How to Glocalize a Movie Blockbuster Less Broccoli, More Explosions

Focus

How to glocalize a movie blockbuster Less broccoli, more explosions

Cameron Frecklington Alfredo Valdés Matta

Cameron Frecklington works in Beijing as an Alfredo Valdés Matta is a senior localization editor, staff writer, editorial consultant and project manager at LeEco in Beijing. He is a freelance journalist. He has worked in the computer science engineer with an MBA from localization department at LeEco, and studied National Sun Yat-sen University. Before moving business journalism for two years at Tsinghua to Asia, he worked as a system administrator in University in Beijing. the electrical power industry.

48 September 2017 Focus

he power of story is undeniable. Every civi- famous by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces T and utilized by George Lucas in the Star Wars franchise, but it lization throughout history has told stories, uti- should be a plot trajectory that people can relate to. lizing dramatic heroes and far-off settings for There are some themes that are timeless and transcend effect. Usually these stories were told locally and cultures. The Hero's Journey is one such theme, as are Good without care of foreign understanding or appeal. vs. Evil, Man vs. Nature, or Love Conquers All. After all, is With the movie industry now worth what it is — the Greek epic The Odyssey really all that different from the $38.6 billion according to the Motion Pictures Chinese classic Journey to the West? Both feature heroes on Association of America — and globalization a path of adventure, battling monsters and the gods while here to stay, making sure that a movie’s charac- learning from mentors and eventually triumphing over ters, settings, themes and style will work across evil. Conversely, there are some themes that don’t translate well (much like comedy, the most dialogue-dependent of a range of markets has become a priority for genres). The timeworn coming-of-age theme so well-mined movie production companies looking for that by John Hughes in movies such as The Breakfast Club or elusive box office franchise that succeeds all over Ferris Bueller’s Day Off might not be so easily understood the world. abroad. Films following such a theme generally show the transition from childhood to young adulthood but such Yet not all localization efforts are equal. When The Fate experiences vary from country to country. The experi- of the Furious — the eighth installment of The Fast and ence of Chinese high school students building up to the Furious franchise — earned a world record $433.2 million all-important gaokao university entrance exam contrasts overseas its opening weekend in April, it took in over $192 sharply against the classic American experience of learning million of that in China. The earning potential of the Chi- to drive at 15 or having a sweet-16 birthday party. nese market is a driving force behind much of the localization in film at present. It is not, however, all about China. Small tweaks can be made at precise moments to appeal in smaller markets. More importantly, efforts should be made to incorporate the appropriate cultural elements so local movie audiences are not offended by the neglectful or ignorant treatment of their culture. Movie purists will decry the globalized blockbuster, complaining that the “one-size-fits-all” approach dumbs down elements such as dialogue in favor of explosions and Michael Bay-esque production emphasis. While it is true that many movies that succeed internationally are action- based (or animated), such a statement is beside the point. The market for smaller, more localized movies (think Educators: Manchester by the Sea) still exists, but in a world where foreign investment in movies is on the up, the importance We want to help you of the foreign viewer is at an all-time high. help your students It’s important to remember that while China was the top foreign market even five years ago, the numbers back Help your students to better understand the intersection of language, technology and culture via then were much smaller. Since 2012, the China market has timely articles written by experts around the world. grown from $2.7 billion, just ahead of Japan, to $6.6 billion Provide them with a digital subscription to MultiLingual in 2016. While Japan has dropped from the second-most with our compliments. valuable market to third, India has climbed to fourth and South Korea to fifth, although it should be noted that no Contact us at [email protected] to learn other market has seen the dramatic growth China has. more about utilizing MultiLingual in your classroom. Universality of themes When looking across cultures and languages, it’s important that a story follows one of life’s more universal themes. It doesn’t have to be the monomyth of the hero’s journey made

September 2017 49 Focus

Preexisting material Familiarity is perhaps not the most fashionable artistic characteristic to promote, but for movies it is important. While directors and actors might chase the new, edgy production to feature in, audiences, and therefore production companies, crave familiarity. Preexisting material (think adaptations or sequels or reboots or remakes) often come with a built-in fan base and appeals to the comfort of familiarity. When considering the 25 highest-grossing movies of all time (unadjusted for inflation), only two are not based on preexisting material: Avatar and Titanic, numbers 1 and 2, both directed by James Cameron. Harry Potter, Captain America, James Bond, Transformers— they all existed somewhere else before the big screen (although if unadjusted for inflation, then the top ten movies would include the original Star Wars movie and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, both original concepts.) Selecting the proper actor to boost box office success is a common practice in Hollywood. Talents such as Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lawrence are considered “bankable” movie stars, with some having held that mantle for years. But as the movie market globalizes, studios have started more and more to hire actors who are The Pixar movie Inside Out localized a detested vegetable: famous in specific target markets. This trend started with they replaced the broccoli in the US version with green pep- hiring Chinese superstars for small roles with few (or no) pers in the Japanese version. lines in films just so Hollywood studios could sidestep the Chinese foreign movie import quota. This pandering was star Lee Byung-hun stars alongside some of Hollywood’s such a trend that Chinese movie-goers coined the term most recognizable actors as assassin Billy Rocks. In Lee’s “ /hua ping” or “flower vase,” often used to describe home country, the movie made $6.8 million; in France someone who is beautiful on the outside and empty on the and Germany, two comparable markets based on past inside. In this case, the phrase refers to a Chinese talent yearly box office earnings, the same film made $5 million who is given a zero-impact role. The best example of this (France) and $4.8 million (Germany). would be Fan Bingbing. Fan is a massive star in China (58 And while it is more often than not Hollywood that million followers on the popular micro-blogging plat- is looking for actors to help in certain markets, they are form Weibo) and was thus cast in Iron Man 3 and X-Men: not alone. The Bollywood movie Tubelight stars not only Days of Future Past based on her star appeal. The problem superstar actor Salman Khan, but also Chinese rising star was that she was cut from the US version of Iron Man and Zhu Zhu. While the story demands such casting — a cross- given the grand total of one line in X-Men. border love story — it wouldn’t have hurt negotiations when This practice has changed for the better in recent times, the producers could bring to the table stars from two of the and now it is common to see roles given to non-Americans top five most valuable movie markets. who are more central to the plot. When casting is done based on talent and the actors given room to act, the results Localized scenes can be promising. Veteran Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen In order to allow the release of a movie in a particular and Beijing stalwart Jiang Wen were cast as warriors in the country, distributors might localize the final cut so that it Star Wars spin-offRogue One, and their roles were widely complies with regulations, self-censoring to create differ- praised. While their casting might not have elevated Rogue ent versions of the movie that extend the overall reach of One to the levels in China it reached elsewhere, its mid- a movie. But localization is not done only to follow foreign dling success was likely more to do with Chinese audience laws. An older example of this comes from the 1993 movie unfamiliarity with the Star Wars franchise. Demolition Man. The US version of the movie features the An example of how local actors may improve box office fast food restaurant Taco Bell in the background for the performance can be seen in how The Magnificent Seven futuristic world, but in the European version the same res- performed in South Korea. In the movie, South Korean taurant has been re-edited to appear as Pizza Hut. This was

50 September 2017 Pixar's Zootopia localized an animated news anchor for different countries. possibly done at the behest of PepsiCo, Brazilian version, it’s a jaguar; and or someone realizing that Pizza Hut is in the Chinese version, it is a panda. a more recognizable brand outside of Small changes can make a striking the US. difference. A more recent and less com- The animated hitKung Fu Panda 3 mercial example can be found in the took glocalization a step further in that Pixar movie Inside Out. In the US the producers, Oriental DreamWorks (and global) version of the movie, the in Shanghai, made two separate mov- main character, a young girl named ies with the same storyline and same Riley, is disgusted by the thought of characters, but in two separate lan- eating broccoli, a food stereotypically guages. Not dubbed, with audible Chi- disliked by most children. In the Japa- nese overtop mouths forming English nese version, however, the scene was words, but two versions each synched localized to make the much-despised to match the speech and movements vegetable green peppers. Broccoli of the characters. This meant that suffers not from the same reputation some of the phrases and humor of childish distaste in Japan, and to needed tweaking. The main character leave the scene unchanged would’ve in the movie, Po the panda, often uses missed the point entirely. Similarly, the catchphrase “Ski-doosh,” though in the Lithuanian version of Garfield, the phrase is pure nonsense and has the titular character’s favorite food no real meaning, even in English. In is not lasagna, as it is in the widely- the Mandarin version, this phrase was syndicated comic strip, but instead translated to “ Zou ni!” This can kugelis, a local baked potato and be loosely translated to “Charge!” For bacon dish. humor, local tastes were catered to. In the Disney hit Zootopia, the For example, after one battle that was audience receives updates on what particularly frightening for Po, he says is happening throughout the movie “Wow, I think I just peed a little!” This via Zootopia Network News and was deemed too crass for Chinese its newsreaders. While one of the audiences and was instead changed to anchors, a snow leopard, remains “This is too much!” constant regardless of market, the co-anchor changes to appeal to cer- Verify your linguistic tain markets. In the US, Canadian and cultural assets and French version, the co-anchor In all localization projects, movie is a moose; in the Japanese version, production included, it is recom- it’s a tanuki (also known as a raccoon mended that all linguistic or cultural dog); in the Australian and New aspects are closely reviewed before Zealand version, it’s a koala; in the release. Failure to do so can result

51 in embarrassing moments like that tion misstep was the case in the James which Showtime series Homeland Bond movie Die Another Day. Much of experienced in a Season 5 episode. the 20th movie in the Bond franchise For the show, the producer asked was set on the Korean peninsula, and some local artists to create some it could’ve used some insight on local graffiti on set to recreate a Syrian– attitudes. Not only were South Kore- Lebanese border refugee camp. The ans depicted as an impoverished rural artists disagreed with how Muslims people using oxen in some scenes, but were represented in the show and Japanese architecture was confused so painted graffiti that said, “Home- for South Korean, and a CIA officer land is a joke, and it didn’t make us was shown giving orders to members laugh,” “Homeland is racist” and of the South Korean army. Perhaps the “Homeland is watermelon” (which is most offensive aspect was a sex scene slang for “not to be taken seriously” that took place in front of a Buddhist and gave rise to the then trending temple. This angered many in South #homelandiswatermelon). Korea and led to boycotts of the movie Coproduction between foreign and in that country. Given that the movie local market companies is another opened in 2002, two years before avenue for improved localization, as Facebook and four before Twitter, it’s more people with different cultural likely that the boycott would be far backgrounds having a say during more wide-reaching had it happened production can eliminate cultural in today’s social mediafied world. faux pas. This is primarily the domain It remains to be seen exactly how of Sino-US partnerships at present, politics are going to play out all over which is no surprise given the value of the world, but globalization is looking these markets and the money in each more and more like an irreversible country’s home movie industry. An phenomenon. Certainly Hollywood is obvious example for making movies not going to stop pandering to China, that involve Asian elements is chop- just as China is not going to stop stick etiquette. In Chinese culture exploring coproductions with Russia (and indeed across most of Asia), it’s (as in the widely panned superhero considered bad etiquette to stick one’s film Guardians). With the way the chopsticks into a bowl of rice when not world is now interconnected through in use. This is because the chopsticks social media and other such channels, visually resemble the incense sticks indignation can spread all too quickly, burned to commemorate the dead. hurting a movie before it even opens Jamming chopsticks into a bowl of rice (as it did with accusations of “white is just one in a litany of considerations washing” by casting a non-Asian in regarding chopsticks and remember- the lead role in Ghost in the Shell). ing the dead in Asia. While most Sino- At the same time, actors impor- US coproductions exist to circumvent tant to certain markets can be used the foreign film import quota (set to effectively if their talent is up to the increase sometime in the near future), task and they are given room to the benefits of such “cultural consul- have a meaningful role. Same with tancy” should not be overlooked. scenes localized for specific markets By treating the cultural elements if the local elements appealed to of a country or culture with flippancy, are researched fully. Doing so will movie producers risk offending a increase the chances of success in the massive audience, generating not only international market, maximizing box anger within a potentially large movie office and winning over international market but also the massive amount audiences with thoughtful consider- of negative publicity. Such a produc- ation of represented culture. [M]