Disappointing Trends in Movies

[Nellisir]

Now, what I'm about to say only refers to Japanese anime:

Cool. I don't watch anime.


Nell.

 

[Joker]

What's even worse than dubbing is dubbing where you still hear the original at the same time but then in the background. Luckily I've only had this experience with Russian Tv-shows.

Speaking of Russian and on the topic of subtitles. The movie Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) used English subtitles to enhance what was happening in the movie.
In this scene where one of the characters is being "called" telepathically by a vampire, what the vampire says is translated in red and wispy letters, sometimes bleeding because the movie explained the calling as a tugging of the blood.

It was completely unintrusive and very well done.

 

[JohnRTroy]

If anime becomes cool and everyone starts watching it, then they will suddenly be considered part of the unwashed masses.

They already are. Look at the success of Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, neo-anime like Teen Titans and The Batman, etc. Cartoon Network, etc.

Anime and Manga is now considered mainstream.

 

[mojo1701]

What's even worse than dubbing is dubbing where you still hear the original at the same time but then in the background. Luckily I've only had this experience with Russian Tv-shows.

When I was in Poland about four years ago, this happened to me, too. Though, it was on the cheaper satellite stations they had.

 

[sniffles]

What's even worse than dubbing is dubbing where you still hear the original at the same time but then in the background. Luckily I've only had this experience with Russian Tv-shows.

Speaking of Russian and on the topic of subtitles. The movie Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) used English subtitles to enhance what was happening in the movie.
In this scene where one of the characters is being "called" telepathically by a vampire, what the vampire says is translated in red and wispy letters, sometimes bleeding because the movie explained the calling as a tugging of the blood.

It was completely unintrusive and very well done.

Oh, that's neat! I hope there will be something similar for the American release.

I hate subtitles that are badly done/illegible, although that mainly seemed to be a failing of old Hong Kong subs on action movies. Now that such movies are relatively popular in the US, the subtitling has improved considerably. No more white subtitles over light-colored backgrounds, and the translations are much better too (maybe not necessarily more accurate, but at least they make sense to English speakers now ).

 

[Rackhir]

Then I lived in Japan for three years, and realized that the Japanese voices are just as overdone as anything dubbed into English. I just didn't recognize it, because I didn't--at the time--speak any Japanese. So I caught the emotion, but didn't realize just how over-the-top the voices were. As such, watching anime in Japanese cut out some of the childishness inherent in American voice acting (at least then--I think American dubbing has gotten better by leaps and bounds.

I might have asked you this before, but were you in Japan on the JET Program BTW? I was and 3 years was the time limit on that.

Back In The Days Of Yore, I was had a Japanese friend of the family trying to translate Project-Ako for me and she had a LOT of trouble with C-Ko's dialogue because her voice was so high pitched and squeeky.

What's even worse than dubbing is dubbing where you still hear the original at the same time but then in the background. Luckily I've only had this experience with Russian Tv-shows.

They do this often in Japan when an English speaker is being interviewed/clip shown, etc... To make things even wierder, some of this is broadcast in English and some times you get the English dubbed voice over the Japanese dubbed voice over the original english.

 

[Arnwyn]

They do this often in Japan when an English speaker is being interviewed

They do this everywhere. It's standard interview translating.

To make things even wierder, some of this is broadcast in English and some times you get the English dubbed voice over the Japanese dubbed voice over the original english.

This, however, is weird.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I might have asked you this before, but were you in Japan on the JET Program BTW? I was and 3 years was the time limit on that.

Why yes, I was indeed there through the JET program (Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu Island). I got a fantastic posting and had the time of my life for all three years. Glad to meet a fellow alum.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I fail to see how dubbed dialogue destroys the performance anymore than listening to a language you don't understand and having to read a translation at the bottom of the screen.

As I said, it has to do with the performance. I don't think I'm alone in getting more out of a performance when I can hear how an actor says something - I'm not just interested in what is said, I'm interested in how it's said.

Perhaps I would feel differently if dubbed-over dialogue was ever done in an attempt to reproduce the original performance - but it's not.

I watched The Godfather last night, which features unsubtitled Italian (Sicilian!) dialogue in about 10% of the film. I don't feel like I missed anything, because the performances conveyed the necessary information.

You can never have the same experience when you're hearing some third-rate vocal performance not-quite-coming out of the mouth of a first-rate actor. It destroys the performance utterly.

In comparison, subtitles are nothing. Perhaps they bother me less because I can read them at a glance - I'm aware not everyone reads as quickly as I do.

Sorry, I just get annoyed by people who act like watching foreign language films in subtitles is somehow superior to watching them dubbed. Anime fanboys do this a lot, and it's one of the biggest reasons why I don't hang out in anime fan communities anymore.

I can't speak to the sub/dub controversy in anime, because I loathe it.

I'll just never see why someone thinks you can watch Hero with some American's voice in Jet Li's mouth and be experiencing the film as it was meant to be seen.

(I also take issue with the deliberately Americanised subtitles in the Western-audience version. I watched Hero first with the Chinese-produced subtitles on Hong's Region 3 DVD, and they're far better. "Our Land" my arse.)

 

[Dark Jezter]

Perhaps I would feel differently if dubbed-over dialogue was ever done in an attempt to reproduce the original performance - but it's not.

That's a rather glib generalization. Heck, I've gotten more out of the dubbed version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon than I ever did from the subbed version.

You can never have the same experience when you're hearing some third-rate vocal performance not-quite-coming out of the mouth of a first-rate actor. It destroys the performance utterly.

Most communication is nonverbal. I can usually tell what a character is feeling onscreen by facial expressions, body language, and actions (provided they are putting in a good performance, and if they aren't, then why make a big deal over it being dubbed in the first place?). It dosen't bother me in the slightest if the dub actor dosen't match the pitch and volume of the original actor's voice exactly.

In comparison, subtitles are nothing. Perhaps they bother me less because I can read them at a glance - I'm aware not everyone reads as quickly as I do.

Heck, I don't mind subtitles either. My problem is with sub snobs.

I'll just never see why someone thinks you can watch Hero with some American's voice in Jet Li's mouth and be experiencing the film as it was meant to be seen.

It's a concept known as "People having different opinions than you do." Not everyone feels that the only "true" way to watch a movie is in the original language with subtitles at the bottom of the screen.