As the finale of "Cai Wei Fashion Apprentice" was being broadcast, a film titled "Misty Journey: Straying into the Heavenly Court" was also released across the United States.
That's right, after three months of supplementary filming and meticulous editing, the film adaptation of "Misty Journey," originally a TV drama, was finally launched in the US with great haste.
It is worth mentioning that although the movie title was translated into English this time, there was a dispute regarding the translation.
According to translation experts, the English name of this movie should have been translated as "The Misty Journey: An Eastern Celestial Epic,"
"..." Peter Jackson was rendered speechless because he knew this was impossible. A movie title isn't like an essay where one can use hundreds of English words to perfect its content; at most, ten words would suffice, anything more would be unconventional.
"That's right. In fact, I initially had them translate over a dozen different versions, but none of them satisfied me. They all failed to properly express the underlying charm of this film, instead conveying a vulgar feel!"
"So I thought, what do I want the audience to know from this movie title?"
"Is it to know that this movie tells a cliché story about deities at a glance?"
"No, I want them to know that this is a mysterious Eastern mythological epic, similar to 'The Lord of the Rings,' a world of inscrutable mystery. However, the current English vocabulary cannot meet our needs. It would be better to embrace pure mysticism and directly use Eastern phonetic sounds as the title. That way, after all the audience members finish watching the movie, they will understand that Xian is immortal and Tianting is the Heavenly Court."
"This is equivalent to us creating the English words 'xian' and 'tianting'!"
The idea of creating two English words was too cool. Hearing this, Peter Jackson was already half-convinced, but he still asked with some concern, "But a name like this would be difficult to attract audiences to the cinema. Dear Huang, this will have a huge impact on our movie's box office!"
"Forget that damned box office, dear Jackson. We are not pursuing box office revenue at all," Boss Huang said righteously. "This is a pure Eastern mythological story. Such stories are inherently difficult to sell in the West, and I never expected this movie to earn much at the box office."
"Because it's a movie adapted from a TV drama, and the main broadcast market for this TV drama was in China, not the United States. One could say the US market is just a bonus, and how much box office revenue can a bonus bring? Even if these three movies combined can earn $10 million at the box office, I will be satisfied."
"But dear, 'Misty Journey' is undoubtedly a great film, a film that, like 'The Lord of the Rings,' has brought forth a magical world. What we truly value is the great art behind this film, and such art requires specialized talent to appreciate."
"If ordinary audiences watch this movie, they most likely won't understand it, and might even end up drawing criticism. Therefore, we need to filter. We need to screen those audiences who are willing to come and learn out of curiosity for Eastern culture, even if they see a cryptic name. Such audiences are the ones who can bring true evaluation to our film."
Well, this sounds a bit verbose. To simplify, ordinary Americans are attracted by the title to watch the movie, only to find they don't understand the content and give it a bad review.
On the other hand, audiences who are willing to watch the movie even with an unappealing title are those who intend to understand Eastern culture, so they should give a good review.
Thus, Jackson was completely persuaded. Wasn't the reason he took on this film to complete two fantasy epics, one from the East and one from the West? He didn't really care about the box office anyway, so such a title seemed indeed better.
And so, the two parties reached a collaboration, and a movie name that appeared like heavenly script to most Americans was born.