In order to attract the audience, the translation of film titles is a top priority。 Good translation can give people a deep impression, similar to making good icing on the cake, while bad translation can make Pearl disgraceful。

Film is not only a form of art, but also reflects the rich and colorful life, furthermore, it can show the cultural value orientation of the producer, working as an important carrier of cultural output and exchange。 Film translation is a simple and intuitive mean to introduce exotic culture and spread national culture。 Film title is the essence and soul of the movie, playing the role of guidance and propaganda。 In Chinese- English film title translation, some rules and methods are often followed。 In this paper, from the perspective of domestication and foreignization theory, characteristics of translation of Chinese film titles and the translation strategies used by translators will be analyzed through specific examples。

2。 Literature Review

The title translation will inevitably encounter the gap of language and culture。 Therefore, it is difficult to achieve equivalence of characteristics of language, culture and function。 Then two different opinions will be held, namely, domestication method and foreignization method。

Domestication and foreignization include both linguistic and cultural levels。 According to Venuti’s definition, people who use domestication method take the attitude of ethnocentrism to make source language text fit in with the cultural values of target language, bringing the author into the world of target language, while people who apply foreignization method are against deviation from original cultural values, accepting language and cultural differences and bringing the readers into the foreign situation。 Specific to film title translation, domestication method refers to the use of fluent language expressions and traditional sentiment to please the audience of the target language。 Its typical feature is the extensive use of existing expressions。 However, foreignization method pursues the novel, strange, and anti -fluent language expressions with complete disregard for ready-made expressions in the target language culture which have been for a long time。

2。1 Theory of Domestication

One of the most famous representative figures is Nida。 He proposed that, in the view of society and culture, translation ought to be the most natural equivalence of the information that source language conveys from the perspective of target readers, presenting completely idiomatic expressions。 Generally speaking, as many behavior models of source language as possible should be fitted into the cultural backgrounds of target readers。 Therefore, there is no need for the readers to accept source language’s culture model in order to understand the information it conveys。 (Nida, 1964:159)

Traditional translation theories believe that film title translation belongs to text translation, often comparing with the title translation of literary works, so everything starts from "faithful to the original text"。 As a result, complete equivalence is regarded as good translation, while incomplete equivalent needs to be improved, while total difference is always attacked。 However, in fact, film, as a kind of art, is different from the other categories of works。(Li Qun,2002:2)

Chinese movie《龙年警官》is translated into Police Officer in 1988。 Because westerners don’t use animals naming year, so this translation is just appropriate。 It points out the era of the story, at the same time, it avoids western audience’s misunderstanding that it is an action movie full of violence because of their different understanding of “dragon”。(Gong Siqin,2009)

2。2 Theory of Foreignization文献综述

Venuti, representative of foreignization faction advocated that distinctive culture features of source language should be retained in the translation。