Hilarious: Star Wars Redubbed with Pirated Chinese DVD Subtitles

2017-01-15 ThatsShanghai

By Rachel Deason

One internet user has used the subtitles from an old pirated Chinese copy of Star Wars: Episode III to redub the film. And it's hilarious.

The poorly-translated subtitles of the pirated copy first gained popularity back in 2005 when an expat living in Shanghai purchased a bootleg copy of the DVD for RMB7 and uploaded screenshots from the film to his blog.

The blog post went viral and even sparked the “Do Not Want” meme, which is based on a misunderstanding of Darth Vader’s line “NOOO.”
It’s unclear how the subtitles came to be so wrong, right down to the title of the films. Revenge of the Sith, which appears very clearly on the screen during the opening credits, has been translated to “Backstroke of the West.”
In any case, the redubbing seems to have been executed with some care. The voice actors manage to speak complete gibberish while sounding remarkably similar to original actors Hayden Christiansen, Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson et al.

Here are just some of the highlights: