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Re: Foreign Films Rinkpoll
Posted By: Kaz!, on host 209.197.152.60
Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2000, at 15:10:29
In Reply To: Re: Foreign Films Rinkpoll posted by Sam on Tuesday, January 25, 2000, at 12:48:41:

> > At least in the original version, you can interpret what is going on strictly by the actions and the tone of the characters.
>
> Uhh.... You're some sort of genius, then. I'd just love to see what people who don't speak English would make of an untranslated "12 Angry Men."
>
> I'm sure I'd have been quite clueless had I watched "Blue," "White," and "Red," Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy, and I even know a certain amount of French. Same with, say, "Ridicule."
>
> On the other hand, Jackie Chan's movies wouldn't be too difficult to pick up, but why would I just want the gist of it?
>
> Your complaint, I think, if you'll permit me to interpret, is about *bad* dubbing and subtitling, which is outside of the poll question.
>
> I probably shouldn't state my preference until the poll is done, but I'd probably forget if I waited until tomorrow, so I'll say so anyway. I prefer subtitles in most cases, but dubbing with fast paced Hong Kong action flicks, where it's important that your eyes aren't distracted by the subtitles so as to pick up on the action. Jackie Chan and John Woo are better dubbed, I think (assuming the dubbing job is a good one, which, of course, isn't always the case -- but with the rising popularity of both, we're starting to see better dubs).

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Well, I really should have said "In some movie originals, you can interpret what is going on strictly by the actions and the tone of the characters." Honestly, I haven't heard of some of the movies that you mentioned (the three color triliogy?), but it is true that there are movies that you can't understand unless you know what they say - I can't see people who speak any other language then English make sense of '12 angry men' either....then again I have a hard time making sense of that movie anyway.

As for your interpretation of my complaint, yes, it is indeed correct that it is about bad dubbing and subtitling, however none of the foreign movies that I've seen were translated well (as I've seen some of the originals and I can understand some French and a little bit of Chinese). Then again, I've only seen about a few foreign movies that I had also seen the original of, so I probably just picked some of the really bad ones.

-Ka"I actually can't think of a witty retort to put in here right now"z!

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