Contextual Study of Japanese Film and Television Subtitle Translation from the Perspective of Relevance Theory: A Case Study of the Movie Love Letter

Abstract

In the context of the increasingly close exchanges between countries, audiovisual works have gradually become one of the mediums for cultural exchange between nations, posing higher demands on subtitle translation. As a theory of verbal communication, association theory has brought a new perspective to the study of translation and various other fields in recent years. Domestic research in this area has yet to form a comprehensive and systematic theory, lacking a certain degree of professionalism. Based on the main viewpoints of relevance theory, this study selects the Japanese film Love Letter as the research subject. The article’s main body adopts a literature analysis method, outlining translation principles such as maximum relevance and optimal relevance and applying a case study method to analyze the impact of translation methods on communicative effectiveness under semantic significance, cultural relevance, and situational relevance. The research indicates that relevance theory serves as an effective principle for guiding subtitle translation; translators need to fully understand the source context and appropriately adjust the subtitle content in conjunction with the target context, minimizing changes to the source language while ensuring that the target language audience fully comprehends the plot to achieve optimal relevance. It is hoped that this study can contribute to enriching related research in subtitle translation.