[Cinementary] Namingology of 'decision to break up' and 'Chongqing Forest'

  Not long ago, I heard the CEO of a movie company say, "I also want to do a movie with a title like 'Decision to break up'."

Soon he added grumblingly.

"By the way, that's a possible title because it's Park Chan-wook..." I laughed to myself, but I remember being amazed when I heard the title of this new movie, directed by Park Chan-wook, 'Wow, something new'.

However, the CEO of a movie company, who has no choice but to put the box office first, cannot choose a title just because it 'looks like it exists'.

The title 'Determination to Break Up' is cool, but it seems far from the usual box office title.

If a rookie director had carried it, it would have been a title that would have been shunned by the production company early on.

Even if it was difficult to pass the production company, it would never have crossed the threshold of the investment distribution company.

"Are you art? What kind of Cannes Park (Park Chan-wook) are you?"

You must have heard something like this.

(For reference, 'Cannes Park' debuted in 1992 with the movie "The Moon... The Dream of the Sun", and the movie was a 'destroyed')

Enlarging an image

  Recently, "The King of Reopening" director Wong Kar-wai's "Chongqing Forest" was re-released.

It is already the third re-release, and immediately after the re-opening, it rose to the top in the Megabox reservation rate, and it is still popular enough to stay in the top 10 at the box office for 8 days straight after opening.

It is also popular with young audiences who are seeing this film for the first time.

It is said that there is a sense of emotion to see a movie that was consumed only with famous images with motion pictures.

"Chongqing Forest" are derived from the movie's main setting, Chongqing Mansion in Hong Kong, and the Midnight Express, the restaurant where Yang Zhao-wi and Wang Fei meet.

Most of Wong Kar-wai's movie titles are made up of four letters.

From his debut works, Hot-Blood Boys, to Abijeongjeon, Dongsa West Germany, Chongqing Forest, Fallen Angel, Chungwang Editorial (Happy Together), The Hwayangyeonhwa, 2046, etc. Just hearing the titles gives you a sense of 'Oh, this is a work of Wong Kar-wi'.

What is interesting, however, is that the English title of director Wong Kar-wai's film gives a similar image to the original Chinese title, but is playing separately from the original title.

For example, the English title of "A

is "As Tears Go By". It's the same as the Rolling Stones song title, but it's a sequel to "The True Color of a Hero". Doesn't it have a slightly different atmosphere from 'Hot-Blood Boy', which has the same feeling?

The original Hong Kong release title is "Mongkok Carmen".

(Romantic meaning of Carmen in Mongkok, Hong Kong) starring Gook-Young Jang

is "Days of Being Wild."

'The Battle of the Fathers' was also a Chinese title when the movie "Rebel Without a Cause", which made James Dean an immortal icon, was released in Hong Kong.

‘Abi’ was a term used to refer to a young man who pursued a Western-style attitude and way of thinking in Hong Kong in the 1960s.

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 In any case, the important thing is that the Chinese and English titles of Wong Kar-wai's films go hand in hand 'separately and together', but they also live independently.

, the story of the verb and the West German,

is "Ashes Of Time".

It's a cool name as it blends in with the image of a movie set in the desert, isn't it?

Although it has nothing to do with the Chinese title directly.

, in which Yang Jo-wi and Jang Gook-young played a gay man who loved each other in the exotic scenery of Buenos Aires,

was released in Korea under the title "Happy Together". ‘Chungwang Editorial’, meaning ‘break through’, was the Chinese title for Italian master Michelangelo Antonioni’s Palme d’Or (1967) “Blow Up” at the Cannes Film Festival. It is now famous enough to be used as the title of a K-pop song and a drama. Haejin

is English titled "In The Mood for Love".

Wong Kar-Wai said that the title was taken from Francis Langford's song 'I am in the mood for love', but in fact, Brian Perry's version was included in the movie.

As those of you who have seen the movie will know, both the Chinese title and the English title fit the mood of the movie in their own way.

'Separately and together' or 'Hwayi non-dong'.

That's where the attraction comes in.

It wouldn't be fun if the original title and the English title were too close together as if they were a direct translation.

But don't be too divisive.

The original title and English title of Wong Kar-Wai's film further enriches the nuance of the film.

Umberto Eco, the world-renowned intellectual who wrote the best-selling "Name of the Rose", said that he received many questions from readers of "The Name of the Rose" why the title of the book was 'The Name of the Rose'.

Of course, this title is taken from the last sentence of the book, 'The rose of the past is now only its name, and all we have left is its fleeting name (stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus)'.

The reader's question is, why did you take it from that sentence?

 Umberto Eco explains why in the first chapter 'Title and Meaning' of the book "The Name of the Rose Author's Note".

Echo, too, said it was initially titled "Crimes in the Monastery," but feared that readers would consider the novel only a mystery.

Next, I put it under the neutral title "Adso of Melk", but discarded it again because of publishers who do not like proper nouns.

Then, by chance, the title “The Name of the Rose” came to mind, and Echo, a semiotician, said that he liked it very much because it symbolized a lot of roses.

Echo

said.

"A novel is a machine that generates numerous interpretations," but unfortunately, "the title is the key to the interpretation of a work", so we have to keep a reasonable distance from the novel's content.

(At this point, I couldn't help but think of the vulgar headlines of the latest online news)

  Among the movies that have been released recently, there are often Korean titles that make you tilt your head.

It's "Money Lookup", "One Thousand Seas", etc., but when both titles are written in Korean, it's difficult to understand what they mean.

(I think the content of the movie, as well as the original title itself, which are "Don't Look Up" and "A Day at the Beach" - a day at the beach - respectively, are great.

) The Korean title alone does not imply the content of the movie at all, so should it be called a good title that allows for a rich interpretation?

No, these titles don't seem to contain Echo's concerns.

 There are some Korean movie titles that I can remember even after many years.

Rather, they are titles with superior literary quality than the original titles.

"We Have No Tomorrow" (Original: Bonnie And Clyde), "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "A Fistful of Dollars", "North by Northwest), "Love and Soul" (Ghost).

Of course, by the time these films were released, there were restrictions on transliteration of foreign languages ​​in the titles of the films, and there was a limit that many of them, including the above cases, were translated from Japanese titles as they were.

However, it is a slightly different issue, and if you look at the translated title itself, it preserves the theme of the film and creates a wonderful feeling in our own words.

 I frown at the naming of some recent movie titles, which I don't know what they mean and are difficult to pronounce.

Of course, as the times change, I admit that the tastes of the global age and the public's sense of acceptance do not object to English titles, but rather may provoke a desire to see the film.

However, the inability to create a sense of the native language with Korean movie titles and the inability to elicit public sensibility with Korean titles is the

It weakens the power.

Director Bong Joon-ho said at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards that let's overcome the 'one inch barrier' and said that the most personal is the most creative.

However, I want you to think about whether our movie titles are setting up an inch barrier.

"Power of Dogs", "Parallel Mothers", "Uncharted"... Isn't it awkward?

Isn't that irresponsible?

  I came back after a long talk of "decision to break up".

"The Decision to Break Up" is a screening film in the competition section of the 75th Cannes Film Festival, which opens on the 17th of this month.

Many people are looking forward to whether a Korean film can win the Palme d'Or again after three years since "Parasite".

I am also looking forward to this movie with a different title that is strangely intriguing to me.

Actually, I'm more curious about how the title and content of the movie respond and relate to each other rather than whether or not to receive the Palme d'Or.