type
Post
status
Published
date
Sep 25, 2024
slug
siffmatria
summary
tags
Personal
Subtitle
Movie
category
Life
icon
password
Why I chose this movie to translate
I was given a few options by Misu, who I think works as a Translation PM for this Translation company, cos she’s always the one to reach out to me on QQ and send me emails also payment. So she offered a few movies for me to choose from. I kind of forget what other movies were about. I can vaguely recall one was about teenagers, so there will be a lot of conversations, that’s a hard pass. Being me, working for the SIFF since 2015, I know that you gotta choose some artistic movies cos those movies usually come with fewer subtitles. So I chose Matria. The movie’s name is particularly intriguing to me cos I know it’s about women, plus the movie got good reviews on Douban. It would be nice to translate a movie about women and their life. As a feminist myself, I would love to do that.
Before I translate…
So I took the job.
To my surprise, Misu actually sent me the subtitle file along with the video. I was going to extract the subtitle myself cos I know they will send me a video with English subtitles embedded. Since they just gave me the subtitle, it made my job way easier. Cos before, we had to translate in a txt file, which is a pain in the ass. Now I can use the video subtitle translation software, I can control the play, fast forward, and rewind of the video while doing translation. It was such a relief that I could do that. Cos I had plans that week, also my Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom just arrived that Friday, and I was binge-playing that game till 4 am in the morning, should never do that again cos I can barely do anything the next day. Totally fucked my brain. OK, I forgot to mention the timeline. So I told Misu I can do this that Thursday night, and I can probably deliver the translation next Saturday. Cos I was meeting with my former colleagues next Saturday. Which means I will have to do translation every day after work. But I took the job anyway cos it will look good on my resume. Also, I wanna participate in the event.
Now I’m translating…
I got the files that Friday and I didn’t check it till Sunday night, cos remember I was binge-playing the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom game. I checked the files and decided to work on the name list during work, which is something I regret a lot later on. I was too nervous and excited cos it was at work so it triggered my I-don’t-know-what-to-call-it episode. I had it back in 2021 when I was preparing for the BJJ tournament. I think it was a kind of panic attack, where I can be too sensitive about my own heartbeat and I felt like I was in panicking mode. It’s still affecting me a little bit but I believe it gradually wears off.
So I started to translate Monday night after work. I would usually watch the movie first to translate but this time I just don’t have the spare time for that. The movie is easy and not many conversations as I predicted. It’s pretty easy to translate and I did 50% the first day. I was pretty happy cos this means I can finish it no later than Wednesday.
About Ramona
Ramona reminded me of my mom a lot. They both didn’t get much education and had to do labor work but they took their job seriously. They both got angry really easily and with a horrible temper, but we both know it’s not their fault that they turned out this way. It’s life, it’s the patriarchy, it’s this society that made them this way. I had a similar relationship with my mom just like Ramona with her daughter. My mom would always think she knows stuff better than I do and wanted to make decisions for me. So whenever I translate their conversations I felt extra related. And I think I handled the emotions well with my translation since many audiences said they cried when watched the movie, I think I can take some credit for their tears.
I wanna talk about Ramona more. She, like many moms, thought she live to raise her kids. She worked her ass off so she can help pay for her daughter to have better education. Her life revolves around one goal: to make more money for her daughter. She works the night shift and then to the dock for another part-time job. She endured Andres cos she can live in his house rent-free, so she can save more money. You can see that Andres forced himself on Ramona and it made her feel really uncomfortable, even so, she’s getting scared of intimate touch, cos when Carmen slept on her lap, she rejected it at first. She’s paying her rent with her body and she herself is kind of disguised by this. But in order to save more money, she put up with all of these. Andres is a half-witted, disgusting, drunk head shitface, middle-aged man.
Ramona is serious about her work, we can see that from the start, she’s strict with cleaning standards and proud of how clean the machine is after her work. I think that’s also the reason why she’s the leader of the cleaning team and also it’s kind of easy for her to find another cleaning job cos I bet she got a good reputation. Remeber after spending the night at Pepe’s house, she left with the blanket and everything nicely folded. She could be more if she had better education and better opportunity, it’s a shame to see someone who is dedicated to their work end up in a position much lower than their actual potential. She could be more, she could be big. But she never did.
So, Carmen, I can tell that Ramona disagrees with the life of a housewife, like obviously, she kind of looks down on Carmen cos she’s not working. Let’s be honest, the job of a housewife is harder than many people thought, and people who think less of a housewife are being misogyny. As Carmen said herself, she never got a minute to herself, her kids always shouting and fighting in the background when face-timing with Ramona. Life is not easy on Carmon either. Carmon and Ramona kind of represent the position of most women, either being a housewife, taking care of the family, or being a labor worker, working hard for little money. It’s sweet that they support each other.