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  • Film & TV Moderators: ghostfreak

Is dubbing of foreign language films ever effective?

Raving Loony

Raving Loony

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 21, 2002
Messages
3,181
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Personally this is a massive hate of mine, even in Kung-fu movies where it is supposedly used as a sight gag. Hello! Senor Speilbergo wannabes it aint worth a smirk! I love foreign languages and I hate to see them ruined by dubbing. I hired out Das Boot the other day on DVD and if you wanted to hear it in Dolby 5.1, you had to listen to it in French or English. Is it really that hard to read sub-titles?

But do you consider ok for countries where English is not widely spoken? The French try to preserve their language by dubbing almost every English film that comes out. In this case I am sort down with it, because traditional languages are worth preserving. I must confess I am taking a bit of double standard by saying that it is ok for non-English countries to do, but it's not ok here. But I guess that comes about because English is just, well everywhere!
 
I'ver never personally watched a dubbed (english over some other language) movie that worked. I prefer to read the subtitles. Dubbing, IMO, never captures the emotion/moment behind the actual scene and the conversation never has the right flow.
 
^I have to agree. Tho I do enjoy watching the Italian horror film, Suspiria dubbed. It's just so bad it's good. Like you said, it takes away all the emotion from the actors. Making all their efforts seem wasted.

Another film that springs to mind is, Run Lola Run. The dubbing on that film is beyond bad. And any Manga film is usually pretty crap too.
 
Dubbing always makes it hard to take a movie seriously, it makes them all like Kung Pow. Anime like ghost in the shell starts to look a little more like a kids cartoon when it's dubbed.
Some people are just too damn lazy to read, it's sad.
 
Chalk me down as another dubber-hater. Dubbing takes out all the emotional nuances of the language, which are (IMO) just as important as the dialogue itself.
 
i usually prefer not to watch a movie than watch it dubbed

In this case I am sort down with it, because traditional languages are worth preserving
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don't worry, other languages don't need any help being preserved

on the contrary, seeing movies in original version would help some countries get a better level at english

take the example of holland or sweden, they have tv in english and everyone speaks english there
france or spain have everything dubbed, and the level at foreign languages is low

dubbing a movie is like going to a chinese restaurant and putting ketchup on the food
 
Everytime I watched TV in Germany I cringed at their dubbing of TV shows. Especially comedies like Simpsons and Family Guy... The Simpsons even had this wierd voice over to explain the sight gags that were in English.
 
drEaMtiMe*@# said:
i hate hate hate hate hate hate HATE dubbing. in all circumstances. the only time when it can work though, is in animated movies like spirited away etc.
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that's interesting - why does it make a difference if it's animated?

i enjoy japanese animation and i can only really watch it with subtitles - the sound of spoken japanese is a huge part of the atmosphere for me.

alasdair
 
Belisarius said:
Chalk me down as another dubber-hater. Dubbing takes out all the emotional nuances of the language, which are (IMO) just as important as the dialogue itself.
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yes...

it's almost impossible to have a dubbed movie resonate the same way as a subtitled one will.

even though i dont understand their words, i watch the actor's faces and pay attention to the inflections in their voices (you can gain some emotional background there that dubbing sort of ruins due to time synch issues) while reading the subtitles...
 
alasdairm said:
that's interesting - why does it make a difference if it's animated?

i enjoy japanese animation and i can only really watch it with subtitles - the sound of spoken japanese is a huge part of the atmosphere for me.

alasdair
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hmmm i guess it's because to me dubbed movies always seem so fake as they can never get the timing of the mouth opening - words coming out perfectly synchronised with the dubbed voice, and thus it all becomes very disconcerting and frustrating to watch.

animated movies are a bit different (imo) because the timing is easier to perfect. plus, animation in itself isn't based on realism, hence why dubbing the movie doesn't make the whole experience feel *so* unnatural.

essentially i agree with what you said about the sound of japanese playing a big part in the atmosphere when watching japanese animation; however what i'm trying to say is that for the above reasons it's a circumstance where i can let dubbing pass, even though it'll never quite be preferred.
 
alasdairm said:
i enjoy japanese animation and i can only really watch it with subtitles - the sound of spoken japanese is a huge part of the atmosphere for me.

alasdair
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Agreed to an extent.
Of all dub jobs, the BEST ones are in Japanese animation.
Miyazaki films use top notch english actors for their voices and they work really well. Shit, he even re-records some of the score in english too!
The original GITS was done during production, so as to ensure a simultaneous world wide release and it works well. The sequel just so happens to be the worst dubbing i've ever seen, but that's because the language is full of japanese metaphor that doesn't translate well at all.
 
to be honest i prefer the dub. if i am watching a movie, i don't want to read unless i have to. i'm not sure i'm missing any nuance with something being out of sync i wouldn't have missed having to read the subs.

there are of course movies i wouldn't want to watch dubbed - but for the vast majority screw it. make it easy for me.
 
I also don't mind Japanese animation being dubbed. That said I'm not really a fan of anime anyways so don't watch much of it.

But besides that I don't think I've ever seen any dubbed foreign films. Most of the foreign films I watch are on an Australian TV channel called SBS, and they are all subtitled.
 
I've only seen one foreign movie that sounded great when you use the English lannguage option. Kung Fu Hustle. They either used the real actors to record their lines in english or someone damn close. Otherwise,it's always distracting and the dialogue never matches the emotion of the character.
 
alasdairm said:
i enjoy japanese animation and i can only really watch it with subtitles - the sound of spoken japanese is a huge part of the atmosphere for me.
Click to expand...

Agree with this 100%

I can't really see the point in dubbing as it just detracts from a film watching the lip sync. Nothing wrong with subtitles IMO.
 
i'm the gorilla at the back of the theatre who starts beating his chest and jumping on the projector operator when i find out a film has been dubbed.
 
Almost all of our local films are dubbed and I'm used to it. It's pretty awful sometimes tho. What's funny is when we import Latin American, Japanese and Korean telenovelas and they dub it over in Filipino...lol....you see the mouths don't even match the words . It's HILARIOUS.
 
If you don't speak the language then the dubbing of foreign language films is more effective than not doing so. :\
 
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