Review of the Korean 'Frozen'

          

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          Last week, I saw the movie Frozen dubbed in Korean. Having had seen the "original" movie (meaning, in English) 3 times, I had most of the lines, lyrics, and scenes of the movie memorized by the time I settled down for the Korean version. As a translator at my Korean church for the few American members we have, I've wondered how they translated the characters' lines and the song lyrics. Well, I have more criticisms than praises.

        First, let's start with how they translated the title. I know that there's not really a direct translation for the word 'frozen' in Korean, to say something is frozen in Korean, a noun has to directly follow. So you can't just say 'frozen' in Korean, 'cause then all the Koreans will think, "Frozen...what? What's frozen?" So, the movie title "Frozen" has been translated to 겨울왕국 which means "Winter Kingdom". I have to admit that it's not a bad job considering that the English title couldn't be translated directly, so it's not too bad of a substitute but I feel like it doesn't cover all of the movie. The "kingdom" in the Korean title refers to Elsa's ice palace that she made as she sang "Let it Go", and that ice palace melted as summer was brought back. So I feel like it's rather a temporary part of the whole movie, yet it got to be the title. Not only that, there are talks of the second movie coming up, since it's been so popular, and well, will Elsa make another ice palace? I don't know. So if Elsa doesn't make another ice palace in this possible sequel, then will the Korean title still be "Winter Kingdom II"?

        Second, I am not particularly fond of the cast they chose for the dubbing. I could tell that these were musical actors and actresses, by the way they were singing, since Frozen is a musical, just not on live stage. But... Is Korea running a shortage on younger musical actors/actresses? Because what I could also tell from their voices was that these were all at least middle-aged men and women. Which is a problem in this case because all the characters of Frozen are young! So it was weird enough hearing Elsa and Anna speak Korean in different voices (I'd memorized their English voices), but then they also sounded at least 20 years older than their faces.

         Third, what is up with all the formality?! Yes, the Korean language has formal and informal, and as a country who highly respects its elders and people of high position, in this case the Queen and the princess, the other characters would be very formal with them. But formality can create a sense of distance, relationship wise. So to see Kristoff and Anna talk formally with each other all the time, when they're bickering with each other and they're supposed to be just very casual and open with each other, was super odd. And Olaf never called Anna by her name, she was always called "Princess". (You're not supposed to call someone older or of higher position than you by their name, unless it's like "Princess Anna"). I wish they would have just bent the rules a bit, couldn't he have just called her Anna throughout the movie? The characters' actions were very informal with each other, but their tone was formal, so this was just all confusing to watch, at least for me, since I know how informal these characters are supposed to be with each other.

          Fourth, how "Let it Go" was translated for the one that was sung during the movie. Just like the "original" version, there were two versions of "Let it Go" in the Korean Frozen, and I had already heard the version of "Let it Go" sung by Hyorin of Sistar, the one played during the credits. In this one, she actually sang in English, the words "let it go" while the rest is Korean, of course. But then in the version that was played during the movie, sang by the musical actress, instead of singing the English words "let it go", she sang "다 잊어" which means, "Forget everything." I know, I know, it seems like I'm just nit-picking, they were close with "Forget everything". But I had my hopes up about my favorite song in the movie, I mean, before I saw the Korean Frozen, I heard Hyorin sing those English words, so what else was I supposed to expect? Also the Korean people have been gobbling up "Let it Go", so I thought it was sang just like that, those words in English.

         Now time for some long-awaited praise - they did a superb job of translating the lines! I've pondered how some of the lines could be translated, since some kind of phrases or figures of speech cannot be directly translated in Korean. There were times when jokes that would have made sense in English but not in Korean were altered a bit to change their meanings, which was unfortunate, but what could they do? So good job, Korean Frozen producers - genius translating!

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