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Results so far:
| Subtitles | 83% | 420 votes | Total: 508 votes | |
| Dubbing | 17% | 88 votes |
Subtitles
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Add to FavoritesAs a lover of languages and cultures, I am appalled by people who refuse to watch foreign movies just because they are subtitled. The actor's voice is of vital importance and the emotions that he or she conveys cannot be conveyed by a person reading a voice-over.
Actors invest a lot of time and energy into preparing for and performing their roles and every emotion comes from inside of them. These emotions can't be duplicated and added after the fact. Every actor is unique, and their unique voices help them to shape the characters they play and bring them to life. When the it all comes together, the audience can become lost in the action and the characters become real to them.
I have never liked dubbed movies. I remember watching a few dubbed Kung Fu movies when I was a child, and even back then, dubbing seemed silly to me. The voices didn't match the movements of the actors' mouths, the dubbed voices were exaggerated, and I knew that these Chinese people weren't really speaking English. By the time I was twelve, I was watching subtitled movies and never thought twice about it. I was actually surprised when I found out that some people preferred dubbed movies over subtitled ones.
Watching subtitled movies from all over the world has made me more culturally enriched. I immediately recognize people speaking Korean, Mandarin, and Cantonese when I walk down the street. When I was studying Japanese, watching subtitled movies helped me with the intonations of the language and made me a better speaker. I had never heard spoken Swedish until I saw a Swedish movie and I was amazed at the some of the similarities between Swedish and English. (With Swedish being a Germanic language.) And how else would I have heard spoken Icelandic if not for watching subtitled movies?
Dubbing takes away the authenticity of a movie. For me, it is completely distracting to see a young Korean woman with the voice of a Valley Girl. I laugh when I read movie reviews on Netflix or Amazon where people give movies bad reviews because the DVD only had a subtitled option and no dubbed option. (This sounds absurd, but I've seen it more than once.) They complain about having to read the movie, as if reading was some arduous task. Once I am into a movie, reading the subtitles becomes second nature. Anyone who is not visually or mentally impaired should be able to multitask and still enjoy subtitled movie. We multitask in everyday life and this should be no exception.
Learn more about this author, Melissa Washington.
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Dubbing
The main importance of watching a movie in my opinion, is to be entertained. To sit back and watch a movie should be a mindless effort on my part. It is supposed to allow me the opportunity to unwind and relieve stress, and maybe enlighten me just a bit.
I really do not want to have to sit there and read an entire movie. If I want to read, I can grab a book and do it at my own pace.
To me it is extremely annoying to have to read the subtitles while watching a movie. There is just too much going on on the screen at one time. I prefer just watching the actors perform their craft.
Often, the subtitles are not at enough contrast to the background of what is going on on the screen. Sometimes entire words or letters blend in wth the screen shot so much they are difficult to read. Most times while I am in the middle of trying to decipher a certain word, the new subtitle is put on the screen and there I am trying to play catch up and instead of being able to concentrate on the acting going on onscreen, I catch myself squinting in an attempt to recognize the words. I most times remember the movie experience as a negative one, loaded with agitation, eye strain, frustration, a headache and stress, besides having not much of a clue on what the movie was about.
Movie dubbing also however has drawbacks to it too. Often, the emotion in the voices of the actors is not portrayed quite the same as in the original version. Most times the intonation of emotion is not the same either. Often the voices of the actors are not the same quality either. Many actors are recognized by their distinct voice, it is their trademark, and if the dubbed voice is not a precise match, the movie loses much of the intended originality. Besides this, you know darn well the timing is going to be a bit off because the voice you are hearing does not match up with the mouth movement.
Another point to bring up is that often many words or important phrases are lost in the translation. This means that you are getting a brief broader statement many times instead of the poignant one in the original version. I can speak both French and Spanish and a bit of Russian, and I know for a fact while watching a movie in one of these languages, the subtitles do not match for the most part what the actors are really saying.
Yes, this also occurs in a dubbed version of a movie, but at least I am not forced to concentrate on what I am reading while the voices of the actors in the other language is also distracting me from what is being acted out on the screen.
Movies with subtitles are not much of a step above the original talkies when the motion picture industry first started. During those films the words were projected on to the screen while instrumental music played appropriately coordinated with what emotion the actors were portraying. Often the music was loud and annoying too.
Anyway, I prefer to watch a dubbed version of a movie.
Learn more about this author, Kathy H.
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