Can someone explain the rule for displaying the titles of Hong Kong movies? Rather than displaying their English titles, many of the films are listed only by anglicised versions of the Cantonese titles. This makes films very hard to find, and as few Hong Kong people use Jyutping or Yale, it seems an odd choice.
For example, Johnnie To's 'Election', which was a breakthrough film for him internationally, is listed as 'Hak Se Wui'. The follow-up, 'Election 2', is listed as Election 2.
This is presumably a conscious policy by editors at IMDB, since, of the 74 films To is listed as having produced, only 14 are listed under their English titles. On the other hand, nearly every Chow Yun-fat movie is listed by its English language title.
For example, Johnnie To's 'Election', which was a breakthrough film for him internationally, is listed as 'Hak Se Wui'. The follow-up, 'Election 2', is listed as Election 2.
This is presumably a conscious policy by editors at IMDB, since, of the 74 films To is listed as having produced, only 14 are listed under their English titles. On the other hand, nearly every Chow Yun-fat movie is listed by its English language title.
Posted 3 years ago
Will, Official Rep
Neil
Sorry for my slow response - I only just noticed your answer.
Transliteration for Chinese does seem a very strange policy, since Hong Kong people don't use it. If the policy was to use Chinese characters with the English as an AKA, that would make sense, as Hong Kong films are primarily intended for a Chinese language audience. So most people would search for either "黑社會" or "Election" rather than "Hak Se Wui".
But if that's the policy, then that's the policy. Thanks for your advice.
Will, Official Rep
No problem! Users will still be able to search and find the film via the English title as long as it exists as an alternate title on the page.
Regards,
Will
Jeorj Euler
The following are the characters (as indicated by bold hyperlinked text) allowed to be part of the "original title" of an IMDb title entry: ! (#0x21), # (#0x23), $ (#0x24), % (#0x25), & (#0x26), ' (#0x27), ( (#0x28), ) (#0x29), * (#0x2A), + (#0x2B), , (#0x2C), - (#0x2D), . (#0x2E), / (#0x2F), 0 (#0x30), 1 (#0x31), 2 (#0x32), 3 (#0x33), 4 (#0x34), 5 (#0x35), 6 (#0x36), 7 (#0x37), 8 (#0x38), 9 (#0x39), : (#0x3A), ; (#0x3B), < (#0x3C), = (#0x3D), > (#0x3E), ? (#0x3F), @ (#0x40), A (#0x41), B (#0x42), C (#0x43), D (#0x44), E (#0x45), F (#0x46), G (#0x47), H (#0x48), I (#0x49), J (#0x4A), K (#0x4B), L (#0x4C), M (#0x4D), N (#0x4E), O (#0x4F), P (#0x50), Q (#0x51), R (#0x52), S (#0x53), T (#0x54), U (#0x55), V (#0x56), W (#0x57), X (#0x58), Y (#0x59), Z (#0x5A), [ (#0x5B), ] (#0x5D), ^ (#0x5E), _ (#0x5F), a (#0x61), b (#0x62), c (#0x63), d (#0x64), e (#0x65), f (#0x66), g (#0x67), h (#0x68), i (#0x69), j (#0x6A), k (#0x6B), l (#0x6C), m (#0x6D), n (#0x6E), o (#0x6F), p (#0x70), q (#0x71), r (#0x72), s (#0x73), t (#0x74), u (#0x75), v (#0x76), w (#0x77), x (#0x78), y (#0x79), z (#0x7A), { (#0x7B), } (#0x7D), ~ (#0x7E), ¡ (#0xA1), ¢ (#0xA2), £ (#0xA3), ¤ (#0xA4), ¥ (#0xA5), ¦ (#0xA6), § (#0xA7), ̈ (#0xA8), © (#0xA9), a (#0xAA), « (#0xAB), ¬ (#0xAC), ® (#0xAE), ̄ (#0xAF), ° (#0xB0), ± (#0xB1), 2 (#0xB2), 3 (#0xB3), μ (#0xB5), ¶ (#0xB6), · (#0xB7), ̧ (#0xB8), 1 (#0xB9), o (#0xBA), » (#0xBB), 1⁄4 (#0xBC), 1⁄2 (#0xBD), 3⁄4 (#0xBE), ¿ (#0xBF), À (#0xC0), Á (#0xC1), Â (#0xC2), Ã (#0xC3), Ä (#0xC4), Å (#0xC5), Æ (#0xC6), Ç (#0xC7), È (#0xC8), É (#0xC9), Ê (#0xCA), Ë (#0xCB), Ì (#0xCC), Í (#0xCD), Î (#0xCE), Ï (#0xCF), Ð (#0xD0), Ñ (#0xD1), Ò (#0xD2), Ó (#0xD3), Ô (#0xD4), Õ (#0xD5), Ö (#0xD6), × (#0xD7), Ø (#0xD8), Ù (#0xD9), Ú (#0xDA), Û (#0xDB), Ü (#0xDC), Ý (#0xDD), Þ (#0xDE), ß (#0xDF), à (#0xE0), á (#0xE1), â (#0xE2), ã (#0xE3), ä (#0xE4), å (#0xE5), æ (#0xE6), ç (#0xE7), è (#0xE8), é (#0xE9), ê (#0xEA), ë (#0xEB), ì (#0xEC), í (#0xED), î (#0xEE), ï (#0xEF), ð (#0xF0), ñ (#0xF1), ò (#0xF2), ó (#0xF3), ô (#0xF4), õ (#0xF5), ö (#0xF6), ÷ (#0xF7), ø (#0xF8), ù (#0xF9), ú (#0xFA), û (#0xFB), ü (#0xFC), ý (#0xFD), þ (#0xFE), and ÿ (#0xFF).
But back to the point, given the software design situation, we use the pronunciations or sounds that correspond to the glyphs found in the native language title, with the exception of symbols that can be accommodated (like Hindu-Arabic numerals or even Roman numerals) which are sometimes used in Chinese/Japanese/Korean ideographs as well as letters of non-Latin alphabets.