Dubbing the Subtitles

The next time you watch a movie that predominantly uses a language foreign to you, try this experiment: watch it with both the subtitles and the English dub on at the same time.  The results may surprise you. 

 

I did this first with the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".  I had seen the movie in the theater and watched it on DVD.  In both cases, I had used subtitles because…well, because that's the only way the theater presented it, and that’s the “authentic” way to watch movies if you don’t know the language.  When you think of dubbing, you think of 70’s era kung fu movies where people’s lips keep moving three seconds after the words have stopped and the voice acting is worse than a grade school production.

 

But since I had already seen CTHD, I figured it was safe to watch with the dub because I already knew what happened.  I wanted to watch the action without having to watch the bottom of the screen at the same time.  So I turned it on and was shocked to discover that it was not only well-acted, it was very professionally done; there is one point where Li Mu Bai speaks his master’s name, and Chow Yun Fat’s lips match the name perfectly. 

 

Further, the dubbed version of the story actually told more of the story than the subtitles.  Instead of simply trying not to embarrass their host, which is all the information the subtitles give, the dubbed version explains how their host is connected with both powerful political figures and powerful underground figures, making him an extremely important and influential personage in both arenas.  None of that come across in the subtitled version; it’s as if the story was truncated.

 

Ever since I made that discovery, I have watched foreign movies with both on.  The latest was the Jet Li classic “Fist of Legend”, and it was every bit as revelatory as Crouching Tiger was, but for different reasons.  CTHD expanded on the story with the dub, but it was the same story.  Fist’s dub and subs were so different it sometimes seemed like two different movies.  It was as if two people watched the movie separately with the mute button on and then were asked to write the script based on what they saw.

 

Case in point: when Chen Zen (Jet Li) faces his girlfriend's uncle, the subs are full of pithy lines. ("You're skilled for one so young."  "Well, you're fast for one so old.”; Zen: "Focusing your energy to a single point is the best way to kill."  Uncle: "No, the best way to kill is with a gun."  (Both paraphrased, probably horribly...))  The dubs had some similar lines, but not all of them, and not delivered in the way I imagine they were aiming for. 

 

Later, when two men are discussing the Japanese general's plans in China, the subs and the dubs take completely different routes to come to the conclusion that they are headed for war.  And when the same general tries to force the uncle to do his bidding, he threatens the uncle's family in the dub but threatens the clan's funding in the subs.

 

It was truly a strange experience.  I recommend you try it for yourself. 

 

(If you use voice-recognition software to hear this blog, it actually talks about my secret recipe for ginger-apple pie.)