“There is a lot of visual information in the film [Shutter Island]— dubbing makes it easier to take everything in. Young people feel that reading subtitles is too much of a bother — and they’re a big part of our audience”
Says the Japanese distributor of Scorsese’s last film, which was super dubbed. The official reason aka how the distributor is selling us the idea (don’t get mad):
As everyone knows, the trick to enjoying mystery films is devoting oneself to solving riddles. But because of subtitles you carelessly miss important scenes! Everyone’s expe rienced this kind of regrettable moment. You don’t see through the characters to recognize the criminal by “understanding the subtitles,” but by paying attention to “faces” and “the movement of eyes.”
What is this “super dub“? In fact, they’re trying to make the translation sounds more natural in japanese. Toda Natsuko was in charge of this project, she’s one of the most respected subtitles translator over there; here’s what she said:
Why is there a sense of strangeness with dubbed versions, even though it’s in Japanese?
Dubbing is a very unique literary style. A basic principle is that the movement of the lips speaking English much match up with the Japanese. This is something that cannot be changed. It is the fate of dubbing. Daily conversation and Japanese dubbing—it’s the same Japanese, but so different that if you close your eyes while watching a present day drama in Japanese, and then play the Japanese dubbed version of an American drama, the difference is clear even if your eyes are closed. It’s that kind of difference.
So what were you attempting with Super Dubbing to deal with this difference?
For example, Leonardo de Caprio, who plays Teddy, faces a woman working in the hospital and asks, “Were you a nurse?” If you change this to natural Japanese, just saying “Kankoshi?” However, in English when you say “Were you a nurse?” your lips move three times.
A ‘better’ lip-sync, a smoother translation, easy japanese words to understand…. To give you an idea, the japanese trailer of Shutter Island:
And because it proved to be rather successful at the box office, it may become the norm for Hollywood pics in Japan.
Via Variety, MSN (jp)
Translations by Markus Normes via KineJapan list / Thanks TheGoldenRock!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Makes sense, and I’m pretty sure this already happens from Japanese -> English with both subs and dubs. Only in that case, phrases necessarily have to be shortened to fit in the limited time the person is speaking. This is just the reverse — lengthening things to match what’s happening on screen.
What about the ‘classic’ dub situation? Pre-Shutter Islands movies were dubbed or subtitled? Were japanese hollywood-dubs known to be ‘bad’ ? What is the norm in usual japanese mutliplex? Reading the Shutter Islands distro speech (‘Young people feel that reading subtitles is too much of a bother’) seems to indicate hollywood movie were released subtitled (?)
Just found some details (from Mark Nornes mail)
1/
They estimate the “Cho Nihongo Fukikae-ban” is attracting twice the normal audience for a dubbed version, or about a fourth of the tickets for Shutter Island. 42% of the prints were the dubbed version (188, as opposed to 264 subtitled prints). The PR asserts a difference between a stiff language of translation for the script (翻訳調のセリフ回し), versus something smooth and transparent. A motive for this is to attract young people who have drifted from the habit of going out to Western films.
2/ It goes on to assert that Japanese are used to subtitles, but dubbing is actually the mainstream in most of the world (debatable, of course). Furthermore, in the present day when young people are no longer used to reading books, you often year people complaining that they get tired, or can’t read fast enough. But there are still people who can’t quite handle dubbing, and that’s why they created Super Dubs.
3/ Interview with Toda Natsuko:
Why is there a sense of strangeness with dubbed versions, even though it’s in Japanese?
Dubbing is a very unique literary style. A basic principle is that the movement of the lips speaking English much match up with the Japanese. This is something that cannot be changed. It is the fate of dubbing. Daily conversation and Japanese dubbing—it’s the same Japanese, but so different that if you close your eyes while watching a present day drama in Japanese, and then play the Japanese dubbed version of an American drama, the difference is clear even if your eyes are closed. It’s that kind of difference.
I’m usually against only-dubbed films, but since it seems that they are also distributing prints subbed, I would have no problem with it.
Shutter Island sounds like a completely different film with the Japanese! A LOT more dramatic than a mystery, but then again… I’ve always found Japanese voice acting quite more pleasing than let’s say… American English — though I haven’t ever tried Australian, Canadian or British dubbings.
Having said that, I think Japanese subtitles might be a tad harder to read than English subtitles (can’t even begin to think about subs in Chinese).
It can’t be worse than that
Subs vs. Dubs was discussed at Nippon Connection, and I plan to write up a summary of the discussion soon. Japanese are used to subs in the cinema and dubs on TV, but there has been a trend towards dubs in the cinema for 3D films like Avatar because subtitles are difficult to read when placed over 3D images. DVD releases in Japan always allow the viewer to decide if they want subs or dubs.