English localization of Indonesian movie titles on Letterboxd: An analysis of translation techniques and equivalences

Abstract

A movie title fulfills several roles: it identifies a film, it conveys its thematic content, it sets expectations about its plot, and it influences the potential viewers' interest in seeing it. This is a descriptive qualitative research. The data source is the title of 100 Indonesian movies on the ranking of “Indonesian most popular” on Letterboxd. The data were collected on 30 September 2026. To each pair of titles, a main technique of Molina and Hurtado Albir (2002) and a main function of the four-function model of He (2025) (informational, expressive, aesthetic and promotional) were assigned. This model applies the concept of functional equivalence by Nida (1964) to film titles. 12 of 18 techniques were performed. The most common were Borrowing (34%), Literal Translation (27%) and Discursive Creation (19%). Of the 34 Borrowing cases, 29 were proper names or originally English-language titles, so they are cases of retention and not a decision to keep Indonesian wording untranslated. The dominant function was Informational at 46%, followed by Expressive at 31%, Promotional at 12% and Aesthetic at 11%. The cross-tabs of the two codings demonstrate a clear pattern: The majority of the titles in the Borrowing and Literal Translation categories were Informational (56% and 59% respectively). Conversely, only 1 of the 19 titles in the Discursive Creation category was Informational, with 7 being Promotional, accounting for 7 of the 12 Promotional titles. artistic and aesthetic parity through different methodologies The pattern is described but not subjected to statistical analysis. The results show textual patterns in this sample. The data are English titles taken from a community platform, and coding of the texts was carried out by only one researcher without checking the intention of the translators or the reception of the audience.