Abstract：As a more direct aesthetic form with its unique commercial features and rich cultural connotations, movie has won the affection of the audience and made tremendous contribution to promote cultural exchanges between China and other foreign countries. With the enhancement of China’s international status and the prosperous development of the domestic movie industry, Chinese movie market has become another delicious cake of Hollywood. A movie title, the mirror and trademark of the movie, transfers the most important information about the movie. An excellent and appealing movie title not only contributes a lot to the informative and aesthetic values of a movie but also stimulates the audiences’ desire to appreciate the movie.Consequently, the quality of movie title translation has a far-reaching influence on the spreading of the movie and also the box office. However, the current status of English movie title translation fails to keep up with the times and the audiences’ constantly changing tastes. what’s worse, the messy situation of movie title translation has already caused a negative influence on the movie market. In the hope of improving current situation, this paper based on the previous researches first summarizes the functions of movie titles. Taking rich title translations as examples, this paper then focuses on analyzing problems in English-Chinese title translation, including the messy and low-quality situation, alienation and assimilation and over- imitation to Hollywood blockbusters’ translation modes. At last, the paper tries to outline causes for those problems and give suggestions respectively.

Key words:  movie title translation    functions    problems   causes

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Introduction-1

1. Functions of  Movie Titles-2

1.1 Informative function-3

1.2 Cultural function-4

1.3 Aesthetic function-4

1.4 Commercial function-4

2.  Problems of  Movie Title Translation-5

2.1 The messy and low-quality situation-5

2.1.1 Same movie with many translation versions-5

2.1.2 Low quality-6

2.2. Alienation and assimilation-7

2.2.1 Alienation and assimilation-7

2.2.2 Cultural background differences between alienation and assimilation-8

2.2.3 Over-assimilation-8

2.3 Over- imitation to Hollywood blockbusters’ translation modes-9

3. Suggestions on Movie Title Translation-10

3.1 Consult cultural backgrounds-10

3.2 Remain consistent with the style of the movie-10

3.3 Keep the informative, aesthetic and commercial functions in balance-11

Conclusion-12