Who wants to watch films when there’s no subtitles? American director John McTiernan shares an interesting perspective on the subject; as he is used to deal & play with the barrier of language (Red October, 13th Warrior).
Download the full interview – Thanks Reda!
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Case by case, but there’s lots of truth in McTiernan’s words. I started watching Japanese movies without subtitles several years ago when I couldn’t understand much Japanese, and I noticed that the way the scene is made, what it is about, and how actors deliver their lines is usually more important than what they actually say.
Some of these movies I saw later again with subs, and my perception never changed. Well, at least not to better, but rather to worse as sometimes the dialogue’s clumsiness became more obvious in an otherwise powerful scene (Maggie Cheung at the end of Ashes of Time is an example of a scene that was hugely powerful when I saw it for the first time in years… without subtitles, and without remembering the exact dialogue. This scene lost so much when I turned the subs on).
Of course, I was choosing visuals driven movies rather than dialogie driven movies. But with these kind of movies, as far as you can follow it you can have pretty good even if incomplete experiences even without subs.
And in case of Japanese cinema, I do recommend people to selectively watch movies even without subs, as it’s a fact that the majority of great Japanese movies and TV shows will never be made available with subs. You only have two choises: watch without subs now, or never see that film (although the situation is very very very slightly improving with live action fansubbing gaining popularity).
If i remember correctly, Jim Jarmush said similar things about 60s chambara. Well, now that most of them are subbed maybe he wouldn’t say the same thing!
I agree with Mikko on this. I sometimes watch films without subtitles, and I’m pretty sure I was told this in film school, but the best films are those that speak to you even without understanding the dialog.
Of course, it’s a film by film basis. Some stories are just about the message.