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Language support for people and movie casts?
posted by SandorSTAFFMOD on January 17, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Hi, do you have any intention of adding language support to the API methods for people (for biography, etc.) and movie casts (for character name)? I'm coding up an application, and it would be nice to allow for this from the start if this is likely to be added in the future. And thanks for providing a great film resource - your efforts are appreciated.
Reply by Travis Bell
on January 17, 2013 at 5:36 PM
Yes, this is planned although not on my immediate list of things to do.
Haven't heard anyone request this yet. Are there really many movies that would have different character names in different languages?
Reply by Sandor
on January 18, 2013 at 1:04 AM
It does happen, though I'm not sure how often. I suspect it's probably more common in films based on books, where the character names were changed in the translation of the book for whatever reason, and the film translation follows the book. You also get local versions of common names (e.g. "George" to "Jorge") or titles. Unnamed characters sometimes have descriptions (e.g. "woman in elevator"). Languages that don't use Latin characters will have to use some kind of transliteration of names. There are probably other reasons.
I'm not particularly interested in having casts translations. I was just wondering if you were considering it.
Reply by Simon B.
on April 27, 2013 at 5:18 PM
I'm encountering a problem with mixed up languages, when naming characters. They are sometimes in French, German or other languages. (e.g. His Wife, Seine Frau, Sa femme) - Is there a guideline, which language to choose? Should it be in english or in the native language of the movie?
Well, its not that bad, but i really don't like inconsistencies…
Reply by Simon B.
on April 27, 2013 at 5:47 PM
One of the ugliest examples i found: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/29267-der-m-de-tod/edit?active_nav_item=cast
Many different characters played by each actor and some translation additionally added.
Reply by kannuu
on August 22, 2013 at 11:26 AM
How do I at least get the existing person biography in a specific language? For instance when I query Sophia Marceau (person/1957) her biography is returned in French. Adding the "language=en" parameter doesn't help. Thanks.
Reply by Travis Bell
on August 22, 2013 at 11:41 AM
Person biographies are not translatable at the moment. It is assumed that every biography is in english. if you find one that isn't, you should change it.
Reply by Stanislav
on May 24, 2016 at 7:17 PM
Could you still implement language support for person names (crew members and casts) and also for 'Production Companies', please? Because I would like to see person names in my native language by my native letters. Thanks.
Reply by Travis Bell
on May 25, 2016 at 10:16 AM
Translated people (names/biographies) are coming in the next few months but I haven't committed to when I'll work on translated characters. I have an open ticket for this here.
Cheers.