A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Subtitle Translation in the Film Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Sea: Experience and Implications

Abstract

As an animated film carrying Chinese mythological narratives, Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Sea explores themes of resistance to fate, identity construction, and value reconstruction, and has aroused wide resonance among audiences both at home and abroad. Exploring how subtitle translation can balance semantic accuracy and emotional transmission, ensuring that the film’s value system transcends linguistic and cultural barriers and resonates with audiences from different cultural backgrounds, contributes to improving overseas audiences’ overall perception and acceptance of Chinese animation. Taking Nezha: The Devil Boy Conquers the Sea as the research object, this paper, based on Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), examines subtitle translation from four dimensions—culture, context, content, and expression. The study aims to provide experience and insights for film subtitle translation, enhance the artistic quality of audiovisual translation, and promote the global dissemination of Chinese animated works.