Dubbed or Subbed?

[AJS]

Subbed all the way. I have tried to watch dubbed anime and even when they employ big name stars the voice acting still lacks the emotional impact of the original.

 

[Connavar]

Dubbed sucks and to say subtitles is bad just cause you have to watch the bottom of the picture is.....


Dubbed sucks mostly cause you dont wanna hear Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee sounding like some redneck. Its the worst sound i know.

 

[raise-an-empire]

Hmm, I'd definately have to choose Subtitles.
However, I disagree that people are saying you miss half of the action, I never miss a thing!

Dubbing has only been good once. And that was with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I might be wrong but I SWEAR that film was dubbed for the English version, surely the whole film wasn't re-lipsynced?

 

[Tillane]

Subtitled, definitely. I find it really difficult to watched dubbed films, even if they're done well, because they just look...wrong. This even goes for anime, even though I realise all anime is necessarily dubbed. Watching Akira or Spirited Away in English just doesn't work as well.

 

[j d worthington]

With Spirited Away it didn't work at all for me, I'm afraid.... Besides, the English script was lacking in subtlety and felt aimed for the kiddies; while the subtitled was both subtle and intelligent, and multilayered....

 

[scalem X]

Subbed. In Belgium we have a lot of foreign shows English/American/French/... and all are subbed. I hardly read the subs anymore (in subs too there are a lot of things lost). Same goes for Japanese, I use the subs as a tool to understand stuff when I misheard or wasn't paying attention.

Dubbed can be okay I guess, but when you have a choice...

 

[MontyCircus]

Mhmm, subtitled for sure.

But, I wonder if I would rather see those old 70's grindhouse Gong Fu flicks (and Shogun Assassin from the Lone Wolf & Cub series) dubbed. I've heard so many fun clips from all my Wu-Tang albums, I think it would be fun to watch them dubbed.

 

[chrispenycate]

Hmm, I'd definately have to choose Subtitles.
However, I disagree that people are saying you miss half of the action, I never miss a thing!

Dubbing has only been good once. And that was with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I might be wrong but I SWEAR that film was dubbed for the English version, surely the whole film wasn't re-lipsynced?

Why not? It'd take a with-it technician perhaps three- four days to redo the lipsync with modern technology.
And practically all Hollywood films are intensively, frequently exclusively, ADR- which means the original actors (usually) but taken in a studio, to remove all the original emotion (and the original distractions) so you can concentrate on comprehensibility and clean sound without the interfering noise (added later, for verisimilitude, in carefully measured doses.

 

[Overread]

I will say that I do not prefer either subs or dubs. I prefer the mode which conveys to me the best story and display of emotion in the characters. JD has sighted examples of where the dubs have been worse - or lacking - in comparision to the subs; so I will offer the opposite:
In Ghost in the Shell Inoccence- the subsmake little senese - they are badly worded and do not follow the story; whilst on the other hand the dubs do.
Thus in the end it depends entirly on the quality of each - though I will say that there is a tendency with the dubs to aim the production (if it is anime) for a younger audience, which is wrong.

 

[Starbeast]

Dubbed & Subbed

I like both, especially if the dvd has both choices, then my mood will decide.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Also, can anyone think of examples where the dub is better than the original?

Yes. Hercules Returns.

Although to be fair, the redubbing of the film was the main plot point

I think dubbing is fine so long as it's well done (the Ghibli animated movies are great dubbed) or done for comedy reasons or as a deliberate pastiche.

I usually watch films in their original language with subtitles but it's a stretch to say dubbed versions are worse. Like with most things, it depends on the love, care and effort which goes into the dub version.

Shame we don't have more European members as they have access to dubbed versions of Hollywood films and I bet there are some good (and hilariously bad) versions of those out there.

I once saw My, Myself & Irene in Norweigen (and subtitled English, Danish & Finnish subtitles) and that was a truly surreal and hilarious experience.

 

[Moonbat]

Also don't forget Woody Allen's 'What's Up Tiger Lilly' but that does come into the Dubbed for comic effect category.

I have to say I prefer dubbed on martial arts films, I watched 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' with subtitles and I missed some action because she was talking whilst kicking ass, in several of my favorite Jackie Chan/Jet Li films I have got used to the dubbing, maybe they sometimes get the translation wrong but it wouldn't do to be reading lines of text in those films.

In Twin Warriors Michelle Yeoh tells a crowd not to listen to Jun Bo (or is it Jin Bo) after he has killed their leader and taken control of the army because, and I quote from Dubbing 'He's Wrong'

Also in Drunken Master my favorite line is when the assasin beats up Jackie Chan and then tells him to 'Crawl through my legs and then go and clean toilets' priceless

But having said all that, Subtitled is usually better because the actors act with their voices and the dubbing actors are not as good at the whole conveying emotion thing. Could you say that all modern Animated films are dubbed as the 'actors' perform the voices which in essence is dubbing. Then again cartoons can't talk.

 

[Fried Egg]

I do tend to prefer subtitles to dubbing mainly because subtitles are usually of a higher quality. If I could be sure that the dubbing was of a high standard I would prefer it dubbed.

Unfortunately this is not normally the case. For instance I recently watched "The Girl Who Lept Through Time" and the dubbing was just plain awful. Really annoying American accents where the actual dialog was changed to incorporate American teen slang. I switched it over to subtitles and it was much better.

The drawback though is that you do have to split your attention between the picture and the words. And I really don't like doing that when I would rather be taking in the beautiful drawing or wonderfully choreographed martial arts action.

In films where they are more about the dialogue, like a lot of French films, I will take subtitles everytime.

 

[Rodders]

My personal preference would be subtitles every time. I don't mind reading the lines and i don't mind hearing the original language. I just cannot take a film seriously when the lips don't match the words. I can't even stand it if a DVD i'm watching losses its sync between film and soundtrack.

 

[Connavar]

Dubbing is like those books for dummies. Are you telling you cant read subtitles

The dubbing i can take only when i have no choice and its an old Hong Kong martial arts film that lets the action speak for itself and not the dialouge.

 

[Fried Egg]

Films are supposed to be about the combination of audio and visual. Ideally, you should be hearing the characters talk. It is only because of watching films in another language that this dilemma arises. Reading subtitles is no more (intrinsincally) accurate or natural than listening to an overdub. But reading subtitles does divert you from the full cinematic experience. It just happens to be the case that it is a price worth paying in most cases because the overdubbing is usually so bad.

 

[Connavar]

Films are supposed to be about the combination of audio and visual. Ideally, you should be hearing the characters talk. It is only because of watching films in another language that this dilemma arises. Reading subtitles is no more (intrinsincally) accurate or natural than listening to an overdub. But reading subtitles does divert you from the full cinematic experience. It just happens to be the case that it is a price worth paying in most cases because the overdubbing is usually so bad.

It doesnt divert you if you are used to it. I watch english spoken films with swedish subtitles not because i need it but because thats the choice when you go to cinema or watch tv films. I also watch DVD of english films without swedish subtitles on my own and the differene i see both versions is very little. Our brain is powerful enough to watch,read at the same

The dubbing can be good doesnt matter but to me the original language makes a film more satisfiying,real to me.

You watch french,asian films to hear other languages,see other cultures.

Not watch a film like that with a Texas sounding dub voice.

 

[No One]

Have to add another cry of SUBTITLES! to the general consensus. Every. Single. Time (except maybe for Akira, where I'm fond of the more emotive dubbed voices).

When, years ago, I recommended Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to my brother, he got back to me saying he coldn't watch it, because the dubbed voices were stupid. Needless to say, my jaw hit the floor - it never having even occured to me that someone would watch something like that without the subtitles. I still remind him of that. Quite often too.