Interview with English subtitle translator for 'Parasite'

Not every movie that is popular in its home country is going to cross over and become a hit in another country... especially one with a very different culture.
This is something that translators play a huge role in - as they can make a movie understandable and relatable in a new language or make it incomprehensible and written off as "one of those weird foreign films."
So, the success of Bong Joon-ho's 'Parasite' at the Cannes this year also owes to the translator of this film as this movie is especially heavily loaded with Korean cultural references that could have been lost in translation.
Our Lee Min-sun met with Darcy Paquet, the translator behind the English subtitles for Palme d'Or winning 'Parasite'. Darcy Paquet, who has spent almost two decades working in the Korean film industry, including on Bong Joon-ho's previous films, is getting praise for his translation, of not just the language, but also the cultural context of the film 'Parasite'.

"It is a complicated film with a lot of different ideas and symbols and the structure of the story itself is quite complicated."
"I think the film does have this really surprising power to cross between cultures… I tried my best I could do to translate the meaning of the sentence and also I looked very closely at the acting. And the facial expression and voice tone of the actor. And I tried to communicate that emotion as well as the actual content in the writing."

To successfully narrow the gap between different cultures, at times, he created new words or substituted Korean concepts to something that a foreign audience can quickly understand.

"There's a scene in the film where the question is "Does Seoul National University have a major in document forgery?" And originally I translated as Seoul National University but the director suggested changing it to either Oxford or Harvard... something that foreign audiences can understand very quickly. And it’s a funny line so particularly for humor, you need to understand it immediately."

Having worked on the translation of several Korean films, including Bong's previous film 'The Host', Paquet recalled his work with director Bong.

"I really enjoy working with him because he understands very well about what's needed for good English subtitles translation. And he has a very fine eye for detail. So he gives me a lot of good advice for translating and after I do my first draft we sit down together and go through line by line. And being able to talk with him about the translation really helps me a lot."

As a translator who stands in the middle of different cultures and bridges them, he holds high hopes that movies can be a strong tool to bring cultures together.

"I do really enjoy encouraging cultures to come together through films. And so in my case what I can do best is introducing international audiences to Korean cinema... There are some images from the film that stay in their minds. And it may help shape their impression of that culture