Lethal Weapon

Promotion in film is not that straightforward, especially distributing foreign films in Hong Kong. Translating the original film title is of utmost importance. Having a literal translation of the original film title may be "accurate" but not necessarily relevant, taking creative liberties can perhaps call attention to the film and appeal to more local audiences. John Chong is indeed an expert in film titling. When he was distributing The Shining, Stanley Kubrick requested a Chinese title phonetically similar to the original film title. For Lethal Weapon, some overseas markets had a literal translation. However, Chong thought that the literal translation does not vividly capture the film. He used ‘Celestial Destroyer' in the Chinese title to indicate the film as an action movie, and allude to the go-for-broke style of Mel Gibson's character. Variations of this memorable film title become popular for numerous films afterwards.

Images courtesy of Park Circus/Warner Bros

日期日期 Date	時間时间 Time	地點地点 Venue
19/1/2020 (Sun) #	5:30pm	Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

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