Sitting in a dark movie theater, leaning forward with your eyes fixed¹ on the screen and hands clenching² the edge of the seat, you hear the couple behind you “whisper”: “Is that Matt Damon?”

坐在漆黑的电影院里，双眼紧紧盯着前方的屏幕，双手紧握座椅的把手，你听到你身后的一对“窃窃私语”：“那是马特·达蒙吗？”

“Who is Matt Damon?”

“马特·达蒙是哪只？”

“The guy who played in the Bourne series!”

“《谍影重重》里的那只啊！！”

Most of the time you roll your eyes, hating them for ruining your experience. But somewhat bizarrely, these interruptions have themselves become a form of entertainment – though at least, the creators of these “interruptions” have the good grace to do them in text form.

大多数你会白他们几眼，好讨厌他们毁了你的观影过程。但是有点奇特的是，这些打断观影成为了一种娱乐形式——虽然至少，这些个“打断的字眼”的创始人以文字的形式玩的乐此不疲。

Video streaming websites in China have proven to be fertile ground for a giant community of “subtitles⁴ shooters” who revel⁵ in the creation and spread of memes, slang terms, and pop culture references, which find their way onto screens during movies, in subtitle³ form.

中国的视频网站对于广大“发弹幕狂人”来说可是片广阔的沃土，他们着迷于在电影屏幕上以字幕的形式创造和扩散“么么哒”这种文化词啦，俚语啦，和流行文化。

The “Bullet Subtitle” feature has been adopted by the biggest video websites in China such as Tudou and iQiyi, and even appeared during a theater screening of the paean⁶ to feminine materialism⁷ Tiny Times 3. It even made its way into classes when a professor at a university in Wuhan allowed students to create live subtitles during class presentations. This function also became possible during a live concert by Chinese pop duet Yu Quan.

“弹幕”已被中国最大的视频网站，比如土豆和爱奇艺采用，甚至《小时代3》线下上映时也有出现女性唯物主义赞歌（小编OS：你逗我？！）它甚至在武汉大学里，被一位教授运用到课堂上，他允许学生在做课堂展示时可以实时发弹幕。中国流行音乐二人组羽泉的演唱会上也用上了这种功能。

The service, or phenomenon, is called 弹幕dàn mù, which literally⁸ translates to “bullet subtitles”. The word refers to the commentaries shooting across the screen, in the style of an arcade⁹ shooting game. Originally from Japan, “bullet subtitles” are said to have come to China thanks to anime lovers and followers¹⁰ of what would commonly be considered otaku culture.

这种服务，或是说现象，被称为“弹幕（dàn mù！筒子们再不要读错啦），翻译成“bullet subtitles”。这个名词指的是在屏幕上弹出的评论，以一种街机射击游戏的赶脚。最先起源日本，据说“弹幕”传到中国都是动漫爱好者的功劳，通常被看作是御宅族文化的一种。

Although initially¹¹ “bullet subtitles”were offered for forms of animation¹² that are often referred to as two-dimensional works (二次元, 2-D), three dimensional works (三次元) –those that involve real people such as films and TV shows –began following the trend.

虽然一开始“弹幕”只是动漫的一种吐槽形式（通常指的是二次元），如今三次元——那些有真人出演的电影和电视剧——也赶上了这股潮流。

Websites such as AcFun and Bilibili themselves became the subjects of affection and admiration¹³.

A站和B站成为了弹幕者们喜爱和崇拜的圣地。

To cinephiles, “bullet subtitles” sound like a blasphemous¹⁴ intrusion. But for “bullet subtitle” aficionados¹⁵, they makes viewing more enjoyable, fulfilling, and worth repeating.

对于影迷来说，“弹幕”听上去就是种不知好歹的打断观影的行为。但是对于“弹幕”狂热爱好者来说，弹幕让观影更有意思，更开心，并值得一遍遍重温。

There are several main types of bullet commentaries:

以下是几种主要的弹幕评论：

Snarky remarks (吐嘈tucao) –directed towards the Chinese subtitles, actors, characters in the video, or plot progression.

吐槽（Snarky remarks）——针对中文字幕，演员，剧中角色，或是情节进展。

General comments: such as “the lighting¹⁶ is excellent”, “her acting¹⁷ in this scene is mindblowing”, and “hahahas.”

普通评论：比如“灯光美翻了”，“她这个场景的表演好让人亢奋嗷嗷”，以及“哈哈哈”

Helpful explanations for understanding the video. These are the most useful comments because they usually help explain the plot, the background story, the significance of lines lost in translation, references, and visual elements easily overlooked.

帮助理解视频的注解。这些是最有用的评论了，因为它们通常帮助观众解释情节，故事背景，翻译中遗漏了的台词，参考资料，还有容易忽视的视觉要素。

Interactions among users: there are often discussions among viewers, such as if cheating is justified¹⁸. Sometimes there can be a Q&A regarding other viewers’ comments, e.g. why Benedict Cumberbatch is called “Curly Fu”, why Watson is “peanut”, and why Kristen Stewart is “facial paralysis¹⁹ girl”.

用户间的互动：观众通常都会讨论，比如作弊是否正当。有时候也可以是关于其他观众评论的问答，比如：为什么本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇叫‘卷福’，为什么华生叫“花生”，还有为什么克里斯汀·斯图尔特是“面瘫脸”。

Inside jokes or memes. For instance, the opening sequence of every Person of Interest episode begins with viewers filling the screen with “You/We are being made into a watch”. The joke first began when the opening line “we are being watched” was translated into a literal “we are made into a watch” early in the series, and viewers turned the mistranslation into a tradition.

圈内笑话或媒母。举个例子，每集《疑犯追踪》的开场，观众都在屏幕上打满了“你们/我们正在被做成表。”这个笑话起先源于开场白“我们正被监视着”直译就变成了“我们正被做成表”，观众把这种错误的翻译当成了传统。