Why Foreign Blu-ray's of foreign films don't include English subtitles?

[filmmusic]

I'm really tired of European studios not including English subtitles in their releases!
What are they thinking? Don't they want to earn more money by having English speaking customers too?

There's so many films, I'd like to purchase and I can't.
Sissi trilogy, Cyrano de Bergerac, the Asterix films (studioCanal), Raise the Red Lantern, The Indian Tomb and Tiger von Eschnapur, Die Nibelungen films, Das Kalter Herz, etc.

Does anyone know why they don't include English?

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

I'm really tired of European studios not including English subtitles in their releases!
What are they thinking? Don't they want to earn more money by having English speaking customers too?

There's so many films, I'd like to purchase and I can't.
Sissi trilogy, Cyrano de Bergerac, the Asterix films (studioCanal), Raise the Red Lantern, The Indian Tomb and Tiger von Eschnapur, Die Nibelungen films, Das Kalter Herz, etc.

Does anyone know why they don't include English?

I am in favor of all foreign films having English Subs . A perfect example, for me, would be the Fantomas films from France. Adding subs is costly...that is all.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

I am in favor of all foreign films to include English Subs...perfect example would be the Fantomas films from France. Adding subs is costly...that is all.

Oh, right, forgot that wonderful trilogy too!
And the Le Gendarme Series..

But how costly is it?
Wouldn't it bring much more than what they will pay, from English speaking people who would purchase these Blurays?
And some of these films already have subtitles in the DVDs. So why not taking those and including them in the Bluray?

I think I had read something about a certain Bluray that it was a matter of "rights"?

[Zot!]

Some are intentionally left off, so they can sell rights to other territories and not have competition between markets. I guess they make more money from licensing than selling to overseas customers directly.

[AlexIlDottore]

Yes, don't forget that some editors are obliged not to add english subtitles, so that the film can be sold and released in another territory (a tactic similar to region coding). I'm guessing that the right to add the english subtitle is too much in most instances.

[filmmusic]

Oh, I see then.

Well, if the movies get released eventually in another territory, i can do without them for a while (until I purchase them with the English subtitles from elsewhere).
But if they don't, this is sad (and bad)...

[iank]

I agree, it's very annoying. People complain about people not giving foreign films more of a chance, but it's kinda difficult if you can't understand a bloody word of them...

[Jasonic]

Depends on the territory and market. Japanese blu rays tend to never include English subs (Ghibli films have been an exception). But majority of Korean blu ray releases will have English subs, with a few exceptions.

[toddly6666]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

I'm really tired of European studios not including English subtitles in their releases!
What are they thinking? Don't they want to earn more money by having English speaking customers too?

There's so many films, I'd like to purchase and I can't.
Sissi trilogy, Cyrano de Bergerac, the Asterix films (studioCanal), Raise the Red Lantern, The Indian Tomb and Tiger von Eschnapur, Die Nibelungen films, Das Kalter Herz, etc.

Does anyone know why they don't include English?

I agree - im sick and tired of this as well - all international movies should have English subtitles whether they are watched by English speakers or not. This is one if the main reasons I like to support Hong Kong and Indian videos as much a possible because they always have English subtitles, no matter how obscure the title. They should especially have them since the video stores in other countries mainly have English dialogue Hollywood movies as the majority on their shelves.

I dont support piracy usually and I wouldnt buy a pirated video of a Hollywood film because they get official video releases everywhere in the world, but in the case of foreign films that dont get proper English-subtitled releases for years and years, that's when I support piracy. Should I wait forever for a proper video release of Cyrano de Bergerac or Raise the Red Lantern? Do I really have to really be stuck with watching them on VHS or their crummy dvd versions? Hell no, I found excellent BD-Rs of them with excellent video, audio, and English subtitle quality. There are way too many foreign classics that arent getting released and when they finally do get released in their native countries, they rarely have English subs.

[Cactus]

Yes, because English is the centre of the world!

[RockzillaXD]

Originally Posted by Cactus

Yes, because English is the centre of the world!

No, but it certainly seems odd when a foreign blu-ray includes subs for 8 different languages and somehow doesn't have English

[Tellymon]

Originally Posted by Cactus

Yes, because English is the centre of the world!

Better watch out, you will end up on the NWO watch-list spreading such blasphemy.

[Bumblefeet]

The other way around, most times I am happy UK or US DVDs and blu-rays have subtitles at all, since most english spoken movies have none, or only a hard of hearing subtitle.

[Icemouth]

What a ridiculous, stereotypical American-centric view. Why specifically English and not the thousand other languages?

And this

Originally Posted by toddly6666

all international movies should have English subtitles whether they are watched by English speakers or not.

lolwot? I'm sure you quite often get upset about how foreign-friendly all your generic products are. You seem like the kind of person who would also be angry about French being on Canadian releases...

[julz0802]

Originally Posted by Icemouth

You seem like the kind of person who would also be angry about French being on Canadian releases...

Of course, because for every non-Anglophone who learns English, there's an Anglophone who doesn't learn a second language

[toddly6666]

Originally Posted by Icemouth

What a ridiculous, stereotypical American-centric view. Why specifically English and not the thousand other languages?

And this



lolwot? I'm sure you quite often get upset about how foreign-friendly all your generic products are. You seem like the kind of person who would also be angry about French being on Canadian releases...

What generic products? I dont even live in usa. And no, Im not the kind of person that gets angry about French on Canadian releases. What I get angry with is English subtitles being left off good movies from other countries. English is the most international language in the world - that's why it should be offered on subtitles on videos. Ideally, I would love to see all language subtitle options but that is pretty unrealistic. Having English subs as a choice is the more realistic option.

It's mainly European video companies who are the selfish ones that dont put English subs on their videos. In the Americas and most Asian countries (except for Japan), there are usually English subs as an option.

[Erasmus Craven]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

It's mainly European video companies who are the selfish ones that dont put English subs on their videos. In the Americas and most Asian countries (except for Japan), there are usually English subs as an option.

Sorry mate, but that's utter rubbish. Selfish??? What exactly do they gain? Less business? Believe me, If they were allowed they would put subs in every available language on their discs. Chances are you have heard about different companies holding rights to a film in different countries and/or territories, right? And these rights come with obligations: like a french company not being ALLOWED to include english subs because the rights have also been sold to an english company, no matter if they'll put out a Blu-ray anytime soon. I would have loved english subs on the french edition of Snowpiercer, alas, it is the FRENCH EDITION put out by Metropolitan, not a worldwide disc like Warner, Sony, Universal. So I'm just gonna have to wait for an english subbed disc a little longer. Whenever a distributor like Koch in Germany or Studio Canal puts english subs on their discs, the have to pay extra for that privilege.

[slaizer2000]

If it's being sold in the US then it should at the very least have a sticker on it that states no English audio or subtitles. I recently purchased what looked to be an interesting movie from Target. Tried to watch it but couldn't find any English audio or subtitles. Thankfully Target took it back (even though it was opened and against their return policy) when I explained it had no English.

[Erasmus Craven]

Originally Posted by slaizer2000

If it's being sold in the US then it should at the very least have a sticker on it that states no English audio or subtitles. I recently purchased what looked to be an interesting movie from Target. Tried to watch it but couldn't find any English audio or subtitles. Thankfully Target took it back (even though it was opened and against their return policy) when I explained it had no English.

Well, that would be the responsibility of the importer, not the foreign distributor or manufacturer...

[Det. Bullock]

Originally Posted by Cactus

Yes, because English is the centre of the world!

No, but it's the world's lingua franca at the moment, the language someone most likely had to learn in school beside his/her own and so it's a good substitute for one's own native language.

What really bothers me however is the fact that a lot of UK and US blu rays don't have english subs, really, don't they have deaf people in those countries?
I'm not anative english speaker so sometimes I don't understand conversations but I can read just fine, I held off buying a lot of movies that haven't come out here (and probably never will) because they didn't have eng subs...