earticle

한국어

This study investigates translation strategies for marked expressions—such as honorifics, official titles, idioms, and culture-bound terms—in the Chinese and Japanese subtitles of the Korean historical film Uprising (Jeon, Ran), distributed by Netflix. Although both Chinese and Japanese belong to the Sinosphere and share a character-based linguistic tradition, the analysis reveals notable differences in their subtitling approaches. Using an adapted version of Okyayuz’s (2016) framework—including literal translation, free translation, generalization, omission, modulation, and transliteration—the study shows that Chinese subtitles rely largely on literal and culturally rooted expressions, maintaining fidelity to the source text. In contrast, Japanese subtitles favor generalization, omission, and phonetic transcription to enhance readability and accessibility for modern audiences. For instance, while Chinese subtitles preserve formal titles like “殿下” or “圣恩浩荡,” Japanese often simplify or substitute these with more familiar terms like “王様” or “私は.” These divergent strategies reflect not only linguistic compatibility but also audience reception norms and script conventions. Moreover, the analysis suggests that subtitling historical content requires balancing genre-specific formality with real-time viewer processing constraints. The study highlights the pedagogical value of subtitled historical content for Korean language learners, as it provides context-rich examples of pragmatic and sociocultural expressions. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for flexible, context-sensitive translation strategies that balance cultural authenticity with viewer comprehension, and it proposes future research into multimodal analysis and educational use of subtitled materials.