Backstroke of the West
Imagine settling in for a highly anticipated movie, only to find the subtitles have gone wonderfully, hilariously wrong. This is the story of "Backstroke of the West," a Chinese bootleg DVD of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith that, through a series of epic translation blunders, transformed a serious space opera into a riotous comedy. Its journey from a Shanghai street market to global internet fame reveals the fascinating ways culture can be reinterpreted, accidentally or otherwise, and celebrated anew. "Backstroke of the West" originated from a poorly machine-translated bootleg DVD of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith sold in China. The film's nonsensical English subtitles, featuring character name changes like "Allah Gold" for Anakin Skywalker and iconic lines like "Do not want" for Darth Vader's scream, made it an internet sensation. A fan-made English voice-over (fandub) further amplified the bootleg's comedic potential, leading many to praise it as a vastly superior and unintentionally hilarious version of the original film.
AI Summary
Imagine settling in for a highly anticipated movie, only to find the subtitles have gone wonderfully, hilariously wrong. This is the story of "Backstroke of the West," a Chinese bootleg DVD of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith that, through a series of epic translation blunders, transformed a serious space opera into a riotous comedy. Its journey from a Shanghai street market to global internet fame reveals the fascinating ways culture can be reinterpreted, accidentally or otherwise, and celebrated anew.
- "Backstroke of the West" originated from a poorly machine-translated bootleg DVD of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith sold in China.
- The film's nonsensical English subtitles, featuring character name changes like "Allah Gold" for Anakin Skywalker and iconic lines like "Do not want" for Darth Vader's scream, made it an internet sensation.
- A fan-made English voice-over (fandub) further amplified the bootleg's comedic potential, leading many to praise it as a vastly superior and unintentionally hilarious version of the original film.
The Unintentional Masterpiece
In 2005, a curious phenomenon emerged from the bustling streets of Shanghai: a bootleg DVD of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. This was no ordinary pirated copy; its English subtitles were so bizarrely translated that they birthed an internet legend — known as "Backstroke of the West."
A Discovery in Shanghai
The story begins with American blogger Jeremy Winterson, an expat living and working in Shanghai. Like many, he sought out the latest blockbuster, purchasing a batch of DVDs from a street vendor during his daily commute.
Winterson later pinpointed the origin of this particular DVD to Xiangyang Market, an infamous open-air market in Shanghai. This market was a well-known hub for pirated movies and counterfeit goods, a testament to the thriving, albeit illicit, trade of the time.
Interestingly, Xiangyang Market itself became a casualty of change. Just a year after Winterson's purchase, in 2006, the market was permanently closed down as part of a city-wide effort to enhance Shanghai's international image.
The Birth of Bizarre Subtitles
Winterson theorized that the bootleg's infamous subtitles were the result of a two-step translation process. First, the original English dialogue was likely transcribed into Chinese by hand, a process prone to errors. Then, this Chinese script was fed into a machine translation program, converting it back into English.
The machine translation software, lacking an understanding of context or grammatical nuance between the languages, often produced highly literal and nonsensical results. It simply translated Chinese characters directly, ignoring structural differences and creating truly surreal dialogue.
Who are Allah Gold and Ratio Tile?
Among the most iconic mistranslations were the names of beloved characters. Anakin Skywalker became the oddly spiritual "Allah Gold," while Obi-Wan Kenobi was hilariously rendered as "Ratio Tile." Even the noble Jedi order wasn't spared, rebranded as the "Hopeless Situation Warriors."
These names, alongside phrases like the Jedi Council being called the "Presbyterian Church," added an unexpected layer of religious and political satire to the space opera.
Anakin Skywalker: Allah Gold Obi-Wan Kenobi: Ratio Tile Chancellor Palpatine: Speaker D Jedi: Hopeless Situation Warriors Jedi Council: Presbyterian Church
Perhaps the most famous translation error of all transformed Darth Vader's climactic, agonizing scream of "Nooooooo!" into the utterly understated and often meme-ified phrase: "Do not want." This simple phrase perfectly encapsulated the bootleg's accidental genius.
Beyond character names and memorable lines, the subtitles also introduced random profanity, making the otherwise family-friendly Star Wars film surprisingly edgy. General Grievous, for instance, was found commanding his troops to "batter to death them."
From Blog Post to Internet Sensation
Winterson initially shared screenshots of his discovery on his personal blog, receiving enthusiastic feedback from friends and family. A friend then circulated the blog post via a work mailing list, and from there, its popularity exploded.
The sudden surge in traffic was so immense that Winterson's domain provider temporarily suspended his blog for exceeding its bandwidth limits. This early virality caught the attention of even the official starwars.com blog, which briefly mentioned the phenomenon in June 2005.
The Fandub Phenomenon
The enduring appeal of "Backstroke of the West" wasn't limited to screenshots. Between 2007 and 2011, a YouTube channel called TheThirdGathers produced a full-length English fandub, or fan-made voice-over, of the entire film.
This fandub, which meticulously re-enacted the absurd dialogue, was later reposted and gained even wider traction in early 2017. Entertainment journalists and fans alike lauded the quality of the voice acting, which perfectly delivered the unintentional humor.
A Glorious Legacy
Critics and entertainment outlets universally embraced "Backstroke of the West" as a comedic marvel. SlashFilm called the script a "beautiful monstrosity" and "kind of magical," claiming it was the only version of the movie they ever wanted to watch.
Given the mixed reception of the original Star Wars prequel trilogy, many outlets, including Nerdist and Gizmodo, praised the bootleg for offering a new way to enjoy the film. It transformed a sometimes-serious saga into a "bizarre, sometimes incoherent comedy" and "gloriousness defined."
The Hollywood Reporter hailed the redub as a "fan-made masterpiece" that achieved the "unthinkable" by making the prequel film "cool." Uproxx went even further, declaring it a "vastly superior movie" to its source material, a testament to its accidental comedic genius.
Article
Backstroke of the West
Star War: The Third Gathers – The Backstroke of the West (星球大战第三集：西方的背影, Xīngqiú dàzhàn dì sān jí: Xīfāng de bèiyǐng), more commonly known as Backstroke of the West, is a 2005 Chinese bootleg DVD of the film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith that became an internet meme for its poor machine-translated English subtitles. The bootleg first gained attention in June 2005, shortly after the film's release, when American blogger Jeremy Winterson purchased a copy at a Shanghai market and shared screenshots on his personal blog.
The literal machine translation from Chinese to English resulted in bizarre mistranslations, most notably renaming Anakin Skywalker to "Allah Gold", Obi-Wan Kenobi to "Ratio Tile", and the Jedi to "Hopeless Situation Warriors". Additionally, the resulting subtitles introduce random profanity and instances of Chinglish. Between 2007 and 2011, a full-length English fandub of the film was produced for YouTube.
The bootleg is most famous for its translation of Darth Vader's climactic scream of "Nooooooo!", which was rendered in the subtitles as "Do not want". Following the fandub's wider circulation in early 2017, the bootleg received renewed attention from entertainment journalists, several of whom praised the quality of the voice acting and its unintentional comedic reworking of the film.
History
Origin
Xiangyang Market, pictured in 2006, and shut down that year
i saw revenge of the sith last weekend at a local theater with my friend joe who was in town on business. it was much better than the first two movies and a fitting end (err.. middle) to the star wars saga. the next day i was walking past my friendly dvd salesperson and decided to check out revenge of the sith. i was assured the quality was good and for 7rmb why not give it a shot.
American blogger Jeremy Winterson lived in Shanghai, China, as an expat for work in 2005, and purchased a bootleg DVD of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith as part of a batch from a local street vendor along his commute. Having shelved the DVD shortly after purchase, Winterson later credited his sister with rediscovering it and sparking his interest.
Winterson stated he purchased the DVD at Xiangyang Market, an open-air market in Shanghai known as a major hub for pirated and counterfeit goods. The following year, in 2006, the market was permanently closed as part of a crackdown to improve the city's image.
Following positive feedback from friends and family on Winterson's blog post about the bootleg, one of his friends shared it through a work mailing list, after which it became popular enough that Winterson's domain provider temporarily suspended his blog for exceeding its bandwidth limits. Winterson's blog post was briefly mentioned in an official starwars.com blog post on June 17, 2005.
Translation errors
In a poorly machine-translated exchange, "Allah Gold" (left) informs "Ratio Tile" (right) that he was "made by the Presbyterian Church".
Winterson theorized the film's subtitles were first transcribed by hand into Chinese and then machine-translated back into English. The machine translation often ignored structural differences between English and Chinese and produced literal translations of Chinese characters.
Notable character and faction name changes include:
• Anakin Skywalker was translated to "Allah Gold". • Obi-Wan Kenobi was translated to "Ratio Tile". • Chancellor Palpatine was translated to "Speaker D". • The Jedi were translated to "Hopeless Situation Warriors". • The Jedi Council was translated to the "Presbyterian Church" or "Hopeless Situation Presbyterians".
English fandub
Between 2007 and 2011, a full-length fandub of the film was produced by the YouTube channel TheThirdGathers and uploaded in a series of 25 videos. The dub was later reposted, in full, by YouTube channel GratefulDeadpool on February 14, 2016. Following its wider popularity in 2017, journalists noted the quality of the fandub cast's voice acting.
Reception and legacy
Backstroke of the West
The English fandub received wider attention from entertainment journalists in January 2017, with some viewing it as an unintentional and comedic improvement over the original film. The Hollywood Reporter called the redub a "fan-made masterpiece" that did "the unthinkable" by making the film "cool", while Uproxx declared it a "vastly superior movie". The A.V. Club described the "legendarily bad Chinese dub" as the "best version of the Star Wars prequels," writing that it made the film "watchable by making [it] even less sensible".
The machine translation inadvertently introduces "fuck" and other profane words into the subtitles.
SlashFilm described the machine-translated script as a "beautiful monstrosity" and "kind of magical", declaring it "the only version of this movie I ever want to watch". Noting its unintentional comedy and the mixed reception of the prequel trilogy films, Nerdist stated it allowed fans to enjoy the film as a "bizarre, sometimes incoherent comedy," and Gizmodo declared it "gloriousness defined" and "basically the greatest thing on Earth."
Journalists highlighted specific bizarre mistranslations, such as General Grievous commanding troops to "batter to death them", and random use of the word "fuck" and other profanity, which Inverse stated made the otherwise "squeaky-clean" film "weird and enjoyable". The bootleg is best known for the mistranslation of Darth Vader's climactic scream of "Nooooooo!", into "Do not want", upon learning about the death of his wife, Padmé Amidala. Inverse attributed this to the lack of "an equivalent word for 'no'" in Chinese, with the machine translation instead using the "negative tense of a verb" based on the scene's context.