalypse made by hell or the apocalypse in hell?

地獄の黙示録 (Apocalypse Now)

Original image: Amazon

The first Final Destination movie in Japan kept the same title as its Western release, but for the many sequels to follow someone involved realized there were no more planes in the sequels and thus changed the name accordingly: by naming the main thing the staring teens avoided dying in with the prefix “dead.” A simple, yet surprisingly effective formula.

ファイナル・デッドコースター (Final Destination 3)

Original image: Amazon

Perhaps the worst title of all is The Constant Gardener. I haven’t seen it because the name is just begging me to avoid it. However, reading through the synopsis it does sound pretty good. I understand that the name probably has some significance, but from a marketing standpoint it hardly hooks the casual movie-goer into checking it out. The Japanese title however, promises much more in the way of thrills and danger.

ナイロビの蜂 (The Constant Gardener)

Original image: Amazon

Probably the most popular reason to change a movie title is because of linguistic and cultural differences. Something that can be summed up in a few words like an English or Chinese idiom would take a lot more explaining in another language. Probably best to just flat out change it in that case…

最高の人生の見つけ方 (The Bucket List)

Original image: Amazon

グリーン・デスティニー (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

<Original image: Amazon

ショーシャンクの空に (The Shawshank Redemption)

Original image: Amazon

I come from the North-East part of North America and I still have trouble grasping the annual ritual of Groundhog Day. It’s certainly best to avoid that title altogether in Japan.

恋はデジャ・ブ (Groundhog Day)

Original image: Amazon

I guess there’s no Miss Congeniality in Japanese beauty pageants, otherwise they wouldn’t have changed it to Dangerous Beauty. Oddly enough, Dangerous Beauty is also the name of a period drama that came out a couple years before the Sandra Bullock film. The name just happened to be free because the name Dangerous Beauty in Japan was changed to Courtesan Veronica (娼婦ベロニカ). Honestly I’m surprised this kind of mix-up doesn’t happen more often.

デンジャラス・ビューティー (Miss Congeniality)

Original image: Amazon

Finally, we’ll leave you with this… for which we have no explanation. However, it appears it took the combined acting talents of George Clooney and Jeff Bridges to pull off the challenging role of “A Wall.”

ヤギと男と男と壁と (The Men Who Stare at Goats)

Original image: Amazon

Movie shelves all over the country have renamed works all funny, inexplicable, improved, or more succinct. Let us know any that you’ve come across and maybe we can retranslate it and mock it up in a poster at a future date.

Images edited by RocketNews24