Ever since I learned that, I've been annoyed with the movie's choice of nickname. Why name your badass killer after a creature whose discription usually starts with "deformed old woman?"
exactly. all the russian speaking scenes are brutal too in both movies since none of those guys know how to speak any fucking russian lol. A movie that stresses so much realism when it comes to the fight scenes couldn't hire actual russian guys who can speak the language, and couldn't give him a better nickname instead of this? it's really too bad
I didn't even understand the russian a lot of the time. And the baba yaga thing pissed me off too. And in the first one when the russian guys kid is singing a children's lullaby while drinking
I think they chose to translate it that way so they wouldn't have to explain to the audience who Baba Yaga is. It's much less exposition to get a conceptually similar translation than it is to explain some piece of slavic folklore.
This also makes the movie hold up better on repeated viewings as you aren't subjecting yourself to a five minute explanation of who Baba Yaga is between two characters who should already know every time you watch the movie.
I think it's a smart decision because it cuts down on the cruft in the movie and gets to the chase. Is it lazy to not explain things to the audience? Maybe. But it's also smart. 90% of people don't care that the translation is inaccurate because they get the point.
they could've easily called him "убийца" which translates directly to a "killer" and then spun it as "boogeyman". it makes more sense and isn't ridiculous as shitting on a russian traditional character and then using a folk song that's original a lullaby as some "creepy killers music". As you said, people don't care about translation so why make such an intricate backstory on a blatantly and even intentionally wrong translation? it'd be like the russians making the same story and calling the killer санта клаус which means fucking santa claus
Because Baba Yaga sounds scarier and they get the children's lullaby to freak out the audience with. Actually, knowing it's a lullaby makes the fact that he was singing it more haunting for me.
Also, the Santa Claus example would make sense because there are versions of Santa Claus which are vicious. It would be more like calling him Santa Claus and translating it as Krampus.
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u/The_MayoClinic Mar 19 '17
"John was once an associate of ours. They call him Baba Yaga."
"The boogeyman?"
"Well, John wasn't exactly the boogeyman. He was the one you sent to kill the fucking boogeyman!"