The Millenium Era Dubtitles Thread

[Zarm]

Ugh, dubtitles, am I right? They're the worst; that seems to be pretty much universal. You're watching along with the film, the character runs after another shouting "Sensei!", and the subtitles caption it "Wait up!"

'Wait,' you think, 'I know that word- it does NOT mean 'wait up!'' Suddenly, the veracity of everything else you're seeing comes into question. What if the plot of this film is totally different... or at least contains nuances you'd never have guessed, because you can now confirm that it is not being translated accurately.

A few special blu-ray releases (vs. Biollante, Godzilla 2000) provide new re-translated subtitles (you can tell by the awkward phrasing at times ), and in each case, there are details that were definitely not present in the dubbed release.

So, for those in the know- those rare souls, if any, who have seen an accurate translation or just straight-up know Japanese- I thought it might be educational for the rest of us to create a thread chronicling some of the great missed nuances and details and plot points that we might be ignorant of if we've only seen the dubtitled versions. (As well as a secondary discussion of what film releases *have* been accurate). If the experiment is a success, perhaps each era can get such a thread. And if it's not... well, then we'll all remain ignorant of what we're missing together.

[omgitsgodzilla]

There's a part in GMK while people are evacuating where a guy and a girl shout to the others in the crowd. The dub (and the DVD's subtitles; haven't checked this scene on the Blu-ray) translates this exchange as the guy saying something like "Good luck, everybody!" and the girl saying "Yeah, good luck! You're going to die!"

Apparently in the Japanese version, the guy is actually speaking Chinese, and the girl is shouting, "He says good luck!" I'd guess this scene is meant to have some kind of symbolic resonance, considering how GMK ties back to Japan's involvement in WWII, and the atrocities perpetrated against the Chinese by Japanese soldiers.

[JVM]

I've heard contradictory stories about how accurate the dub and ergo dubtitles are to GMK. I don't really know how to trust on that one anymore.

[Mechagigan]

There's a part in GMK while people are evacuating where a guy and a girl shout to the others in the crowd. The dub (and the DVD's subtitles; haven't checked this scene on the Blu-ray) translates this exchange as the guy saying something like "Good luck, everybody!" and the girl saying "Yeah, good luck! You're going to die!"

Apparently in the Japanese version, the guy is actually speaking Chinese, and the girl is shouting, "He says good luck!" I'd guess this scene is meant to have some kind of symbolic resonance, considering how GMK ties back to Japan's involvement in WWII, and the atrocities perpetrated against the Chinese by Japanese soldiers.

...Either way, that scene in particular was a gleaming example of GMK's less impressive moments.

I'm certain my copy of GMK has dubtitles, but I honestly don't mind them. Especially with modern entries in the series, the dub itself is why I prefer the Japanese version, not the writing.

There's only so long I can stand 7-year-old foreign girls with 30-year-old American voices

[omgitsgodzilla]

Sara's voice in the GxMG dub is deplorable. Most of the voice acting is mediocre, but hers is so blatantly an adult woman forcing a slightly nasal "kid" voice, I can't stand it.

[Mechagigan]

Sara's voice in the GxMG dub is deplorable. Most of the voice acting is mediocre, but hers is so blatantly an adult woman forcing a slightly nasal "kid" voice, I can't stand it.

That's exactly who I was thinking of, thank you. I remember the first time I saw that movie - it being one of my first few Godzilla films - I just couldn't take her part seriously at all. Still can't, of course, but at least now it's a bit funny.

[LegendZilla]

The so-called "dubtitles" were written for the hearing impaired in mind as opposed to purists.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I don't necessarily buy that it was anything that conscientious; I think it's just a lot easier to transcribe an English track than to translate a Japanese track. Seeing as not all of the Sony DVDs seem to have had dubtitles, I would guess that in some cases there was an existing translation on hand, perhaps of the screenplay, but in other cases all they had was the dub.

It might be worth checking how the subtitles correlate with the release dates of the DVDs, seeing as they weren't all released at once as far as I know. Perhaps earlier discs went to the trouble of providing actual translations and later ones leaned on the dubs, or the earlier ones had dubtitles and later ones provided translations as a response to fan complaints. If those explanations don't check out, though, then I'm sticking with my first hypothesis.

EDIT: I couldn't stop wondering so I actually went and tested the release-date theory:

January 27, 2004
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (dubtitles)
GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (dubtitles)

March 23, 2004
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (no dubtitles)

October 19, 2004
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (no dubtitles)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (no dubtitles, some exceptions)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (no dubtitles)

December 14, 2004
Son of Godzilla (no dubtitles)
Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (dubtitles)

February 8, 2005
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (some dubtitles)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (dubtitles)

December 13, 2005
Godzilla Final Wars (no dubtitles)

So, for the most part, the dubtitles do seem to be concentrated in the earlier releases. The exceptions are Tokyo SOS and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, which in the former case had one of the shortest delays between the Japanese theatrical release and the DVD release, and in the latter case seems to have been an afterthought, seeing as it was the only film of the lot that had already been issued in another format. Godzilla Final Wars had a similar time frame to TSOS, but it also wasn't issued under the TriStar label like the others, which could also just be a coincidence.

Considering this, I would guess that Sony/TriStar heard the dubtitle complaints and began seeking actual translations from Toho. TSOS may not have had one prepared yet, and they might have simply not bothered to ask about Mechagodzilla II and used materials they already had on hand from the late '90s. In the case of Final Wars, maybe Toho had a translation available more quickly than with TSOS, or maybe the people handling the release at Sony had it translated themselves.

[RandomDeinonychus]

In the case of Final Wars, maybe Toho had a translation available more quickly than with TSOS, or maybe the people handling the release at Sony had it translated themselves.

I think they had a translation more or less ready, since Final Wars actually got some limited US theatrical distribution. (Mainly its Hollywood premiere, but still) I first saw it in the theater at G-Fest 2005 and before its Japanese box office apparently changed their minds, Toho had intended on it getting a much more international release, so they had lots of subbed prints ready to go. All Sony probably had to do was essentially copy off of those, with minor tweaks.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I hadn't thought of that; that makes sense.