Subtitles or dubbing?

[Ranger REG]

But my wife is Russian, and prefers dubbed over subtitles, since she is used to hearing movies dubbed in Russian. That's how the general population sees movies.

Is it that hard to put Russian language subtitles on films? Is it that hard to read it (from Russian native speaker's perspective)?

 

[catsclaw227]

Is it that hard to put Russian language subtitles on films? Is it that hard to read it (from Russian native speaker's perspective)?

Not sure. When I asked her about it, she said that almost all english speaking movies shown at the theater are dubbed, DVDs are dubbed as well. She wonders why we prefer subtitled ones...

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

My personal preference is definitely subtitled as I want to hear the acting in the original language.

I lived in Japan 14 years and pretty much all non-Japanese movies are subtitled there. The only dubbed movies you see at the theaters are Pixar movies and the like for kids, in which kids can't read quickly enough.

As some have said here, dubbing seems fairly standard in most countries in Europe. I remember vividly a business trip to Madrid when the first LotR movie came out. It wasn't coming to Japan for months and I was desparate to see it in Madrid (and for obvious reasons didn't want to go to a dubbed version). I had to search high and low and finally found one theater that was showing it subtitled.

 

[Ranger REG]

She wonders why we prefer subtitled ones...

Because lip-synching have gone out of style in the US, thanks to Milli Vanilli. We now try to see if the performer is performing with his or her real voice live, or is just moving their lips to a pre-recorded music. Anyone can purchase pre-recorded music. What with the cost of concert tickets these days, they want 100% real and nothing less.

That and I can't stand the lips moving out-of-sync with the supposed dialogue, even though I'm not a proficient lip reader.

 

[Wombat]

Gimme subtitles every time.

This is especially true with the few languages where I know just enough to get into trouble, like German and Spanish (and those rare ones in Latin), because then I get to hear the extra bits beyond the translation.