The one dialogue element that sticks out in Jianming Huang’s animated film, Goodbye Monster, is the number of times Dark Spirit is said out loud. I’m sure the words used in Chinese are similar, but a thesaurus is needed to vary this concept in English. For example, to say, “He’s possessed!” or “Bad mojo” can get the point across too. I wouldn’t worry too much about matching the syllables to mouth movement either since getting the point across is much more important.
This story needs to remember why Yin and Yang exist, and whether bad deeds can get exorcised. My initial view of this film had me confused about what’s important. As a result, I’m more interested in acquiring the Chinese home video release rather than the American version. Hopefully, it’ll have subtitles along with a Mandarin/Cantonese track to explain moments that got lost in the translation.
Continue reading “To Say Farewell Isn’t Tough in Goodbye Monster, A Movie Review”