The Arrow Thread

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Michael Brooke

And similarly, when I was subtitling Drunken Master earlier this year, obviously subtitling every single "(THWACK)" would have been absolutely gibberingly mental, but I did think it was important to mention unusually emphatic thwacks, such as the first appearance of Hwang Jang Lee's double kick. Technically, it's obvious what's going on just by watching it, but it's the sound that really makes it clear that it was most likely fatal.

Talking of which, who's idea was it to include the old Hong Kong theatrical subtitles? One of the coolest extras I think i've ever seen. Wish more releases had them.

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[Susan Foreman]

Because of my hearing, I have to have the subs on no matter what - films and television, English and foreign

It's even more annoying when the spoken dialogue is totally different from the written subs:

SPOKEN: "Come on. We cant let them get away"
WRITTEN: "Hurry up. We must get them"

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs

Talking of which, who's idea was it to include the old Hong Kong theatrical subtitles? One of the coolest extras I think i've ever seen. Wish more releases had them.

Given how much work it took, I'm not surprised they don't!

All of it was my work - on a mad whim, I pitched the idea to Eureka (I'd always promised myself that if I ever oversaw a classic HK film I'd do something similar), and they said they didn't have any budget for it. So I said "well, give me some other freelance work, and I'll do them for nothing", and they were as good as their word.

The major challenge was replicating them. Unfortunately, the nature of Hong Kong subtitles means that they're invariably burned into prints, so there was no electronic source to draw on. Also, hardcore HK film fans like myself know that the Chinese subtitles are a crucial part of the overall aesthetic, and as far as I was concerned they weren't optional even if I couldn't personally read them. Fortunately, I was able to get hold of a set of Chinese electronic subtitles, which I reformatted to match the layout of the originals as closely as I could - and then painstakingly transcribed the English text from an old VCD, taking care to reproduce every last misspelling and typo.

It took forever, not least because David Mackenzie and I also had to do various experiments with fonts to make sure that we could display both character sets while at the same time replicate the effect of the original. I also had to compromise a bit because it turned out that the subtitles had been added to a slightly shorter cut of the film - so I ended up resorting to normal subtitles to fill in the missing passages, which is slightly jarring but I didn't have much alternative (I didn't think it was remotely ethical to attempt writing crappy English ones off my own bat). But I'm thrilled with how they turned out - in fact, that whole release was a joy to work on.

(Although I do regret the fact that they couldn't get hold of the original English dub track, which would have made it a perfect release. And I have cause to regret it more than most because I was about twenty minutes into transcribing it for HOH subtitling purposes when they pulled the plug - they just couldn't track down the rightsholder and their contract with Sony demanded that it be released before the end of April, so they had no choice.)

[platostotal]

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs

Nice way for Arrow to ruin an almost perfect release, Ronin. Who was the clown who decided to add subtitles for French signs? (which were never subtitled on the film).

Attachment 194135

Bet that was for the U.S. release, where you get subs like, "London-England-United Kingdom-Europe":lol

[Dave Boy]

Arrow's MARK OF SATAN is the same.
Try to watch the film with the Italian audio and the English subtitles have things like Intro music and Thunderclap.
Those are for a hard of hearing subtitle NOT for normal subtitle.
Bloody annoying.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by Dave Boy

Arrow's MARK OF SATAN is the same.
Try to watch the film with the Italian audio and the English subtitles have things like Intro music and Thunderclap.
Those are for a hard of hearing subtitle NOT for normal subtitle.
Bloody annoying.

Unless Arrow has reauthored the disc since I signed off on it back in 2013 (which seems unlikely), there are two subtitle tracks for The Mask of Satan cut - SDH subtitles for the English version and translation subtitles for the Italian version. The latter should definitely not contain sound effects.

The Black Sunday cut only has SDH subtitles, but that version only has an English soundtrack.

[Dave Boy]

I just put the start of the film on with the Italian audio and English subs.
Yep, the sound effect descriptive is there.

Can someone else verify this to make sure I am not bonkers?

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by Dave Boy

I just put the start of the film on with the Italian audio and English subs.
Yep, the sound effect descriptive is there.

Can someone else verify this to make sure I am not bonkers?

There should be two sets of subtitles attached to that version. Can you select the second one with the Subtitle button on your remote?

[Dave Boy]

It says..

ITALIAN AUDIO/ENGLISH SUBTITLES ON/OFF

That is the only option apart from the English audio.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by Dave Boy

It says..

ITALIAN AUDIO/ENGLISH SUBTITLES ON/OFF

That is the only option apart from the English audio.

I'm playing the disc myself, and I'm utterly baffled because my version most definitely has two sets of subtitles available for The Mask of Satan, and I can toggle between them via the Subtitle button on my remote. Have you tried that? Subtitle track 2 is the one you want.