Hon Fu
Still hard to understand, so I got Kishi to check over all my translations.
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The Strapping Kyushu Lad from Hong Kong
I don't usually provide notes for these, but they're also usually self-explanatory. But in this case, I think I should probably point out that Hon Fu speaks in a Kyushu accent, even though he's from Hong Kong, and that's the joke. Why does he have a Kyushu accent? No idea.
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Hon Fu: Now I bagged Yamazaki I finally get a break! | Hon Fu: Yamazaki! I'm taking You in! |
| Cheng: Then how 'bout being in my movie? | Cheng: How about being in my movie? |
| Hon Fu: S-so you want me to play the handsome detective, right? Right? | Hon Fu: With a third-rate cop? Hah! |
| Cheng: You'll be the drowned cross-dressing detective! | Cheng: I bet you're the cop who gets shot! |
| Hon Fu: ...Depends on the pay... | Hon Fu: If the money's good ,I'll do it! |
Kishi got the last line for me. Thanks!
The English here is...confusing, to say the least.
Right in the first line we have some tense confusion. Hon Fu isn't bringing Yamazaki in, he's already brought Yamazaki in and is now enjoying a break. The Japanese is really clear about arresting Yamazaki being in the past, so I'm not sure how this happened. I guess someone just was going too fast.
That means it's confusing in English when Cheng suddenly appears with a movie offer, but it makes perfect sense in Japanese. Hon Fu has time on his hands, why not help make a movie?
Then the translator seemed to have a problem with 二枚目/nimaime in Hon Fu's next line. Taken literally, it means "two sheets (of paper) eye", but it actually means "handsome man", from an old Kabuki system of ranking characters. The translator didn't seem to know what to do with this and came up with "third-rate cop" instead. But this changes the tone of the entire line, from Hon Fu wanting to be in the movie (and to play the lead) to not wanting to be in the movie at all.
Then in Japanese Cheng says Hon Fu will play the drowned body of an okama detective. Okama's one of those tricky words to translate and honestly Tomato already did a better job than I ever will at summing up the situation in video game translation, so just go read that article. I'll wait.
So I went with "cross-dressing" as that seemed the most reasonable thing to say there. The English translation dropped it entirely, instead saying that Hon Fu will be the cop that gets shot. It's a cute way to handle the line, making sure that players know Hon Fu's getting a bit part and his character dies without dealing with long phrases like "drowned body" or trying to translate a word like okama. I dig it.
Then Hon Fu's last line is well handled. Hon Fu needs cash badly. He sounds more sure about it in English, but the idea is the same. Good!
Win Quotes
vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| There's only one hero! | There can only be one hero: Me! |
This is basically the same. The English line makes that Hon Fu considers himself to be the only hero explicit when it was implied in Japanese, but it makes the line work better in English. Rad!
vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Yer so upright! Ya gotta relax, relax! | You're too tense! Lighten up , champ! |
And same here. I did my usual thing where I tried to give Hon Fu a bit of a rough, flatfoot kind of accent to match his Kyushu accent in Japanese, which the official translation didn't bother with, but basically they're the same.
vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Amazin'! Even after getting beat, you're still laughing! | Yeah , just laugh your defeat off! |
The English sounds a lot harsher than the Japanese. Japanese Hon Fu mostly just can't believe Joe is laughing after getting beat. In English he sounds more angry about it.
Still, reasonably close.
vs Mai/Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Strength and beauty! Yer the best! | Wow ,you're tough! Marry me , sweetie! |
I like this as a localization. The English drops the idea that Mai/Mary combine strength and beauty, but Hon Fu's attraction is pretty well shown by asking them to marry him. I think it's good.
...though one wonders what his girlfriend would think...
vs Duck
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| If it's speed yer talking about, I'm a cut above! | Handsome and fast. I'm a god! |
The English drops the idea that Hon Fu is comparing his speed to Duck's and just has him brag about how fast he is. It also adds him bragging about his looks for no particular reason.
Well, none of that is really out of the ordinary for SNK.
Having a game hero declare themselves to be a god probably wasn't all that shocking by 1997, especially not in the arcade. It's still neat to see, though.
vs Tung Fu Rue
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| The rumours were true, Master Tung! Yer incredible! | Just as tough as legend says , Tan! |
The Japanese specifically says "rumours" here, where the English says "legend". Having Tung be legendary makes him sound more impressive, and I suppose I can't really complain when Terry is also the stuff of legend by now.
They had the room for "Master Tan", I wonder why they dropped it in English.
And of course there's a bit old missing word that makes Hon Fu sound like a goof in English, but we all know by now that doesn't mean the line was mistranslated.
vs Billy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Baddies shouldn't play with fire! | Baddies shouldn't play with fire! |
Um.
I swear this is coincidence and not the revelation that I was the mysterious editor the entire time.
Kishi and I weren't actually entirely sure of the line, but it seemed to be the closest we could get to actual English. Something like "villains shouldn't have fire" to start with, then slide that through Hon Fu's accent, and, well...
I can only assume the official translator did the same thing, except perhaps with "space constraints" taking the place of "Hon Fu's accent".
vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Geese! Yer time is over! | Geese! The jig is up! |
"The jig is up!" is some good cop language here, I like it.
vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| What the heeeeeck?! Yer way too strong! | You're one tough customer , pal! |
The English sounds more like a straightforward compliment instead of Hon Fu complaining about Krauser being too strong. I can see how they got there, but some nuance is missing.
vs Laurence
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Fightin' a cow suits you better! | Go back to cow-fight-ing ,jerk! |
The English is, as usual, harsher. The "jerk" feels a little out of place here, since the rest of the line is contemptuous but "jerk" isn't the kind of thing you say to someone you're looking down on. Still.
vs the Jin brothers
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| This's beyond kiddie pranks! | Watch it , or I'll really get mad! |
This is pretty different. In fact, it's enough that I'm tempted to think that the translator just threw up their hands and made something up. I suppose you could argue that the idea is that Hon Fu is scolding the Jins whatever they did that's beyond kiddie pranks, but that's real strained. I think it's just made up.
vs Hon Fu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Nuffin but a cheap imitation! | Nothing but a silly little ape! |
The Japanese is "monkey mimicking", which has come up before. This idiomatically means a blind imitation, or in English, "monkey see, monkey do". I went with "cheap imitation". The official translation apparently missed this and just made up something involving primates.
vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Yamazaki! This time you need to come quietly! | Yamazaki! You're busted! |
I struggled with this a bit. Hon Fu is telling Yamazaki that this time he needs to resign himself to his fate, as opposed to all those other times when he presumably just beat the crap out of everyone and got away. There wasn't a great way to get this into my Hon Fu accent, but I tried.
Meanwhile the official translation just went with "You're busted!" and is better for it.
vs Cheng
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I thought ya was just big, but ya got some skills! | you're good , for an obeseslob! |
I've seen a lot of typos out of RBS so far, but this line looks especially bad. Missing a space just feels a lot more obvious to me than even missing a word.
Anyway, there's a bit of a nuance difference between languages here. In Japanese, Hon Fu was dismissive of Cheng, but then fought him and found out he had real skills. In English, Cheng's just good for a fat guy. It doesn't say anything about how good a fighter he is objectively, just by comparison.
I admit that's pretty subtle.
vs others
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Eh? Over already? A cakewalk! | Over so soon? Wow , how eazy. |
Pretty close. The word Hon Fu uses in Japanese means "easy win", so you can see how both I and the official translator handled it.
The "eazy" typo is another one that feels like a native made it, especially since the keys are so close on the keyboard. Is it me, or did Hon Fu have a lot of typos? I should be keeping a count.