I have to watch a bunch of foreign films for my film program and most of the times it annoys the hell out of me to have to focus my attention on the lower third of the frame just to read subtitles than to just watch the film and view the entire frame. I think with the exception of some japanese films, I would much rather view a dubbed film rather than a subtitled one.

What are your thoughts on subtitles and dubbed films?

Question:
For foreign films made in a language other than english, which do prefer... subtitles or dubbing?

Choices:
subtitles
dubbing

 

Subtitles really don't bother me that much at all, so I don't mind using them.

However I will say that the dubbed dialog for pretty much any Hayao Miyazaki film is brilliant.

but dubbed animation is much easier to accept.

i'll agree about the animation thing, but live action MUST be subtitled for me. It is the only way you really can get a true feel for the film and the performances.

I don't know if you've ever seen an English movie that has been dubbed into a foreign language...but in my opinion they are generally pretty terrible. The voices that are English cultural icons get substituted for anonymous lame-ness.

Oh, no....dubbing makes my ears bleed.

I also find non-synced dialogue far more distracting than subtitles.

Ugh.

Animation (specifically Hayao Miyazaki) can be better dubbed, but I hate watching dubbed live-action films.

Having spent the month of June living in Germany with a host family I came across a lot of dubbed movies which, in my opinion, were FAR better in their original English versions, because being dubbed it ruins the actors performances and sucks you out of the film (such as "Catch Me If You Can" in German).

I only like dubbing if it's not stupid. Kung Fu Flicks are really the only ones that I watch with either, and most of the time it sounds like three different actors trying to make 20 different voices.

So yeah, subtitles for me.

I guess you also have to consider the difference between good dubbing and poor dubbing.

Take The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly vs. A Fistful of Dollars for example.

Subtitles hands down. But also read really fast so I have lots of time to still look at the picture.

I live in Holland. I only want to see the movie in english, because the dubbed ones are really horrible to watch, because it ruines the film for me. the actors are not believable for me anymore. And then i speak for when i watch a german channel. But holland is one of the few countries in europe where the movies are shown at cinema's and on tv/dvd in the original language. Only the kidmovies are translated in dutch, but they show the original versions in cinema's as well.
I think that the movies are here in the orignal language, also in the dutchspeaken part of belgium because we learn english at a early age. I now understand english just as good as dutch. Maybe the scandinavian countries also got the movies in original language because they speak also very well english.

either way im screwed... if you go with the dubbed version you get piss poor acting at best. But watching damn subtitles is impossible for me, the whole reading and watching the movie is just too much for me lol... which sucks because i miss out on a lot of films people tell me are really great movies

I prefer subbed, mostly because I really like hearing the voices of the original actors/ voice actors. I've watched a lot of anime and I stopped watching dubbed anime due to the fact that the subbed just has a more authentic feel. There are exceptions, such as Cowboy Bebop, but I feel that if you're watching a foreign film you should hear it like it was meant to be heard. Though sometimes I feel you kinda miss something that's going on.

Braininabox said The Good the Bad and the Ugly, I think that's just great how everything was dubbed because only three or so cast members spoke English during the taping of the movie and the rest primarily Italian. Sergio Leone be crazy.

Seeing Pan's Labyrinth dubbed instead of subtitled would destroy that movie