Subtitles

beardedchicken

i wonder if anyone out there can enlighten me as to the problem some people seem to have with subtitles???

recently, i have had several customers returning Amelie, of all things,(in my opinion the best movie released this year!) and saying they didn't want it, and demanding their money back, cos it had subtitles. granted, it doesnt actually say on the box that there are subtitles, but are these people so oblivious to any form of media that they have heard absolutely NOTHING about the film before renting it??? i mean, for the love of god, people, wake up!!! (but that's a completely separate point)

anyway, this is not the first time people have complained that a film has subtitles- remember when crouching tiger came out??? that was fun- yes, it is actually in mandarin, no, not the kind of orange! there seems to be this great mental block against subtitles out there, and i'm wondering why oh why oh why????? does anyone else out there have a problem with subtitles, and if so WHY???? i need to know for the sake of my own sanity!!!

sceptre

Originally posted by beardedchicken
demanding their money back, cos it had subtitles. granted, it doesnt actually say on the box that there are subtitles, but are these people so oblivious to any form of media that they have heard absolutely NOTHING about the film before renting it???

Ha! I'm guessing you're talking about the video rather than DVD. Even most technophobes (apart from their not moving to DVD) have probably figured out how to turn them off there.

Worst thing is that if you say "you do know this is a French movie with subtitles" you'll be getting idiots like me saying "yeah, I know, besides it's probably written on the box - and by the way I'm not an idiot"

Can't win either way.

Wouldn't happen if people knew anything about what they were renting out

Blame the Total Film tag on the front cover "Quite simply it's perfect. The film of the year". Beats the News of the World quotes on my old Shawshank video box.

anyway, this is not the first time people have complained that a film has subtitles- remember when crouching tiger came out??? that was fun- yes, it is actually in mandarin

There were two versions of the video though weren't there? The DVD had an English soundtrack so I'm guessing that was on one of the videos (rather than a version in Mandarin without subtitles)

There were people walking out of the cinema when I went (alone - GF doesn't like foreign movies with subtitles - I had to sit her down with Run Lola Run on the English soundtrack the day before yesterday, telling her to ignore the crap accents) - another bunch of people who probably thought it was some kind of nature film.

Bah. Tell them you're sorry, that you have a version in French without subtitles (even though you don't) and would that do instead.

Ranks right up there with people I've heard saying things like "well I didn't realise (insert name of good actor) was in it and I don't like him", while I'm thinking "There's a big picture of him on the box you wally"

(note I don't work in a video outlet and I never have - I used work in a McDonalds next door to a video outlet which meant I got to hear people complaining for the second time)

beardedchicken

There were two versions of the video though weren't there? The DVD had an English soundtrack so I'm guessing that was on one of the videos (rather than a version in Mandarin without subtitles)

there were indeed- one was the original mandarin version, with subtitles, in which you could hear the original actors' interpretation and performance, the other was an atrociously badly dubbed version, without the same atmosphere or feel to the movie- guess which rented better???

god, i hate people, actually, i just hate the stupid ones.

Helix

Amelie is without a doubt the best film ive seen for YEARS. have to feel sorry for those stupid enough to bring a movie back because it has subtitles, i mean you dont notice them after 10 minutes of the film and you develpo this kickass ability to read the bottom of the screen and watch everything else going on simultaneously! must rent that film out again, quality

Makaveli

It's funny because if it was me I would return a video if it was dubbed and not subtitled.
Anyway, I don't have that problem anymore because of DVDs.
Seriously though, unless you actually have a problem with reading or something like that, if a person wont watch a film because it's subtitled I reckon they are just lazy (or dumb).

Lex_Diamonds

Ignorant people, thats all it is. :rolleyes:

Sandi

Agreed Sir Lex. Even though Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had subtitles I didn't feel it took anything away from the film itself. There wasn't so much reading that u'd miss most of the film. It was just right!
As for those morons renting Amelie...I reckon half them are just tight b*****ds trying to find an excuse for a free vid.

Jimi-Spandex

Alot of my friends are exactly like that. It pisses me off intensely.

"If I wanted to read it I'd get the book."

and so just to prove it, I rented the dvd of Crouching Tiger, a few minutes subbed, a few minutes dubbed.

Subbed: Very majestic piece of film making Dubbed: More ham than a police station

That shut most of them up. There are still some stubborn feckers though, these are people who refuse to watch Amelie because its in french. That film wouldn't work in english for christ sake. Its their loss so why should we care?

I have only come accross one case where I thought the dubbed version was better than the original language was Cowboy Bebop (its a japanese anime series), though this is due in no small part to the fact that the characters are heavily western inspired and the voice actors are well cast. Also voices aren't perfectly synched in animation anyway so it doesn't distract too much.

Draco

I don't like subtitles at all. However some of my favourite films are subtitles (Run Lola Run being a prime example).
Subtitles distract you from what's actually going on on screen. Sometimes they go past too quickly (and I am a fast reader) or they are hard to see if they are not surrounded by a black box, which itself is ugly. They also tend to be innaccurate or even completely different to what is actually being said on screen.
I would rather watch a subtitled movie than one that is dubed any day of the week though.

Winters

I watched Crouching Tiger both in subtitled and dubbed. The dubbing was good but as usual they have to change a good few of the words to match the lips.

I find that movies in a differant language with subtitles have a differant effect, even if you watch the same movie dubbed. More "work" would be involved in reading the subtitles so anyone who brings the film back for having subtitles is stupid, lazy and should be shot.
I can see the same people bringing back Schindler's List becouse it was in Black and white :rolleyes:

Thank god DVD's allow you to have both

Bringing up Schindler's List....anyone notice that you cant get it on DVD yet....