Foreign Films - Subtitles or Dubbed

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

Poll question: Foreign Films - Subtitles or Dubbed

I prefer subtitles 1000000 to 1 - especially in Japanese animation but , as a rule, in all films (except the Harder They Come - I understood the thick Patois in that)

I like subtitles for 2 reasons

1 - I find the japanese (and most other languages fascinating to listen to - especially Japanese and Swedish, so Bergman films with subtitles too)

2 - Japanese animation is made reverse to American animation. In the US its animated to existing vocal tracks and the reverse in Japanese. I'm sure the Japanese dialog has to be jerky to keep up with the action but, since I don't understand it, it sounds better to me.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. If I have to choose only one, I go with dubbed.

I don't want to miss any important cinematography because I'm too busy reading. I prefer both at the same time, however.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

8. I watched Grave of the Fireflies dubbed then subtitled

I do see what you're sayin'

[redqueen]

18. Good point

Watching both ways is preferable to me, since it seems the dubbing is often a bit different from the subtitles.

[sybylla]

2. Subtitles over dubbing unless

the dubbing is very good - which it rarely is. Besides, I love to hear the original language. It gives a foreign movie a color and tone it loses when it is dubbed.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

9. Seeing the Seventh Seal with characters who sound like they're from

Coney Island doesn't cut the mustard for me

[tigereye]

37. yeah I hate dubbed

films, always sounds horrible.

[tishaLA]

3. Dubbing is a heresy

[FrankBooth]

28. Agreed

I refuse to watch any dubbed film, it completely ruins the experience for me. I like to hear the original language, and it also reaveals much more about the actor to hear the original language.

[terrya]

4. Subtitles. I have never seen a good dubbing job in a film.

Never. It always looks phony.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

11. They're getting a LOT better.

The newer version of Akira is extremely well done, as are the TV series "Trigun" and "Cowboy Bebop". Studios are realizing there's a market for it if they put the effort in.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

5. Big McLargeHuge - where you at?

Interested in your opinion!

[WI_DEM]

6. subtitles

Dubbing usually sounds cheesy.

[Magrittes Pipe]

7. Subtitles in live action, dubbed in animation.

I miss the... well... ANIMATION too much if I'm reading subtitles, and it's not so herky-jerky dubbing animated film as dubbing live action.

I would not want the poetry of "Delicatessen" to be ruined by dubbing; but I grew up with "Robotech" and "Battle of the Planets/G-Force" and "Space Battleship Yamato," so I'm okay with dubbing cartoons. ;)

[Endangered Specie]

10. I HATE Dubbing, subtitles only...

I tried to watch "Life is Beautifu;" Italian and USA network had it dubbed, I couldn't watch


Subtitles are good, especially if you can get it so they are below the screen (I always watch in cinema ratio). I am not distracted by reading (I can do 2 things at once).

[pagerbear]

12. I want to hear the actors' own voices

[flordehinojos]

13. I grew up reading the subtitles of the many American movies

at the Teatro Cuba, Teatro Aguilera and Teatro Oriente in my hometown: Santiago de Cuba. Sometimes it was embarrassing when my mother, a Mississippi American born, would start laughing WHILE the entire rest of the audience was silent because, as an American she would "get" some joke lost to the translation in the subtitles.

Then, also, after spending the first three years of my journey into exile in Mississippi, listening to nothing but the spoken English of my family there and of the friends I made there, my mind decided to automatically translate an entire CANTINFLAS movie into English once I reached Miami five years later and attended a Spanish speaking movie.

My friends who were with me could not stop laughing at the fact that when we left the movie I shared with them my amazement at the fact that the CANTINFLAS movie had been spoken in English. They said, "WHAT?..."

:eyes:

[flamingyouth]

14. Subtitles! They combine my two loves - reading AND movies!

:D

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

15. Sounds EXACTLY like what your namesake would say

Except she'd say reading and films :)
http://www.uni-bielefeld.de:8081/paedagogik/Seminare/moeller02/03groening/lisa-simpson_sax.jpg

[flamingyouth]

19. Hee hee

That's right! :D

[DS1]

16. Subtitles - except *pulling up pants on flamesuit* Spanish

Because the hottest women in the world will turn me off once Spanish words pass her lips - I find it the most grating language of them all.

This, unfortunately, includes Salma.

[Endangered Specie]

21. dupe

dupe

[Endangered Specie]

22. I won't flame you... I somewhat agree

(both in movies and in reality) but dubbing makes it even worse (what are you watching? Spanish porno flicks?)

Now, a German or Dutch speaking one... I would like that very much :)

[HuckleB]

30. Go sit on my gas grill for a while.

:)

[Endangered Specie]

17. Usually Ill turn on the subtitles (CC) when the movie is in English too...

Although I have excellent hearing for my age (I can still clearly hear the high pitch TV's make) I have always had a slight speech reckognition problem and Ill often miss what was said on film... explains why I prefer insturmental to lyrical music.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

20. If it's dubbed, I won't watch it.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

23. Some call us snobs - I call us purists

in so many things!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

24. Purity of essence, my dear boy, purity of essence.

[NewJeffCT]

25. subtitles all the way

I'm even getting to the point where I can tell a good Mandarin Chinese translation from a bad one or where different movies use a different English translation for the same word in Mandarin.

And, I've always been somewhat of a speedreader so I rarely miss much on the screen - I remember laughing before everybody in the theater when I saw "Moscow on the Hudson" years back.

[HuckleB]

26. Subtitles, though I prefer Keanu Reeves movies to be dubbed in Spanish.

You'd be amazed at the depth of character that comes out!

:)

[name not needed]

27. Dubbing if its a Godzilla movie

Anyone who says otherwise is a freeper.

[HuckleB]

29. You haven't seen the new re-release of the original, have you?

It's as anti-freeper as it gets.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

31. Subtitles

[Spider Jerusalem]

32. Subtitles, definitely.

I REALLY hope that there's a subtitled version of Hero released...(Jet Li movie...think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but 2x better).

[bif]

33. Fellini's "Amaracord" is the perfect example

All the yelling and stuff could only be done in Italian. Beautiful film if you've never seeen it. The dubbed version absolutely sucked.

[bif]

34. Although if you're half in the bag, watching a movie late at night

Dubbed seems to work better for me. So I guess, subtitled if you're sober, dubbed if you're loaded.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

39. Ok that USED to be my motto

alas, times change :)

[sundog]

35. Dubbed movies are a nightmare -- try watching Fellini's "Satyricon"

It was dubbed in both Italian & English... cool movie, but either version is distracting

[supernova]

36. Subtitles

are essential to the foreign film experience, imo.

I love foreign films and go or rent every chance I get. I know just enough French and German that I can tell whether or not the subtitles are a good reflection of the dialogue.

[Kellanved]

38. definitely subbed

It is really bad German habit: everything gets dubbed. Michael Moore, Will Smith, the "Friends": they all speak perfect high German over here. Especially humor translates poorly: what isn't lost in translation gets lost by inapt speakers.

Thankfully matters have improved lately: many channels offer two languages and we have a big all-American cinema in town ;-).

[Lydia Leftcoast]

40. As a language buff, I vastly prefer subtitles, but

I must admit that it's a hoot to see the cast of *Columbo* or *Murder She Wrote* or *Sabrina the Teenage Witch* speaking Japanese.

The dubbing for *Columbo* was very good, by the way. They caught both the character and his style.