Ducks and Movies
Ok, first off, three cheers for the Mighty Ducks yet again! 1-0 for the Ducks against the Senators, which puts the Mighty of Mighty Ducks at 2-0 in the race to the cup. Who knows, perhaps this is the stretch of the game where the Ducks sweep the Senators 4-0 and advance with ease. Took all the over time games out the door, realized they needed to kick butt and take names to get the cup and are now on the path to doing it.
Next, I have been watching a lot of subtitled movies lately. Why? not really sure. I think it could be just due to the fact that I am saving money and none of the english movies at the library are really worth watching and all that is left are foreign films. After watching Amelie and Pan's Labrynth, I got the feeling that perhaps there are more to those movies than meets the eye. I have gone through quite a bit of Wong Kar Wai's movies (which I think are alright, but really out of the ones I have seen, not the best) and Zhang Yimou (excellent director, makes fantastic movies that speak a message and give characters that are heart felt and really dynamic and personable). Though, one thing I have always been worried about, not only in movies but in real life as well, is what is being said and what is being subtitled.
Growing up, we would go to german movies with a friend that spoke fluent (well, supposedly fluent german, but since we didnt speak a word of german he could have been speaking goggle-dee-gook to us and talking out of his ass when translating from foreign films when the main american hero came up against the evil german villian) and get the play by play on how horrible the translation of the subtitles was. It was almost as if the people on the screen were talking about who they banged at the bar last friday night and the subtitles were telling us how the characters were talking about the one protagonists long lost mother and how it formed their bond together as friends. I also thought this is what happened in real life, as I am sure many many many North Americans fear and feel when people from other countries come over here and speak their native tongue on a regular basis. The ever popular fear that they are speaking and giving the translation "he says 'you are such a wonderful guy, thank you'" when in fact the actual words were "what a freaking moron! glad I short changed that honky bastard".
The last movie I watched that really made me think was So Close by director Corey Yuen. The film opens with a major corporations computer system crashing and everyone talking viruses and restarting the core and all that techno mumbo-jumbo that makes me close my eyes and go "ALT-CTRL-DEL, dudes!". This was a Hong Kong filmed, dubbed into english so the subtitles read "the computer is crashing, pay them what they want" when in fact, the dubbing in english said something a little more colourful like "they are dumping the main frame, give the mother fuckers what they want damn it!". I can understand how the subtitles are in limited spacing and if they actually did all the words blow by blow that it would take a lot of subtitles and the subtitles would fly by so fast during the action scenes that the audience would lose track of looking down to read and then looking up at the action. However, it just little things like that when watching films that make me wonder, how accurate are the subtitles that are in the foreign films that don't include dubbing? Though I did wonder why in some movies the characters would talk about 15 seconds in chinese/italian/french and the subtitle would read "yes, please". But, then again, that is another thing that happens, with the bad B-rated japanese movies of Godzilla as demonstrated by Kevin Johnson here:
But, yeah, the whole worried thing might be just because I am paranoid....but I only started being paranoid when I found out they were all out to get me!
Next, I have been watching a lot of subtitled movies lately. Why? not really sure. I think it could be just due to the fact that I am saving money and none of the english movies at the library are really worth watching and all that is left are foreign films. After watching Amelie and Pan's Labrynth, I got the feeling that perhaps there are more to those movies than meets the eye. I have gone through quite a bit of Wong Kar Wai's movies (which I think are alright, but really out of the ones I have seen, not the best) and Zhang Yimou (excellent director, makes fantastic movies that speak a message and give characters that are heart felt and really dynamic and personable). Though, one thing I have always been worried about, not only in movies but in real life as well, is what is being said and what is being subtitled.
Growing up, we would go to german movies with a friend that spoke fluent (well, supposedly fluent german, but since we didnt speak a word of german he could have been speaking goggle-dee-gook to us and talking out of his ass when translating from foreign films when the main american hero came up against the evil german villian) and get the play by play on how horrible the translation of the subtitles was. It was almost as if the people on the screen were talking about who they banged at the bar last friday night and the subtitles were telling us how the characters were talking about the one protagonists long lost mother and how it formed their bond together as friends. I also thought this is what happened in real life, as I am sure many many many North Americans fear and feel when people from other countries come over here and speak their native tongue on a regular basis. The ever popular fear that they are speaking and giving the translation "he says 'you are such a wonderful guy, thank you'" when in fact the actual words were "what a freaking moron! glad I short changed that honky bastard".
The last movie I watched that really made me think was So Close by director Corey Yuen. The film opens with a major corporations computer system crashing and everyone talking viruses and restarting the core and all that techno mumbo-jumbo that makes me close my eyes and go "ALT-CTRL-DEL, dudes!". This was a Hong Kong filmed, dubbed into english so the subtitles read "the computer is crashing, pay them what they want" when in fact, the dubbing in english said something a little more colourful like "they are dumping the main frame, give the mother fuckers what they want damn it!". I can understand how the subtitles are in limited spacing and if they actually did all the words blow by blow that it would take a lot of subtitles and the subtitles would fly by so fast during the action scenes that the audience would lose track of looking down to read and then looking up at the action. However, it just little things like that when watching films that make me wonder, how accurate are the subtitles that are in the foreign films that don't include dubbing? Though I did wonder why in some movies the characters would talk about 15 seconds in chinese/italian/french and the subtitle would read "yes, please". But, then again, that is another thing that happens, with the bad B-rated japanese movies of Godzilla as demonstrated by Kevin Johnson here:
But, yeah, the whole worried thing might be just because I am paranoid....but I only started being paranoid when I found out they were all out to get me!
posted by Capt_Canuck at 10:12 PM
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