Video-fix: Interview with Parasite subtitler

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Parasite subtitler

Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 black comedy Parasite has swept onto the international film stage, taking home a total of four Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film, Best Original Screenplay). Parasite is the first non-English language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

There is currently no English dub of the film. No doubt, excellent subtitles have contributed to the film’s success. In this video-fix, we present an interview with Parasite’s English subtitler Darcy Paquet. Paquet has worked as a subtitler for many of Bong Joon-ho s films, including Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) and Memories of Murder (2003). He also translated the Korean script for Snowpiercer (2013) into English. In this interview, Paquet talks about his close cooperation with Bong, creating subtitles that preserve the humour of the Korean original, and his decision to translate the Korean dish jjapaguri as “ramdon”.

Sources

(Yonhap Interview) Subtitle translator in spotlight after Parasite’s Cannes victory. June 2019. en.yna.co.kr. Accessed 10/03/2020

Darcy Paquet, imdb.com. Accessed 10/03/2020

‘Parasite’ subtitle translator: Comedies are a fun challenge. June 2019. korea.net. Accessed 10/03/2020


Janna Mack pictureJanna Mack

Born and raised in multilingual and multicultural Luxembourg, Janna speaks Luxembourgish, German, French, and English. She has degrees in Linguistics, Education, and Translation from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She has experience in teaching English as a foreign language, administration, and web development. In her spare time, she enjoys art history, painting, and films.