C-netizens Dying of Laughter Over Ridiculous Voices and Subs in the US Airing of Popular C-drama

A modern new C-drama classic gets a fresh coat of Western paint and the result is unending hilarity that makes me cackle even as I’m thisclose to falling into blissful slumber. The currently hot topic C-drama The Empress of China is merely the latest and boobiest challenger for the throne still occupied by the early 2012 hit The Legend of Zhen Huan (Empresses in the Palace). But the reigning queen shows no sign of relinquishing her position of power, what with the C-drama snapped up by HBO to be broadcast as a six-episode miniseries.

The C-drama made leading ladies Sun Li and Jiang Xin household names and faces in China and recently vaulted back into headline entertainment news when the US subtitled and re-dubbed cut dropped online, showing the hack job done in order to prep it for US airing. All the voices have been re-dubbed using Taiwanese Mandarin speakers and slangy dialogue (Taiwanese Mandarin is referred to as guoyu 國語 or national language versus the Mainland’s version of Mandarin called putonghua 普通话) and the subtitles are a bucket full of laughs in each and every line. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

Scene cut from the US airing of The Legend of Zhen Huan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VagRW1kZ3JE

Comments

C-netizens Dying of Laughter Over Ridiculous Voices and Subs in the US Airing of Popular C-drama — 12 Comments

Jason on January 18, 2015 at 12:31 PM said:

They must have use Google translate lol

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cv on January 18, 2015 at 12:34 PM said:

LMAO ^^ that’s some poor subtitles. Even fan subs are so much better.

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- unamused on January 18, 2015 at 9:49 PM said:
  
  Seriously, I hope those were just early cuts, cause wth. I was one of those who loved LZH so much, that I spent ridiculous hours subbing it. I was excited about the drama getting a new audience, but if this is how HBO is handling it, then no bueno. Things already seemed iffy, when they changed the opening theme to a mediocre English cover, but now this -_-
  
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Cipher on January 18, 2015 at 1:48 PM said:

Dear Koala, this clip is actually produced by Chinese netizens for fun. The voice over is done by a famous group of people who specialize in doing voice over for parody video such as this one.

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Ivy on January 18, 2015 at 1:57 PM said:

Haha XD But this must surely be a joke? How can they invest so little in getting proper subs when they spent so much acquiring the right to broadcast it in the US?!

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Anh on January 18, 2015 at 2:19 PM said:

They need some Viki and Dramafever up in this mess.

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anon on January 18, 2015 at 2:35 PM said:

LOL omg…………… that is SO BAD!!!!! Won’t even talk about the translation, but the sound of that dub ohmygoddd….What kind of equipment do they have?? wtf???? Makes the whole production sound like some YouTube video! Ugh!

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yhfan on January 18, 2015 at 5:19 PM said:

This post is very misleading.
This is actually a FAN MADE video clip parodying the to be released US version, that has since become extremely popular. This has nothing to do with the official HBO version. This is the opening for the HBO version: http://v.qq.com/cover/v/voqyjm0erdor6x4.html?vid=b0143c8sirn

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- lc on January 19, 2015 at 8:54 AM said:
  
  The hbo opening song is lovely, but I prefer the original Chinese version. It conveys perfectly the vicissitudes of life that Zhen Huan and her cohorts went through in the palace.
  
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supah on January 19, 2015 at 4:08 AM said:

I’m dying! XDDD

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Joycelyn (@jg_humanitarian) on January 19, 2015 at 9:25 AM said:

OMG!! THEY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN ONE OF THE REGULAR SUBBERS TO DO IT!! WHY HBO WHY?!!!

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Stuart on January 19, 2015 at 8:46 PM said:

So, we have two commenters saying this a parody, and ohers assuming it’s for real. Which is it?

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