Phone - Korean Title? (solved)
Does anyone know the real title of this film? That is I doubt it was really called 'Phone,' in English, while screening in Korea. I'd appreciate any help.
shareEverything that's come out of Korea concerning Phone--meaning trailers, posters, and even the DVD--has prominently displayed the title proudly as "PHONE." However, there is a Korean character displayed as well (the opening credits read as "p h [KOREAN CHARACTER HERE] n e").
shareThanks Sa-kun. The Korean character presumably means phone as well. True, all Asian films I've seen in North America have an English title. My question was poorly phrased. I need to know how this character would be spelt using the English alphabet. Many foreign character languages, that is Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese and others, have titles on the imdb that show the title expressed in the correct language while written in the English alphabet. This appears to be an exception. I could only think it's because the Korean's say and spell the word phone the same way that we do. Can anyone confirm this?
shareMy interpretiation of his answer is that the correct title of this movie IS Phone and that the korean spelling was there to translate the title to people who didn't know english. It's actually not uncommon for asian movies to have english titles, just look at Ringu (which is actually spelled Ring but due to grammatical rules in the japanese language turn out Ringu).
shareI accept that the title of the movie is 'Phone' in both English and Korean. Since this is the title I would like to know how it would be spelt in Korean with the English alphabet. It is incredibly rare for Asian films to have English titles that are not mere translations; this is what sparked my interest in the first place.
share[deleted]
it says phone in korean title, (actually in korea, they used both as korean
one (of phone) , english phone.
also to add this point.
the word phone (as sound), now it's common word for telephone in korea.
the sound of word became actual korean word.
not many people call phone for jun wha (aka korean sound of phone), these
days. they just call it phone.
like all these japanese word in english as english word.
Great insight da_3_ninjas and wasinoz. I conclude that you are both correct. 'Pon', then is the answer I was looking for; either the correct spelling or a variation of the representation of one way that the Koreans now express the word 'Phone.' It's fascinating how language evolves but it would be sad to think that some word usage would diminish in favour of using English words and phrases. Despite my skepticism of the initial poster's responses it appears that they were correct to some extent; however, I still have difficulty believing that Korean, Japanese or any foreign language filmmaker would favour an English title, for their film, over a title expressed in their native tongue. This is an exception since the Koreans have added 'phone' or 'pon' to their everyday use.
'Ringu' & 'Shall we Dansu' are obvious translations as well with perhaps some strange Japanese grammatical rule applied as a previous poster suggested.
The English translated titles, which are often only present with English subtitles running, are there for a growing foreign market for these films and for their own multilingual populations. I just prefer to know the true titles of any foreign films that I watch.
Thanks to all for what you have offered. I hope you'd like another go at it. I have just seen another tremendous Korean film that is listed on the IMDB simply as 'Face.' What gives? Am I to believe that Korean and English is practically the same language?
wasinoz, I may have missed the meaning of your last sentence. What did you mean? I think I don't know what you meant by 'these?' But thanks again.
Kimchi rules!!! Pork bone soup isn't bad either.
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Huge thanks da 3 ninjas. I may post similar questions on this thread for you in the future. The only film that you mentioned that I've seen is 'Into the Mirror.' I'm actually going to see 'A Tale of Two Sisters' at the theatre tonight. I'll have to check out Red Eye, Whispering Corridors, Dead Friend, Girls' High School Ghost Story and R-point. You are a well-spring of the kind of knowledge that I will need. Thank you.
Do you know what 'Peisu' means in English? What does '>.<' mean?
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Just had to pop in to say I loved Momento Mori. :D
sharelast sentence were...meaning...?
sushi ? do you have name for this english ? what about word : tsunami ?
all these word from japanese but adopted as english word of form.
also the pon....this is just simple pronounce of sound of Phone when you read
them in Korean word (and translate to<again> korean sound as english)
same as Face...
Korean Pronounce those not have particular sounds for P or F...so many koreans
finds hard to learn english when they pronounce at first place
Thanks for the clarification wasinoz. I see what you mean now since you used the examples of "tsunami" and "sushi." These are English words taken from other languages since no such words existed in English. So "Phone" and "Face" have been adopted as simplified alternatives to Korean words used to express the same thing? I think this is what you mean.
shareThat's an interesting thread mates, thanks ! I often wondered what the original titles of my favourite asian movies really meant.
But... Language does evolve. as you mentioned with tsunami and sushi, those are in general use in the world (Like in French, where a lot of words are derived from Arabian, which in turn used French words as well, and a tremendous lot of English words are derived from French.) The same goes the other way, in Asia you'll notice some terms from modern days (like computers) are used verbatim since there were no equivalent in Japanese. That is the first example that jumps to my mind, but I'm sure there are others ! World languages are still evolving... Fortunately !