Dubbed or Subtitles?

[raisindot]

Oh, subtitles, totally. I won't watch a 'fereign' film that's dubbed, especially if it's a masterpiece by Bergman, Truffaut, Goddard, Fellini or any Japanese or Chinese movie. Part of the experience of watching international cinema is to get the flavor of the language being spoken.

Of course, lousy subtitling can ruin a movie, like when a character speaks for 30 second and everything they said is summarized in one sentence. Of when only white and non-bright subtitles are used and they bleed into the background.

 

[Conforumist]

I have to say dubbed, because I am not always able to read everything before it's gone with some movies. I know I'm a bit of a slow reader, but sometimes it's just too fast, period.
I also find that I can't watch the movie, 'cos all I'm doing is reading.

 

[Seimimac]

Definitely subtitles if I want to fully appreciate the film, but there are exceptions.

Years and years ago, just when VCRs were becoming popular, we had a Philips VCR, which had double sided video tapes. So, apart from the usual problems with early VCRs - clunky noises, chunky buttons etc - you also had the added hassle of having to get up and turn the tape over halfway through the movie!

I remember we had 'The Big Boss', Bruce Lee's first movie. It had been dubbed, and it was the worst dub-job ever! Awful acting, and a translation done by someone whose first language was neither English or, apparently, any Chinese dialect, eg - Bruce and his cousin are accosted by 6 bad guys, who say they're going to 'teach them a lesson.' Bruce looks at the 6 guys, points at them, and asks, 'What? just you four lousy guys?' And that was one of the better bits.

We loved it. We must have watched that film a hundred times, learning the lines off by heart. I've tried loads of times to find that dubbed version, but some git seems to have gone and done a far better-acted, correctly translated, better lip-synched version. Don't you hate when that happens??

 

[AgnesOgg]

Subtitles please with english/american movies I prefer no subtitles, because then I get bothered by the lousy translation :snooty:

 

[cheery_j.]

I prefer watching the original if it's English, but I'm used to watching dubbed films & TV shows, since that's what they do in Germany.
The Simpsons are an example of how dubbing under pressure can turn the lines into complete nonsense.
Here's some of my favourite examples:
Marge looking out of the kitchen window, seeing it's all misty outside says: "Was ist das für ein Mist da draußen?" (What kind of crap ist that out there?") because the German word for manure is the same as the English for lots of water particles in the air...
Or Lisa ( I think) says something like "you shouldn't swear" was dubbed into "du sollst nicht schwören". Of course she means that the person she's talking to shouldn't use swear words, however they used the other meaning of swearing, as in swearing an oath. Doesn't make any sense at all...

However, the TV show The Pretenders was very, very successful in Germany, partly because of the dubbing that often didn't have very much to do with the original lines. They even commented on the dubbing in the dubbed lines. Here's more on that on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persuaders!#Radical_dubbing_key_to_German_popularity

 

[Tonyblack]

The only case I can think of a bit like that was the British version of the French kids' show The Magic Roundabout.

 

[cheery_j.]

The magic Roundabout is French???

Well, you live and learn...

 

[raptornx01]

I always prefer the dubbed version. 99% of the time you aren't loosing anything as far as dialouge goes, most dubs here are accurate. and voice acting has come a long way so most of the time the acting is good or decent (sometimes superb). Where as with subs you often do loose alot visually. Even if you don't realize it. shots are composed the way they are for a reason. where the audience looks matters. subs can destroy that.

 

[Tonyblack]

Hey Raptor! Good to see you again. I was wondering where you were.

 

[Hvitveis]

Subtitles please!

They dub Everything here in Spain, and so you get those funny moments where you realize Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando and The terminator have the same voice.......... (an invented example but not far from reality)

 

[konnichiwa]

I prefer watching stuff with the original language, since in Finland only childrens shows are dubbed so one doesn't even hear dubbed stuff on TV.

But I must say I love the children series which I saw as a kid, as dubbed. I can't stand the voices of TMNT in any other language than Finnish, same with The Biker Mice from Mars etc
also same applies to old Disney movies, I love the finnish dubs (mostly way more than the english voices) but nowadays I prefer the english voices since the dubbing isn't so good anymore... but the old movies :romance-heartbeating:

 

[Ghost]

I watch quite a bit of anime but on live action films I prefer subbed over dubbed
the reason for this is that you get the whole experience of the actors ability.
But for some reason American's like to dub any film that comes their way
which is the main reason why the death note film fell flat on it's face in the States

also the live action adaptation of Cromartie High and Gantz was butchered that way
and is a sod to find the subbed version on the net of either one of those movies.
But for animated programs and films I don't mind as much as long as it's well done
you can get terrible subs and terrible dubs but then you can find something that
is just bizarre and breaks all the rules like Ghost Stories that was created by
some of the people who created Bleach and should have been outstanding but for various
reasons that I won't go into because I haven’t seen the subbed version wasn't.
And then the Canadians got hold of the rights and it went out of the window lol
the the script writers went wild changing the script almost completely but keeping to the
basic plot of the original script, it's the marmite of anime you either love it or hate it
I happen to love it now there is a reason to why I'm going to put the video in spoiler brackets
don't watch if you're sensitive

Spoiler

 

[raisindot]

I watch quite a bit of anime but on live action films I prefer subbed over dubbed
the reason for this is that you get the whole experience of the actors ability.
But for some reason American's like to dub any film that comes their way
which is the main reason why the death note film fell flat on it's face in the States

Sorry, but you're totally wrong about this. Almost no foreign films (or at least those that appear in movie theaters) are dubbed anymore in America and haven't been since the 60s; just about all have subtitles. If a film is dubbed here it's because the producers know that the thing is such a turd that no Americans would put it up with seeing it with subtitles.

 

[Ghost]

okay sorry after doing some studying you're right there is a lot less dubbing
but in my defence I have found quite a few Asian anime live action adaptations that have been dubbed
Death note, Gantz and Cromartie being fairly high up on the list

 

[Tiffany]

The only foreign film I have ever seen, I own the DVD as well, is Amélie. It's a lovely film & subtitled, but doesn't really need them as there is very little dialog in it.
I much prefer subtitles.

 

[raisindot]

okay sorry after doing some studying you're right there is a lot less dubbing
but in my defence I have found quite a few Asian anime live action adaptations that have been dubbed
Death note, Gantz and Cromartie being fairly high up on the list

I wouldn't use anime or anime live action as a representative of what goes on in the American market for foreign movies. There's a very small audience for this kind of stuff, and dubbing cartoons (or even live action cartoons) makes much more sense that subtitles, since you're not really seeing these things expecting great acting or dialogue.

 

[Ghost]

then tell me what is
because a huge amount of non-anime drama, comedy, scfi and horror that is produced in Asia
just isn't shipped over to the US and what 8 years ago there was a huge outcry for horror
but that seems to have died off with a small exceptional few
and anime isn't a small industry any more it is massive and growing bigger by the year

and to honest I have been looking through various movie lists for the US and it has surprisingly small amount of non-English
speaking movies

 

[raptornx01]

Anime in the US has died off ALOT the last couple of years. It USED to be growing exponentially and seemed to be taking over, but the downturn in the economy combined with oversaturation hit the industry HARD. most of the major players are gone now. all thats really left is FUNimation. Viz, manga ent, and bandai are barely holding on thanks to a few big licenses (and the fact that bandai is just part of a bigger japanese company). Geneon (formerly Pioneer), central park media, and at one time the biggest company, ADV Films are now defunct (plus many smaller companies). and those three were the industry leaders at one point.

And even FUNi would be gone if not for Dragon Ball Z (at one point the highest rated show on cable tv in the US and still a hugely profitable series), the fact that Navaro bought them years back, and that founder Gen Fukunaga has contacts (not to mention family) in several Japanese studios (which is how he was able to get the DBZ license after it's original failed attempt in the US despite not actually having a company, or the means to release it at the time)

Its still around, and has the potential to get back to where it was a few years ago, but has alot of ground to win back.

since you're not really seeing these things expecting great acting or dialogue.

Quite the opposite infact, maybe early on, say early to mid 80's, it was true, but quality has improved significantly since then.

 

[mystmoon]

I tend to watch everything with subtitles irregardless of language because of my hearing

I have to say though, part of the problem with anime is that since fansubs (and in some cases fandubs) can be easily streamed within days, sometimes hours of the original air date in Japan, most anime fans don't buy official releases of Anime anymore, instead streaming it online. In fact I've heard a lot of anime fans complaining that the series that they like arenever picked up by dubbing companies so they can't support official releases and are "forced" to illegally torrent episodes