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Why Dubbed Movies?

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@ajatt Why dubbed movies? Why don’t you watch real Japanese movies?

Coz real Japanese people watch dubs. Local movies are for NIMRODS!!!! Wait, no…no…lol…Coz it’s fun and easy and educational.

  7 comments for “Why Dubbed Movies?

  1. rigabamboo
    January 10, 2012 at 09:31

    Well, with dubbed Hollywood movies, you have more of an idea of what’s good and what’s crap. When I look at the Japanese movie section of the video rental store, I feel lost. Sometimes I take a chance and rent a Japanese movie, but the results are usually abysmal, just as they would be if you picked a random Hollywood movie.

     

    Also if you’ve seen the movie before in English, it helps your listening a lot more. I pick up so much more of what’s being said because I know the basic context already.

     

    Finally, you get to watch your favorite movies over and over again and call it “studying Japanese” as opposed to “wasting time.” You can also watch your guilty pleasure movies without feeling guilty.

     

  2. January 11, 2012 at 08:29

    Well, the thing that sucks about dubbed Hollywood films is that (in my experience) you never get exact subs.

    Of course, I haven’t watched a movie in years (can’t stand the medium) so things may have changed?

  3. D
    January 13, 2012 at 12:32

    Dubs and subtitles will never match.

    The underlining reasoning and tech requirements are completely different – neither of which is education. (save for educational video!!)

    The adapted lines of a translation are created to get the best performance from studio talent (actors) and match “lip smack” (m b p v sounds) and mouth shape (aaa voicing vs oooo voicing).

    Dubs also cover all secondary, non dialogue, sounds – grounds, breathing and other efforts. Also background dialogue which may not be story point except for setting the atmosphere (office chatter, police station chatter, cafe, pirate ship, etc)

    Subtitle are focused on getting the point across with a limited number of characters available on screen and the average reading speed of the content’s consumer. Eg- you will never see 5 lines of on screen text in properly prepped titles.

    Subs are thereby often contracted to match the limited space. Further, all secondaries are dropped completely, unless required to maintain story point continuity.

    Getting back to watching Hollywood dubbed films with subtitles – there will be considerable overlap but never a perfect match. Keep in mind that both are best possible (accepted by production team) translations considering the limitations of the methodology and tech requirements.

    On longer lines, grammar dictates line / page breaks – consider difference in eng vs j verb placement.

    Same goes for original language films and foreign (choose your perspective / context) titles.

    Either way – its amazing that we have this resource for education, even though it is created for commercial market expansion.

  4. Sachiko
    October 31, 2012 at 20:35

    Is it a good idea to watch an anime or something with English subs, and then to watch it immediately after without the subs? Will you pick up words better because you know what’s going on? Or is it better just to watch without subs in the first place?

  5. Guy
    November 3, 2012 at 00:44

    I would actually like an answer to the above question as well – I’ve seen it said so often that subtitles in English are the work of the devil, but surely watching it once with subs will help with comprehension afterwards?

  6. Wtf
    November 16, 2013 at 05:59

    No its not the work of the devil their translating it so you can understand depending on what your watching that is.So guy if you watch a spanish movie and you read the english subtitles you would say the same thing too huh?

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