Rather than respond to a post and have my point get bogged down in the responses, I'm putting it here. I'm so sick and tired of people from other countries claiming that Americans are too lazy to read subtitles, illiterate, etc. I watch foreign movies all the time and they all have subtitles. I actually hate dubbed movies or remakes. So get over it! Not ALL Americans are the same. Get a brain!
shareI'm from the UK and I agree that it isn't only Americans who are annoyed by subtitles, but with all the remakes for the American market, it can certainly look that way.
Personally, I like foreign movies and am so used to subtitles that I don't notice that I'm reading as well as watching any more. It didn't take long to get used to them, either, but perhaps that's because I choose movies and TV series that I really want to see.
Other posts have mentioned the remake of 'Let The Right One In' as an example of movies that didn't need to be remade, and I agree that it didn't, but I would have to say that the remake is so good (and brings up points that weren't made so clear in the original) that it is a poor example. Especially since most American remakes are far removed from their excellent originals.
I'm 3/4 through the prize winning Danish 20 episode series 'The Killing' on BBC4 which has been a massive hit in every country it has been shown in, including my own. The acting and storyline are both superb and I haven't heard anyone even comment that it's subtitled, but it won't be shown in America. It is being completely remade for the American market instead.
I'm afraid that this kind of thing makes it very hard for the rest of the world not to judge Americans.
Thought 'The Orphanage' was pretty good BTW
Subtitles don't bother me. I'm used to it from all the anime I watch.
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"House. My room. Can't walk. My medal. My father. Father, don't!"
Well I know some who are, and some who aren't. I personally love hearing other languages so I have no problem watching movies with subtitles. The people I know who dislike them do because they hate having to look down constantly. I don't know, I rarely see it as a distraction. I don't hate dubbed films, but remakes annoy the SH*T out of me.
-- I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
I'm an American who knows that most of the US avoids subtitles, and I'm fine by it. I'd rather have it that way, keeping the gems to those who will appreciate them, so that you don't have even more hipster douchebags saying "I'm deep because I saw the ORIGINAL Rec instead of Quarantine!"
Just saying that I would prefer movie lovers to enjoy good foreign movies rather than have the ignorant watch it and not know what they are looking at.
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I prefer subtitles to dubbed. The 3 movies ive seen with the best subtitles are Pan's Labyrinth, Apocalypto, and Passion of the Christ.
I dont mind subtitles but MANY movies put the subtitles up so rapidly that they can not be read in time to keep up with the movie.
The movies i mentioned are films that in my opinion were done well, they werent too rapid, they didnt bleed into the next scene, and the subtitles followed along with what was happening.
Some movies have fight scenes where the dialog is spit out so fast you can barely read the first paragraph before the 3rd one is appearing.
Sometimes your watching a subtitled film and the scene ends and theyre still talking :O
Neither of those scenarios are a good way to sell a subtitled film. Which is why I mentioned my top 3 subtitled films first as they did a great job of subtitle editing.
Notable mentions include Hero and Kung Fu Hustle.
When men stop seeing movies because theres a "hot chick", movies will focus once again on story.
the problem is with all big countries like usa, russia, germany, france, spain, italy, china.... those countries educated their people into thinking their language is the best....and they transformed dubbing into industry.. so, the people are used from early ages with dubbing, and they find difficult when they grow up to follow subs or something.. (anyway, majority know only their mother tongue..)
in small and medium countries, it is totally different story, no dubbig, and the majority of people know at least 2 or 3 languages from the ones i mentioned at the beginning.... (the paradox is, even they are poorer, they are more educated....)
"It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is progress!"
Agree. My roommate and I bought this movie without noticing that it was in Spanish. Then we noticed it was in Spanish before we started watching and were like, "ugh, subtitles!" But we both really loved the movie and couldn't stop talking about it afterwards. Then we started looking up other foreign horrors to watch later. So, we were kind of hesitant to watch it, but ended up loving it. Wish more people gave subtitles a chance!
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