Another strange Chinese title: The Magnificent Duo (1979)

[Chen Hung Lieh]

https://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=8925

Current Chinese main title: 壯麗鐸

Well, 壯麗 means "majestic, magnificent" according my dictionary, but 鐸 means everything but "Duo". However, the Pinyin is spelled [duó], so it is possible it was used as a loanword for the english word "Duo". But I have no idea why they should have done that when they use a real Chinese word in the same sentence.

I browsed the web and Korean auction sites for Korean tapes and posters, but couldn't find any with a Chinese title.

This smells pretty much of an old failed google translation.

I added the Chinese IFD title and I think this is the only Chinese title available for this Korean movie.

In 2023 I asked our former editor Bruce because he wrote this in an old topic, but he seems no longer active:

Regarding "The Magnificent Duo"
http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=8925
Was there really a distinct Dragon Lee film with that title? I rather doubt it.

There was a Korean film which was re-titled "The Magnificent Duo" when released by Joseph Lai's IFD. I have the Chinese title and cast list for that film, and could enter them, if I can delete Dragon Lee from the cast, as he certainly was not in the film. (The star of the film was Lee Dae-Keun.)

I can't find the whole topic because the forum search doesn't work anymore.

If no one objects, I will make the IFD Title 雙龍會 the Chinese main title in 1-3 weeks.

[J.J.Hayden]

The Pinyin theory is interesting, but I can't really add anything to that. I couldn't find a Hanja (Chinese characters) title anywhere either. A point of interest is that the Hangul title 시라소니 is completely different. Usually the Chinese name is just the Hanja of the Hangul title, I assume it was changed in this case because Chinese audiences wouldn't know who Lee Seong-soon (aka Shirasoni) is

A theory I have is that maybe 雙龍會 was the original IDF Chinese title and they changed to 壯麗鐸 to differentiate it from The Twin Dragons [1992], then again with it being IDF, maybe they changed it to 雙龍會 deliberately to mix it up with the Jackie Chan film to cash in?

It is an odd case, but as things stand I can't really see anyone objecting to the change, since these is official evidence of it and seemingly nothing on the current title.


Also, I noticed that issue with “search” too, but I keep forgetting to bring it up I think it even started before the “System Updates” that were announced.

Cheers

[Chen Hung Lieh]

A theory I have is that maybe 雙龍會 was the original IDF Chinese title and they changed to 壯麗鐸 to differentiate it from The Twin Dragons [1992], then again with it being IDF, maybe they changed it to 雙龍會 deliberately to mix it up with the Jackie Chan film to cash in?

They certainly wouldn't have had any scruples, but apart from Korea, I don't know of any other Asian release of this movie. Would be interesting to know. But there's still a little bit of truth in your theory: The old catalogue says 雙龍會 while a newer PDF-catalogue from 2018 indeed uses 壯麗鐸. But I think this happened unintentionally, probably they just copied the title from Douban, HKMDB or whatever. I asked Toby Russell on FB and he doesn't know either where they got that title from.

But we can argue if the 2018 IFD catalogue title qualifies for an Alias, which would be quite an irony. Someone made up an odd title, nobody notices it for years, other databases blindly copy this error until the internet is full of this title. Then the legit rightholder unintentionally makes the wrong title legit by blindly copying it from a random database for their new catalogue. Then the presumed source of this wrong title (HKMDB) notices its error, corrects it and leaves behind a mess in the internet. Later people who read the 2018 catalogue might say: "Why is the IFD title not in HKMDB? This database is clearly not up to date." As a result, HKMDB is forced to keep its own error forever^^

Everyone can look up the meaning of 鐸 (A Surname; bell used in ancient times for proclamations & war) and then try to link it to 壯麗 in a way that makes sense.

If I look up translation examples of "壯麗 magnificent, majestic", I get only results that describe sceneries/views or pompous buildings/appearances, so I guess it is only rarely used to praise personalities, if ever. Chinese movie titles usually use a simple "大" for this purpose.

I guess someone tried to translate Magnificent Duo into Chinese at a time when Google translations were much more flawed than today, and Google took the word "Duo" for a Chinese Surname and randomly chose "鐸".

[J.J.Hayden]

Petty interesting stuff, you've done a great amount of research, I love the dedication of so many of the editors here. It is a long and winding road, but since that odd title is used on an official source, I guess it's fine to remain as an alias, right? It would be amusing if your Google translate theory is what happened, but I guess if even Toby doesn't know, it's another of those things sadly lost to time.

Cheers