Dubbed or subtitled? Your preference?

POSTED BY: lwaves
UPDATED: Friday, March 14, 2008 03:41
VIEWED: 6565
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LWAVES

Monday, March 10, 2008 11:35 PM

Watched The Orphanage this weekend which I enjoyed as a great drama/ghost story.
Recommended it to a couple of people at work who sounded interested until I told them it was subtitled (the original language is Spanish).
Then they were like 'No way' and 'Never watch it'.
Now I know this subject often comes up about foreign movies but I thought I'd put it to my fellow Browncoats and find out what we all prefer.

Personally I don't have a problem with subtitles, I find it easy to read them and watch the movie as well. Hearing the inflections and emotions etc of the original actor speak the lines (even if I don't actually understand the words) is far better for me than a dubbed voice.
I really can't stand dubbing. Because of the different language the synching is ALWAYS out (yeah I know this can't be helped) but to me it makes it so distracting to watch. Much worse than an English language film that has its audio out of sync.

What are your thoughts?

"I don't believe in suicide, but if you'd like to try it it might cheer me up to watch."

YINYANG

Monday, March 10, 2008 11:50 PM

I agree. Subtitles are superior. It's always weird to hear an English-speaking voice coming from a Japanese character (because I watch more anime than foreign films), and, especially with cartoons, some of the dubbing is awful.

Once a lurker, always a lurker.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 6:45 AM

Whenever this subject comes up, I recall the spaghetti westerns - The Stranger, the Two Strangers, and The Three Strangers (retitled as For a Fistfull of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.)
They had English speaking stars, and all the extras were Italians speaking Italian in an Italian film production. it was made for Italian audiences. They dubbed all the Italian speaking with English. Then the entire dialogue was subtitled in Italian.
This was done so the Italian audiences would think it was an American Western film, but the script was specifically written for Italian audiences. They were all immense hits in Italy, and within a decade - after Clint's "4th" installment, an actual American production, the first 3 were brought to America.

ECGORDON

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:27 AM

I prefer subtitled, and I also liked The Orphanage a lot.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

SPACEANJL

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:49 AM

Subtitles, every time. Bad dubbing is so distracting. Unless it's a cult classic like 'Monkey'.

JONGSSTRAW

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 2:10 PM

I typically would prefer dubbing. Sub-titles, for me, are too distracting, and often ruin the pace of the movie. Some movies, however, I do prefer to see in the original language such as Das Boot. If you watch the 2 versions, they almost come off as 2 different movies.

DEADLOCKVICTIM

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:12 PM

I saw a comedian once in Austin - he had a great bit where he played a samurai and and moved his mouth as though he were speaking Japanese, but the words came out as English... so a long dialogue would end up as just a few words... pretty funny, but i guess you had to be there...

I prefer subtitles - mainly because voice overs or dubbing is distracting in that you can usually tell that the movements of the mouth don't line up with the words being spoken...

I have a thing about things lining up....

MAL4PREZ

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:49 PM

Funny, I just watched Curse of the Golden Flower last week. (Great movie!) I watched with subtitles, for all the reasons stated above. Inflection, etc.

But the movie is so damned beautiful that I watched again a few days later with dubs so I could take in the settings and costumes and facial expressions. There was a lot I missed the first time through - not only visual details, but lines I didn't process while reading but did while hearing.

I still prefer subtitles, but sometimes a second view with dubs is worth it.

-----------------------------------------------
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SPACEANJL

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:56 PM

A really well-dubbed film, and I find that my brain is parallel processing the subtitles with the audio. There are some films where I have to think hard to rememebr if I saw subbed or dubbed.

'Curse of the Golden Flower' was a real feel-bad film. But so damn beautiful. That big battle, and then the even bigger army of servants who just cleared it away like nothing happened? Mad.

EVILDINOSAUR

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 4:11 PM

I can watch both, though I think I prefer dubbed. The reason being I find it easier to follow what's happening if I'm listening to the speech rather than reading it, the different voices make it easier to tell who's talking. Though watching subtitled is fun too, especially when you start picking up what some of the words in the foreign language are.

"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."

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