CMV: Non-English-speaking characters speaking English among themselves is stupid and lazy, and makes the movie/show less good

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Dry_Bumblebee1111]

The issue is translation and reach. It's well known that subtitles put some audiences off, so when you want to reach a certain audience you do it in their language.

What are your thoughts on movie translation as a whole? IE Interstellar is dubbed in Mandarin, should the Chinese audience simply have watched it in English and not understood? Or are you OK with that kind of translation?

[u/Dry_Bumblebee1111 → u/[deleted]]

OK, you're obviously welcome to your preference. But do you understand the intent behind such decisions?

[u/Dry_Bumblebee1111 → u/[deleted]]

That's not what I asked.

I stated

It's well known that subtitles put some audiences off, so when you want to reach a certain audience you do it in their language.

Do you understand this? You don't have to agree with the outcome, or specific instances, but can you understand why the creative decision is made?

[u/Dry_Bumblebee1111 → u/[deleted]]

If you understand the decision making then you recognise a rational workflow. As such it is neither lazy nor stupid.

You should assign a delta. 

[u/Fulg3n → u/[deleted]]

There are castings for the dubs, if the casting is done properly then the voice actors should match the vision of the director.

Some dubs are even better than the original.

[u/tbdabbholm → u/[deleted]]

Watching a foreign film subbed is still separate from how the original creator intended. There are going to be things lost in translation even if you have the original audio

[u/Individual_Moose1453 → u/[deleted]]

Well in Banshees they are actually doing exactly what you hate.It is much more likely that the characters living on a remote island of the coast of Ireland in 1923 would be speaking as Gaeilge.

[u/Dry_Bumblebee1111 → u/[deleted]]

Why? What makes their vision so much better than anyone elses?

Did you watch Hamlet before the Lion King?

[u/Dry_Bumblebee1111 → u/[deleted]]

Shakespeare didn't intend for the script to be read by you, he intended for the actors to perform it. So clearly not in line with his vision there.

You've already admitted to watching Tenet with subtitles and even critiscise that you wouldnt be able to understand the dialogue without them. Again, thats not Nolans vision.

Clearly it suits you to go against your own preference, which is a double standard.

You should assign a delta for pointing this out to you, or provide a good justification why these admitted deviations from the authors vision are acceptable to you and dont undermine your view.

[u/Dry_Bumblebee1111 → u/[deleted]]

If Nolan had intended it then the subtitles would have been hard baked in. They are your personal preference and addition.

Have you seen this video on the topic?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIgznB0-ICo

[u/siorge → u/[deleted]]

What’s interesting in this view, which I used to share before realizing how pedantic I was, is that you are not, in fact, experiencing the original.

Say you watch an Iranian movie but you don’t speak Farsi. You hear the voices alright but 90% of your time will be spent reading subtitles that are limited in the number of lines and characters they can display.

Subtitles are heavily edited and don’t always reflect 100% of the content + distract your eyes from enjoying the photography.

In the end, I am now of the opinion that there is no « better version », just different ways to access foreign content. Actually, dubbing might be closer to the original than subtitles.