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Thursday, March 21st, 2024

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Missing China titles, but don't know non-Simplified Chinese titles to submit

1. https://movie.douban.com/subject/27112701/

2. https://movie.douban.com/subject/35332994/

3. https://movie.douban.com/subject/36822663/

Some is TV, one is a short. They are all missing from IMDb, but I don't want to submit without knowing their official translated titles, if they have one.

For example, 灿若星河 = Can ruo xinghe = Brilliant As a Galaxy per Google Translate. Is "Can ruo xinghe" accurate as a title? I don't know. I need a good resource to assist with submitting missing Chinese titles.

Anyone have any ideas or able to assist?

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2 years ago

Hi @Skater1405 -

We will leave the post open in case any other contributor has the information and can help.

Cheers!

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@Bethanny​ Thank you. I would LOVE to submit a lot more recently released/upcoming Asian cinema going forward (mostly Chinese, some Japanese, possibly some Korean) that is missing from IMDb, but due to me only knowing English I can only do so much here. I could make bare minimum pages with my guesses just so they exist and are cataloged on here, but I'd rather do it right.

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@Bethanny​ I figured it out. After consulting with a friend of mine who speaks Mandarin, I learned it is Pinyin and Jyutping that are used between Mandarin/Cantonese writing.

This is not a pressing issue for me but general feedback so as IMDb is a little more standardized and consistent, not to mention it is at times a lacking area of missing titles i.e less contributions in this sector, but IMDb's title submission rules do not have much in place for how titles are to be submitted in a standard way I've noticed as I researched the whole matter to learn.

https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/titles/title-formatting/G56U5ERK7YY47CQB#

[...] JapaneseMandarinCantoneseGreek:
All lower-case letters at the start of words, except first word plus some exceptions (names etc.).

The character set of all primary titles is ISO-LATIN-1. Original titles using other character sets (ISO-LATIN-2, Chinese pictograms, Cyrillic letters etc.) must be transliterated to ISO-LATIN-1. If you are unsure about the rules to follow check examples from the same country to see how it's done.

Not once does it standardize or specify what system to romanize with, albeit it's not too difficult to figure out what it is used -- but there are also different ways to do it with spacing, but again no exact standard way is put forth.

To explain my point further, using this title as an example:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7605074/

The Chinese phrase "流浪地球" (liúlàng dìqiú), meaning "The Wandering Earth," can be romanized in various ways depending on the romanization system used. Here are some possible romanizations:

1. Pinyin (with tones): liúlàng dìqiú
2. Pinyin (without tones): liulang diqiu
3. Wade-Giles: liu2-lang4 ti4-ch'iu2
4. Tongyong Pinyin: lioulàng dìciou
5. Gwoyeu Romatzyh: lioulang dìchyú
6. Postal Romanization: liu-lang ti-ch'iu
These are some common romanization systems used for Mandarin Chinese. The actual choice of romanization depends on the specific system preferred or required for a particular context or publication.

Note how "Liu lang di qiu" is what IMDb has it as. This is closest to #2 in the list, Pinyin system, no tones, but it has it as two words. liulang diqiu. This is a correct way. 流浪地球 is four characters though, so it's spaced out individually. 流/Liu, 浪/lang, 地/di, 球/qui, so instead of Liulang diqui we get Liu lang di qui, and this is the most common way a Mandarin title is then romanized and submitted on IMDb.

My point being, there are many romanization systems that could be used, Pinyin and Jyutping are the most common depending on which Chinese language, but even then then Liulang diqui and Liu lang di qui would technically both be correct and accurate since IMDb does not specify or standardize how it should be done for titles, rather "look at other titles and figure it out" when it is still technically a free or all.

Similar goes for Cantonese titles using Jyutping, as some users discuss here:

https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/how-do-i-report-a-wrong-original-movie-name-displaying-on-imdb/606d31554fdc0a391ada2075

You can see how some users say "Faai caan che", some "Faai caan ce". (che/ce) and even Faaicaance with no spacing between each chracter.

The difference between using "faai caan ce" and "faai caan che" lies in the representation of the final sound of the word "車" in Cantonese.

  1. "faai caan ce": In this romanization, "ce" represents a final "-e" sound. So, "快餐車" would be interpreted as "fast food car" or "snack car", where "車" is understood as a generic term for "vehicle" or "car".

  2. "faai caan che": In this romanization, "che" represents a final "-ɛ" sound. So, "快餐車" would be interpreted similarly as "fast food car" or "snack car", but with a slight variation in the pronunciation of the final sound of "車". This variation may reflect a different regional accent or pronunciation preference, but the overall meaning remains the same.

In practical terms, both "faai caan ce" and "faai caan che" could be used interchangeably to refer to a "fast food car" or "snack car" in Cantonese, with the slight difference in pronunciation. However, the choice between "ce" and "che" may depend on personal preference or specific linguistic contexts.

I'm sure IMDb has more pressing issues, but as you can see it is a slight free for all in a sense as there is no true framework.