“Star Wars, Episode III: Backstroke of the West”
As a result of (A) a guy named Jeremy who (B) had some free time on his hands and © a pirated Chinese DVD of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, (D) the miracle of the “Internets,” and (E) my son Will who somehow found this site, you are now witness to one of the funniest damn things you’ll ever see. Allow Jeremy to explain:
a couple of years ago when i was living in shanghai i bought a revenge of the sith dvd off the street. it came with hilariously mangled subtitles that ranged from somewhat close to what the actors were saying to far, far away….
i’ve been meaning to update the blog post I wrote ages ago to add in more scenes and upgrade the quality of the photos (they were digital camera pics and in some pics you can see my old tv) but of course you know how it goes- one never has the time.
so now that it’s chinese new year and i have a few days off work, i finally present to you as a new year’s present…
Key phrase here: hilariously mangled subtitles. How badly mangled? Here’s a taste:
the beginning scroll is mistranslated, even though the words are right up there on the screen.
star war (just one).
yup.
Star Wars: Episode III: Backstroke of the West. How awesome is that? But wait, there’s more. Lots more:
http://www.youtube.com/v/_4hKrHGU_vY&hl=en_US&fs=1
anakin: “this is where the fun begins”
anonymous doomed fighter pilot: “they’re all over me!”
obi-wan, space battle strategist.
the battle was going well until the disgusting thing showed up.
obi-wan really hates that disgusting thing.
obi-wan teaches r2 how to beat the disgusting thing.
a quick pause in the caption commentary. for a while i couldn’t figure out how the captions got so mangled- i thought maybe it was done by computer, but in some cases like this one the captions make sense but have no relation to what is going on. general grevious is actually saying, “just as count dooku predicted”…
Good question, Jeremy. I think the answer might have something to do with the anonymous translator stumbling upon a nearly fatal combination of Mountain Dew, chocolate Ho-Ho’s, and ginseng extract. Whatever the answer, the fact is that we are now awash in comedy heaven: Mangled Star Wars!
You can go through the whole thing here. But to honor Jeremy — who I think we all agree should be sainted for his efforts — we’ll be doing a weekly Sunday post of Star Wars: Episode III: Backstroke of the West for the next several weeks.
HT to my son Will for sourcing this.
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