Kaiju-King42 wrote:LSD Jellyfish wrote:MandaSaurus wrote:I already have the Mill Creek set. Easy pass...
If you’re talking about this:
Then I’m sorry. That set has one of the worst set of subtitles I’ve ever seen on an official release for Gamera 3. They butcher the poop out of some of the dialogue and nuance and tone, and make the villains actual beliefs completely nonsensical. I kept meaning to make a thread about it.
What set for Gamera 3 would you recommend then?
I don't know, but definitely not that. I'm sure someone could recommend something better.
It would take a long time to elaborate on, but the subtitles of that particular film completely butcher the dialogue's nuances and great writing so much that it's almost incomprehensible.
I'll give a clear example, something which at the time I wanted to make a thread about meaning/good writing gets lost in bad subtitling but:
When Inspector Osako joins Mayumi Nagamine he says something like "Ohisashburi biru". and says some other stuff. This get translated as "I haven't had good beer in a long time" which is TRUE. However, the term and grammar being used here, is more akin to greeting an old friend after a long time. In other words his dialogue is more like,"Long time no see old friend (beer)". This might seem insignificant, but the other dialogue misses that it's good dialogue writing in Japanese, and completes a character arc of his. Post Gamera 1, Osako worked at Sapporo in Hokkaido. In Gamera 3, he became a bum living on the streets drinking cheap beer and other stuff. Nagamine is treating him to beer here, so the dialogue is also referencing that it's been a long time since he's enjoyed and lived normally, while simultaneously greeting an old friend. The translation given is one of the most direct, and laziest things I've ever seen. This might seem very minor, but it's the easiest to explain without writing out an essay and explaining Japanese grammar to everyone.
It gets far worse when the main villain of the plot, Toru Tezuka, has his dialogue completely butchered in this subtitle. Entire sentences go completely untranslated, and he comes off as a sociopath (in the wrong ways). It makes him seem like a random weirdo, than someone that does have some semblance of belief and rationale behind him.