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Published on December 11, 2007

She has translated more than 500 movie subtitles in career. The subtitles of Oscar-winning movies such as "Chicago", "Million Dollar Baby", or blockbuster films like  "The Da Vinci Code" or "Bridget Jones's Diary" also came from her brain. Her role really helps Thai people to enjoy watching movies.

But Thanatcha Saksiamkul, a movie translator, remains humble and says she does not do as great a job as many would think.  

"What I do is just typing what the character says [translating from English to Thai] for movie-goers to read. I'm just being a conversation interpreter. That's all," she says. 

"Probably, it's the my name shown in the credits on the screen that makes people think a translator has an important role in a movie."

Thanatcha's career began in 1994 at the age of 26, when she had a chance to translate a movie  "The Paper", starring Michael Keyton, for CVD International Company.

"The movie was firstly planned to be released only on video. But the company finally sent it to screen but only to very limited theatres," she recalls.

However, Thanatcha, 40, says her dream career when she started of was not that of a movie translator.

After graduating from the Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University, she tried to dub for movies by joining Thai Sky Cable Operation.

But lack of certain physical qualities came in the way of her achieving her ambition.

"To be a good dubber, you need a big and powerful voice. But I have quite a feeble and sharp tone," she says.

Nevertheless, because of her good command over English, she was handed the job of doing the sub-titles for foreign movies instead. However, her major task was still not that of a translator but a person who types the translated script in the movie.

Thanatcha's first translation for a mass movie came in 1995 with "Operation Dumbo Drop".

Since then, Thanatcha has become the name many Thai movie-fans are familiar with when watching foreign soundtrack movies in theatre.

Currently, Thanatcha is working as an independent translator. Amazingly, she spends only one or two days to complete the translation for an entire movie.

However, she explains that the process of writing Thai subtitles does not end with the translation.

"After finishing the translation, it would take at least another week for further processes such as footage marking, keying sub-title script into the film, dubbing, censoring, and delivering to the theatre."

Every process must be finished on time, keeping in mind the deadline, otherwise it might delay the release of the film.

But those are cases requiring urgent work.

For a movie that does not have to be released at the same time as in America, Thanatcha would first get a preliminary film in DVD form with a draft script for translation about a month before the final script arrives. Then she would have one or two days to finish the final translated script.

"A movie translator is like a joint in a chain. We are just a part in many processes going into the making of the sub-titles," she says.

Some translators may watch the movie before doing the translation or they may do it vice versa. But Thanatcha works differently. She prefers to translate while watching the movie.

"This method helps me to be absorbed in the movie and, some times, the right word just pops up in my mind without having to think about it."

After 14 years in the job, Thanatcha says the fun of her job has changed from "being the first person to watch the movie", to having a chance to learn and explore new knowledge while translating.

"I once learned that 'Market Street' is not actually a street named 'Market' but a market named 'Market Street'," she says.

For those who want to be like Thanatcha, the suggestion is to go out and apply for a job.

"You have to go out and find one for yourself. There is no way to get a job if you just sit and wait for a chance to come your way," she says.

"It's not as difficult to get into this business as many people think. There are 30-40 foreign movies showing in Thai theatres each year. The film company does need to recruit new people to work for them."

The most challenging aspect of this job, says Thanatcha, is how to keep up your work and continually be hired.

"You have to take a lot of responsibility and have accuracy in this kind work. You will not only be pressured by the deadline but also the completeness of work," she says.

"There are new faces coming into this industry all the time, but they are just not able to keep working and staying long enough for people to remember their names."  

Watchara Saengsrisin

 The Nation