Subtitled Films

[Dyson]

Well then perhaps I'll watch the Japanese version with subtitles?

 

 

 

(Context: Ripped from HWYD - Subtitles in films? A distraction? Would you rather watch dubs? etc etc - Ashley)

[Chris the great]

Well then perhaps I'll watch the Japanese version with subtitles?

 

i hate watching anime like that, it seems to take your eyes away from the pretty pictures.

 

hence im watching princess mononoki again, this time the dubbed version.

[Dan_Dare]

The Ghilbi dubs are actually pretty excellent. I find the idea that you HAVE to watch it in a language you don't understand laughably snobbish anyway but in those films it's irrelevant anyway: proper actors like Christian Bale and Mini Driver make the dubs as good as any Disney film made in English.

[Dyson]

English version it is, then Same as I watched the other Ghiblis! Time to dive in..

[Ashley]

You could draw parallels between dubbing and cover versions of songs and we all know how hated cover songs are.

[Chris the great]

You could draw parallels between dubbing and cover versions of songs and we all know how hated cover songs are.

 

i see your. but it would be an unfair parralel.

 

i honestly dont mind subtitles alot of the time, its just one of animes biggest appeals is the visual style, seems daft to make you read, thus taking focus away from the visual style.

 

it would be more like having some one explain the words of a forgien song to you while you listened.

[Ashley]

i see your. but it would be an unfair parralel.

 

i honestly dont mind subtitles alot of the time, its just one of animes biggest appeals is the visual style, seems daft to make you read, thus taking focus away from the visual style.

 

it would be more like having some one explain the words of a forgien song to you while you listened.

 

I don't mean to sound boastful (because im fine being boastful when needs be (fyi, I have an epic penis)) but...surely you (and I mean collective 'you' not singular 'you') can see the whole screen in one. Unless the subs are badly timed (i.e. too quick) can you not look at both? I've never had a problem watching foreign films and reading subs.

 

Anyway. This has nothing to do with our day :p

[chairdriver]

I can deal with subs really easily, where some people seem to have a real problem with them.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Perhaps he means you can't fully pay attention, in an English language film you could notice more things than you would if your eyes had to dash to the bottom of the screen to read what's being said.

 

I love this system, any discussion on a certain subject of someone's day and it gets spread-eagled into its own topic.

[Chris the great]

Perhaps he means you can't fully pay attention, in an English language film you could notice more things than you would if your eyes had to dash to the bottom of the screen to read what's being said.

 

I love this system, any discussion on a certain subject of someone's day and it gets spread-eagled into its own topic.

 

no, no no. no. hes creating anouther spin off thread!

[Supergrunch]

Well, as a linguist, I'm not a fan of subs, as I'm of the opinion that no work is so interesting that you can't also have a go at trying to decipher the original language. I also like to see (semblances of) works in their original form, and subs are probably a better approximation of this. Furthermore, once you get used to subs, there's a documented psychological effect that causes you to think you're actually hearing and understanding the foreign language even though you aren't, although it probably helps to be a faster reader. Finally, in the case of Japanese, I'm just about getting to the stage where watching something with subs is more irritating than helpful, although they're definitely still necessary to pick up some of the more complex conversations, whereas dubs would just be useless.

I don't mean to sound boastful (because im fine being boastful when needs be (fyi, I have an epic penis)) but...surely you (and I mean collective 'you' not singular 'you') can see the whole screen in one. Unless the subs are badly timed (i.e. too quick) can you not look at both? I've never had a problem watching foreign films and reading subs.

Technically no, as you can only focus on a tiny area, but practically yes, as a lot of unconcious saccadic eye movements build up a much larger, more consistently detailed image, which is what you actually see.

[Wesley]

Watching films with subs is fine. Unless the subs are written in French... with people talking in Japanese.

 

Then I could see there being a problem.

[Supergrunch]

Watching films with subs is fine. Unless the subs are written in French... with people talking in Japanese.

 

Then I could see there being a problem.

God, I've had that before. It's best to just stick to either French or Japanese, else your brain explodes in the attempt to juggle three languages simultaneously.

[Paj!]

If it's a cartoon that's all lovely and beautiful, a dub is probably better. Plus the voice to mouth movement comparisons are negligible.

 

On live action films, subtitles, obviously.

[Bren]

Subtitles are mint, its like reading and watching a movie in one, although i dont think theyre gud in comedys, ruin the jokes.

 

Ong Bak/Warrior King are reason enuf for subtitles :P

 

HUMLAAEE

[Fierce_LiNk]

I've never personally had a problem with reading subtitles. I think you learn to train yourself to be more attentive with what's going on in each scene, so that whilst you're reading, you're still aware of what's going on, the acting, the setting and so forth.

 

Ine is jammy. When I went to watch Wall-E with her in the cinema in Belgium, the showed the voicework (what little there was of it) in English, and had both French and Dutch subtitles, one above the other at the bottom of the screen. Ine can read, speak and understand all three. So, she had a choice over how she wanted to watch/listen/read the film.

 

Subtitles are fine. I've watched plenty of films with subtitles over the years. With something like Ringu (Ring), it was in a language I did not understand, but I still wanted to watch the film, so it was quite useful to have the subtitles. I've seen films in French over the years, and whilst I can understand some of it, I needed the subtitles. Dubbing on the other hand just doesn't seem to do much for me. I find it cheesy more than anything. At least with subtitles, you can still keep the host language, whilst having the titles at the bottom which are good for deaf people (I wonder how many of you thought of that?), people who cannot speak the language, or people who are learning the language but haven't grasped the full understanding. Dubbing, for the most part, is out of sync with the characters lips due to the differences in language, it is more often than not cheesy (see Police Story, but thankfully it doesn't take away too much from being a great film) and it just feels very awkward and disjointed. As such, it doesn't feel like you're watching the film as it was intended.

[jayseven]

This thread was a C-section, amirite?

 

Shorty taught me the wise ways. Subs and original audio over dubbed, tortured translations. The tone of the sentance is just more believable when it's not said by an american who has no idea what the story is.

 

e.g. "Believe it!" -- that's a vaguely strenuous link, right there.

[Daft]

I feel the same way about dubbing as I do about herpes.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I feel the same way about dubbing as I do about herpes.

 

Just to clarify, you hate herpes, right?

 

I dunno, you just never know with some people.

[Daft]

I don't know what herpes is like so I couldn't say I hated it, but I would never want to. Just like I never want to hear dubbing.

 

Point of reference, that was a Hunter S Thompson quote that I butchered.

[Iun]

If you see Chinese movies here, you have to pray that there are subtitles. Some of them are good, others are terrible. And sometiemes random inapproprate words just appear in sentences. For example, two guys are sitting on a coffee shop terrace.

 

First guy: "I enjoy looking at the girls go by."

 

Second guy: "Me too, partcularly if they're hot."

 

First guy: "There's nothing more attractive to me than a shapely girl posterior."

 

...what?

[Ganepark32]

I'd have to agree with most people in here. For things like anime/manga, I'm more than happy to watch it in the dubbed english version because it's really about the visual art and the story and so while having to read what is going on may not necessarily departmentalise you from the story, it's more immersive to not have to read it while watch as you can take in a much wider experience. That said, I did watch the likes of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke the first time round in Japanese and it was fine although as I've said, it has felt more immersive watching it in subsequent viewings in english.

 

For world cinema movies, I feel that it is wrong to watch it in a dubbed form. The whole idea of watching a world cinema film is the get fully immersed in a completely different culture and language is the foundation of culture (some literary people would even say that language IS culture). So everytime I watch say a Chinese film or any other foreign language film, I watch it in the original language and read the subtitles. It just feels right mentally. Nothing worse than putting on say a chinese film and hearing some really bad American dubs over the top.

[Mundi]

Subbing all the way for me, I don´t mind watching a dubbed movie if it´s done well but in most cases dubbings are just terrible.

[EEVILMURRAY]

If you see Chinese movies here, you have to pray that there are subtitles. Some of them are good, others are terrible. And sometiemes random inapproprate words just appear in sentences. For example, two guys are sitting on a coffee shop terrace.

 

First guy: "I enjoy looking at the girls go by."

 

Second guy: "Me too, partcularly if they're hot."

 

First guy: "There's nothing more attractive to me than a shapely girl posterior."

 

...what?

What's wrong with saying he likes arses?

 

As for the out-of-sync dubbing, although it wouldn't be accepted much these days, is it still humourous in the old Hitmonlee films?

[Rick Dangerous]

On the Kiki delivery service dvd I have the guy dubbing the cat sounds completly different to the japanese lady doing the orginal voice so that has put me off ghibli dubs. Infact I dont like dubs at all on most films because most of the actor doing them are terrible.

 

I only watch dubs for comedy value like in unintentionally funny martial arts films like story of ricky or some earlier jackie chan films.