神鬼XX

Using four pictographs is the norm for creating a proprietary name in Taiwan. Most of the idiomatic expressions (成語) consist of four characters, as well as names for restaurants, TV programs, and movies.

Wait, why four? Isn't 4 supposed to be an evil number in Chinese culture, because it is pronounced as "si", similar to death (死)? Shouldn't they choose 8, the lucky number, which sounds like spending (發)? Remember, the Beijing Olympics started at August 8th, 2008 (8/8/2008). Or it can even be 3, because most Chinese names consist of three characters. I think this topic bears a separate entry.

Today we focus on the movie titles. Movie distributors have a strange habit of trying to jack up the local (translated) title of Hollywood movies to make it more "sellable". The standard, easiest way: add 神鬼 (Gods and Demons / the Holy and the Evil) to the title. That's it.

Here is an example. 神鬼認證: God + Demon + Identity (認證)= The Bourne Identity. Even Google translation gives you this answer. So I did a small research, according to TrueMovie, a local site listing movie titles and synopsis. Try solving the mysteries on your own; you need quite an amount of imagination to figure out their names. (But yes, they indeed sound more dynamic compared to the originals). The answers are typed in white letters. If you select the space after the "=" sign, you will see them.

神鬼無間: Nonstop = The Departed

神鬼奇航: Strange Voyage = Pirates of the Caribbean

神鬼制裁: Sanction = The Punisher

神鬼剋星: Nemesis = The Brothers Grimm

神鬼傳奇: Legend = The Mummy

神鬼牧師: Priest = The Priest (okay, sometimes they make sense)

神鬼玩家: Player = The Aviator

神鬼二勢力: Two forces = Bandidas

神鬼第六感: The sixth sense = The Others (You missed this one, didn't you?)

神鬼交鋒: Battle = Catch Me if You Can

神鬼拍檔: Partner = Bad Company

神鬼尖兵: Vanguard = The Boondock Saints

Sometimes they use 神鬼 methodology to push up a low profile movie few people are going to watch… If you knew the English titles for all of the below films, you are already seriously wasting your life. I don't want to even mention about knowing BOTH English and Chinese titles.

神鬼教父: Godfather = Stander

神鬼妙計: Coup = Foolproof

神鬼帝國: Empire = Kaena: The Profecy

神鬼奇謀: Plot = Who is Cletis Tout?