Subtitles

[bedorca]

Its all about the money guys...............

[Peter Neal]

I have some friends who use the "English subs for the hard of hearing" to train their English skills. They seem perfectly happy with it.

[abaddon]

Unless the dub is more appropriate to the movie (e.g. Lizard In A Woman's Skin being set in England), or its well acted and lipped synched, I'd prefer the original language. Nine times out of ten when offered the choice between the original language and the English dub, I'll ignore the dub. Of course there's not much point in having the original language if there are no matching subtitles (the VIP Jess Franco releases particularly annoy me here because the Anchor Bay alternatives are often cut).

Personally I'm not bothered about subtitles for the English dub, but can see why people want them.

When choosing a DVD, most important is having a complete cut. Then picture quality. Then availability of the original language plus and matching subtitles. Then price. In most cases special features only help me decide between two otherwise equal choices.

I'd even pay a couple of quid more to get the original language. And if it were a favourite like Don't Torture A Duckling, I'd probably pay at least double the current Shameless price to get the Italian soundtrack with English subtitles.

Cheers,
Abaddon.

[siccoyote]

If a film doesn't have wild sound, as in it's dubbed in all languages and has a mixed race cast or is pretty much visual or action based. I'll go for the dub, sometimes people will say the English dub sounds bad, and I'll say the only reason the original language dub doesn't sound bad is you don't understand it.

[NossB]

I'm not too bad with European movies, but I cannot watch a Hong Kong/Japanese/Korean movie that has been dubbed.

[Peter Neal]

Originally Posted by siccoyote

If a film doesn't have wild sound, as in it's dubbed in all languages and has a mixed race cast or is pretty much visual or action based. I'll go for the dub, sometimes people will say the English dub sounds bad, and I'll say the only reason the original language dub doesn't sound bad is you don't understand it.

Very, very true, Sic!

Watching all the Italian "nasties" on more or less uncut VHS got me used to the English dub and nowadays it's almost fun to recognize some of the voices from different roles in other movies...then again, growing up in Germany I should be used to that considering that, for instance, the same actor has been dubbing Arnold Schwarzenegger AND Sylvester Stallone (plus John Travolta and John Cleese and Terence Hill etc, etc) over there for ages...and he's still doing a terrific job.

[zanner]

Originally Posted by NossB

I'm not too bad with European movies, but I cannot watch a Hong Kong/Japanese/Korean movie that has been dubbed.

Ichi The Killer springs to mind, great film, spoilt by scouse dubs...

[abaddon]

Originally Posted by zanner

Ichi The Killer springs to mind, great film, spoilt by scouse dubs...

Know what you mean. I have a Chinese bootleg (very good quality, looks official & fooled me at the time, its only now I know better) . I think the first two discs are from a Dutch set (the third one has Ichi 0 & a really heavily cut Assian version of the movie). Anyway the English dub is done by people with strong Dutch accents. Sounds hilarious, but destroys the feel of the movie. Luckily there's the original soundtrack & subs. Reminds me, I really ought to get an official version, the US blood pack looks interesting.

[siccoyote]

Hmm I heard that the dutch one had the best picture quality of any release and was uncut.

[Almar@Cult Labs]

Was the Dutch set not just the Premier Asia release but uncut? I'm sure they had rights to Holland as well as the UK.