The scholars mentioned above have the same opinions。 They all put much emphasis on the comprehension and appreciation of movies among target audiences。 From this point, it accords with functional equivalence theory from Nida。 In addition，they have put forward some principles and strategies for film translation。 Although their studies are empirical rather than theoretical and systematical, they have contributed a lot to film translation field。

2。2 Review on functional equivalence theory

Nida, a preeminent linguist and translation theorist, has made great contributions to translation field。 In other words, he comes out in front of the modern translation research。 According to statistics, he separately or jointly published more than forty academic monographs and over two hundred and fifty papers。 Nida published his first monograph Bible Translating in 1946。 The most influential book of Nida is Toward a Science of Translating。 The second is the book The Theory and Practice of Translation published in 1969 through cooperation with Charles R。 Taber。 Nida developed the theory of translation through translating Bible translation。 The core conception of his theory is Functional Equivalence, which has exerted a tremendous influence on translation studies。 Later, Nida put forward formal and dynamic equivalence。 The theory of ‘Dynamic Equivalence” was raised in the light of the nature of translation。 He also made a comparison between the two equivalences。 From Nida, translation is a way of communication。 And translation denotes translating meaning in order to achieve equivalences in various aspects。 In the following parts more important explanations will be introduced in detail。 文献综述

Nida put forward Functional equivalence theory in 1964。 It emphasizes equivalence in function rather than the direct formal equivalence。 In the theory, Nida believes that “translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (Nida and Taber 12)。 According to the definition, translation must achieve equivalence not only in word meaning but also in style。 It does not seek rigid counterparts in the target language。 Both lexical and cultural information should be spread by translation。 It makes sure that the meaning of source language are equivalent in function to that of target language。 Finally, the same effect for target audiences is achieved。 The thesis will explain subtitle translation from the aspect of three equivalences like linguistics, stylistics and culture。     

In subtitled films, it is challenging and difficult for audiences to watch pictures on the screen and at the same time not miss subtitles at the bottom of the screen。 Foreign films are produced in a foreign language, so the mission of subtitles is to facilitate audiences’ understanding of dialogues in films。 Therefore, in order not to interfere with audiences’ appreciation of films, subtitle translation plays an important role in the process。 As translation is oriented towards target audiences, subtitle translation should be dealt in a way that does not require unnecessary processing effort on the part of the mass audiences in order to achieve optimal translation quality and maximum acceptance。 Nida’s functional equivalence theory happens to have the same point that target audiences’ response to the target text is very essential for an optimal translation。 Therefore, functional equivalence theory is practicable to be the theoretical principle of subtitle translation。

On the other hand, as a combination of moving pictures and sound, dialogues, music and background sound in films are especially important。 To some extent, the success or failure of film subtitle translation is determined by translators。 However, because source language differentiates from target language, it is difficult for translators to produce a satisfactory version。 And it is impossible for a translator to produce a version exactly in line with original lines both in the form and in content。