Let the Right One In…Subtitle issues?

Updated on March 25, 2009 By Ken Begg 20 Comments

Hmm, I’ve got a copy of the dvd on my library hold list. This doesn’t sound good, though.

What the hell?  I mean, really.

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  • Seriously. I was lucky enough to get to see this in the theater – the Modern Art Museum here in Fort Worth showed it. I loved it. The screencaps on Icons of Fright are depressing – “what the Hell” is right. What sort of bizarre circumstances would necessitate tossing the correct subtitles for the DVD? Unless it’s one of those “we have to dumb things down for the US market” sort of things, which is equally aggravating.

  • That’s the question, isn’t it. I guess they didn’t want to alienate the ‘dumber’ horror movie audience (which loves this film, if the net coverage is any indication), as opposed to the arthouse crowd the movie played to in theaters. Well, guess what. If you’re the type of guy who doesn’t like subtitles, less exacting ones aren’t likely to make you change your mind. This is just moronic. I’m actually thinking of waiting to see the film now, until I can see it with proper subtitling.

  • Ken,

    /Film is reporting that Magnolia is now saying that going forward, the DVDs and Blu-Rays of the movie will use the theatrical subtitles. You’ll have to check the tech specs on the back of the case – if it says “SUBTITLES: ENGLISH (Theatrical), SPANISH,” you’re good to go.

    In a bit of a dick move, though, they are refusing exchanges for customers who unknowingly bought the simplified discs.

  • Well, the lack of exchanges blows. And it makes buying it over the web dicey. Still, better than nothing.

  • Ericb

    I know it’s more expensive but wouldn’t dubbing be the way to go if you are looking to market a foreign language film to a “dumber” audience?

  • Marsden

    Is Subtitling considered to be “better” than dubbing? Or is a cost issue, not having to hire voice actors to act out the voices. I suppose if they hired bad voice over actors to do the dubbing it could be just as bad. It’s too bad but this all goes back to, as Mr Morden would say, “What do you want?” If the answer is to sell as many discs as cheaply as possible then here is your result. If it’s to make a quality product that will sell because it’s well made and not because you bluffed of a bad one, then that’s something else, isn’t it? Sadly, as this site can attest with many of it’s reviews the former answer seems to win most of the time.

  • Eric,

    From reading the comments at Icons of Fright, it seems the American DVD has both dubbing and subtitles. What’s really weird is that the dubbing matches the original theatrical subtitles, which makes the whole thing an even bigger “WTF?” sort of situation.

  • The problem with the dubbing, from what I’ve read, is that’s it’s pretty bad – it matches the original subtitles (which are also apparently more correct translations) but they used badly miscast and less-than-talented voice actors.

    (All from reading comments, as I haven’t checked out one of the American DVDs.)

  • I have to go with subtitles. Sticking somebody else’s voice in there takes away a LOT from the original actor’s performance.

  • Ericb

    And having Chinese characters from the Ming Dyansty era talking in Australian accents is a bit disconcertng.

  • I contend that for most “chopsockey” films, the dubbing is part of the film’s charm. I say this having watched the subtitled version of “Drunken Master” and comparing it to the original dub that i had on VHS.

  • Yes, I agree on Kung Fu films. The dub for King Boxer definately makes the movie.

  • JoshG

    Whenever, I watch Godvilla movies on DVD I like to watch it with both the dub and subtitles on to look for discrepancies. In Godzilla vs. Hedorah, I think it was, the romantic leads are getting into a car and the see the monster in the distance wrecking havok and the man says “lets get out of here” while his subtitle says, “let’s go in for a closer look”.

  • I tend to agree with the general sentiment – apart from kung fu and Godzilla flicks, subtitles are the way to go.

  • Marsden

    Thanks, that’s what I thought, but I wasn’t sure.

    I guess the best would be to speak and know the language :)

  • Y’know, it’s kinda weird… but the version that I got from Netflix seems to have sort of a hybrid of the two. Some of the lines, they’re out of the non-theatrical (“Sorry.”. Some of them, they’re out of the theatrical (“Come on over, let’s have a laugh.”)

    So apparently there are *three* out there!

  • I watched a HK film called “The Kid from Tibet”, which was dubbed but left the original subtitles on, too. There’s one part where Yuen Wah’s villain says “Let me send you to hell” in the subtitle and “Let me send you to a not-so-nice place” in the dub. That was rather entertaining.

  • I often find dub tracks ill-match the subtitles. And yes, it can in some instances be pretty humorous.

  • MatthewF

    The problem you got with some of the American DVDs for the last Godzilla series was that you could use the Japanese dilqgoue track, but the subtitles were just a transcription of the english dub… and of course a dub is different because it tries to match lip movements and the length of the scene and so on…. and anyway there were terrible.

  • SuperVepr

    Can you imagine a dubbed The Devil’s Backbone? Brrrrr!