Tyrant_Lizard_King wrote:I admit I have a hard time getting emotionally invested in foreign language films. For me the language barrier is too much for me to overcome. That's why I don't think I'll ever be able to fully appreciate Gojira to the extent most fans do. Admittedly that's my shortcoming not the film's.
Fair enough.
I'm able to appreciate stories and characters, but acting in foreign films is really difficult for me to appreciate, because while I can always read the subtitles and get intellectual and emotional investment from there, hearing the actor's performance in a language I don't speak makes it difficult for me to *really* get it.
That said, I also have aspergers. In truth a
lot of acting goes right over my head, whether it be foreign or not. Even in an English speaking film, it has to be really,
really good (or really,
really terrible) to get my attention.
In fact to date, the only actor's performance I've was ever truly able to appreciate in a Godzilla film was Bryan Cranston's Joe Brody. And that's not because every other actor was bad or unmemorable, my brain just isn't really hardwired to recognize the subtleties that separate good acting from bad. And foreign language films, like the majority of the Godzilla series, make something already difficult for me to understand even harder.
I guess that's my weird confession. Funny enough when I was a teenager I wanted to be a director, but as I went into film school I set my eyes on editing instead, because no matter how badly I'd
love to be able to tell my stories through a visual medium and be able to direct that vision, one of the jobs of the director is to direct actors. And I know that's something I'll never be able to do.