The Issue Of Subtitles

[lifepawn]

I don't mind subtitles at all. I'll only watch dubs with animation.

I read a while back, before seeing it in the theater, that the Norwegian movie Kon-Tiki filmed all the non-English speaking scenes twice so they could release it in the US market with every scene in English knowing how the US hates subtitled movies. Which is funny because it was nominated for best foreign language film for the Norwegian version. I wonder if this experiment was considered successful enough and if others will ever do it this way.

I'm also suprised there aren't more shot-for-shot conversions of foreign movies instead of remakes. Seems like it would be cheaper for studios to not have to re-write the script (just translate) or hire a great director since they'd just be copying.

[TheWildWhelk]

I speak two languages, hebrew and english, and only have a limited number of foreign language films in my BD collection (District 13, D13 Ultimatum, Pans Labyrinth, Downfall, Devils Backbone, El Mariachi) but the question of dubbing or subtitles isn't an issue. Ever. Subtitles please with original language track. because as most people can attest, the dubs on any number of foreign language films basically feature piss-poor performances from actors worse than your average PS3 video game!

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

I've known people who say that they don't like subtitles because the subtitles distract from the image composition. However, in many countries, all movies and TV shows are subtitled. This is usually due to a country having more than one official language or dialect. Therefore, for people in these countries to watch movies w/o subtitles is actually "weird".

I have nothing against remakes of non-English-language movies into English, just as I have nothing against remaking a movie in the same language.

It is possible for a remake to be better than its source.

In general, dubs are rushed hack jobs, but some dubs are very well done. For example, the French dub for Disney's Beauty and the Beast is quite beautiful.

Believe it or not, some movies don't actually have one original language track. A lot of martial arts movies made in Hong Kong and Taiwan between the 1950s and 1990s are entirely dubbed, so both the Mandarin and Cantonese tracks can be considered the "original languages".

There are many facets to this aspect of movie-viewing, and it's too simple to say, "Oh, remakes suck", "Oh, subtitles suck", or "Oh, dubbing sucks".

Originally Posted by lifepawn

I don't mind subtitles at all. I'll only watch dubs with animation.

I read a while back, before seeing it in the theater, that the Norwegian movie Kon-Tiki filmed all the non-English speaking scenes twice so they could release it in the US market with every scene in English knowing how the US hates subtitled movies. Which is funny because it was nominated for best foreign language film for the Norwegian version. I wonder if this experiment was considered successful enough and if others will ever do it this way.

I'm also suprised there aren't more shot-for-shot conversions of foreign movies instead of remakes. Seems like it would be cheaper for studios to not have to re-write the script (just translate) or hire a great director since they'd just be copying.

Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey was shot like this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_...lood_and_Honey

[JLaw1719]

I think almost everyone here has no problem with subtitles. I prefer them as well over dubbed, though there are some cases where I will still watch dubbed. Like with a few of Bava's and Argento's films. For the longest time, some of these were only available to be watched dubbed and by the time I got to watch them with subtitles, it feels weird since I watched them multiple times that way.

As for the original post, I think its mostly the studios wanting to make more money off their own version than simply releasing the foreign version in the US. I know most people outside of devout films fans can't stand subtitles, but if they were forced to watch them a little more often, they might see it isn't as bad as they think.

I don't really get the stigma of subtitles among regular people. I think Passion of the Christ was the first heavy subtitle movie I watched and I felt like I had it down halfway through it. It's not that people are idiots either. I know some people you'd call intelligent on many other matters and it amazes me when they say they can't deal with subtitles or black and white films for that matter.

[Jasonic]

I don't speak German whatsoever, but the first time I watched Meet the Robinsons was in German, and after watching it in English. I preferred it in German Don't know why exactly, I guess it was just what voices I got used to first.


Yeah, many people think that reading subtitles distracts you from seeing what is going on on screen. I just wish people would give it a chance, instead of trying to make this judgement before even experiencing one.

[jamesdevil]

How I watch a subtitled film subconsciously is to read the text quickly and then fit it to the cadence and performance on screen. I've never had a problem with it. I don't ever watched dubbed versions of anything except Power Rangers.

[Canuck21]

Originally Posted by pauljeremiah

I was reading Mark Kermode's book "The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex" the other day, where he started to talk about films from Asia and Europe being remade by American studios. He believes the reason for this is that US audience refuse to read subtitles (a trend he has noticed slipping into the UK film scene too).

He then goes on to talk about how these remakes are loosing a lot in translation, for example he uses the Scandinavian film "Let The Right One In" which was remade in the US as "Let Me In". One is a story about children where one happens to be a Vampire, while the remake is a vampire film that just so happens to feature kids.

What I want to ask is, do you have a problem watching non-English films or reading subtitles?

My problem with this is that US and Americans are not the only ones who don't like subtitles. French people either in France or Canada almost always watch dubbed versions if they don't understand the original language of the movie. Subtitles of American movies don't exist at the cinema in Quebec and I don't think in France either. Even European and Asian films are always dubbed in French. When Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was released in Quebec, like always we had two choices of languages, English or French. The English version meant that you had English subtitles and the French version was dubbed. I don't recall seeing a third option with French subtitles. So isolating the US on this subject is rather unfair. The question is, are the subtitles really the problem or rather it's because Americans are not as open to other cultures and foreign actors?

As for subtitles vs. dubs, it depends on the film and in which language. First of all, let me say that there is nothing worse than English dubs. I don't know who does it for English, but you can't have worse than that. Even low budget Vietnamese dubs have more genuine expression. French dubs are high quality professionally done with good expressions. I see French dubs on a regular basis on American movies and it's not always great, but it's usually well done. So when it comes to foreign films, I don't mind the French dub. I can watch dubbed or subtitled, whatever comes my way first. For movies I like, I watch it at least twice, once in French and once subtitled. Don't forget that sometime the subtitle are shorten phrases instead of the full verbal expression, therefore the subtitle is missing the beauty of the dialogue and a dub version might translate that better.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by pauljeremiah

He then goes on to talk about how these remakes are loosing a lot in translation, for example he uses the Scandinavian film "Let The Right One In" which was remade in the US as "Let Me In". One is a story about children where one happens to be a Vampire, while the remake is a vampire film that just so happens to feature kids.

Er, yes, but "subtitles" have nothing to do with it--
It's a sort of a dichotomy for American studio execs, who on one side want to jealously "show off" that they "discovered" a foreign hit before anyone else (remember when you wanted to brag to your friends that you were the only one who'd seen Troll Hunter or LTROI yet, even though a few of them probably already had?)...
But on the other hand, a sort of ethnicism when a foreign studio makes a horror, comedy or sci-fi, that "How could a weird foreign country have made a movie Hollywood should have made?...Don't they usually make those boring talky Oscar political movies?" Leading to the notion that if Hollywood had made the movie on a real budget, the trolls or vampires would be so much more like a REAL movie! But let's get the original director to remake it with American equipment and locations, just in case!

Which underlines the importance of appreciating genuine foreign films in their original subtitles: You never get the urge to act like elitist philistine ethnicist jerks.

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Which underlines the importance of appreciating genuine foreign films in their original subtitles: You never get the urge to act like elitist philistine ethnicist jerks.

It's even better when you learn the language.

[Show spoiler]

[PocosuTheCamel]

Originally Posted by blu-ray_girl_fan

It's even better when you learn the language.

[Show spoiler]