Aaron said :
> Even in Hong Kong, the effort put into subtitling often looks slim.
Traditionally, there was a legal requirement for all Hong Kong films to have
english sub-titles. However, the legal requirement didn't say they had to be
good - hence the preponderance of white sub-titles over tablecloths in
restaurant scenes etc.
Back in the land of song subtitles, if more for video than for cinema...
Some of the fan subtitling of Japanese animation / anime included song
subtitles in a different colour to the main subtitles. Some of these fan
groups then let their subtitles be published on the American video versions,
often leading to DVDs with (very) good english language subtitles, very
painstakingly put together, and a really badly dubbed english dub as well as
the original language (usually Japanese).
James said :
> i think that songs work all on their own. music is a language separate of
> the cinema that shouldnt require translation. i think it would upset me
> to see a subtitled song.
Songs are not just the music... songs are also words... An aria may be more
about the music, but recitative is as much about the words and their
content. Yes, some songs can get away with no subtitles (particularly opera,
where being in the "original language" is part of the thing) but when you
have songs particularly written for an individual film that carry forward
the plot as well as being a musical interlude, I'd prefer to see them
subtitled.
I'd love to see song subtitles for major /feature songs, but would hate it
if it started getting to the subtitling of background songs with no real
plot / story effect. If it's just another love song playing in the
background as the hero drinks at the bar, then I can do without subtitles
quite happily :-)
The main problem with subtitling songs is the need to preserve both the song
content and the music. If the words don't scan with the music, they can/will
spoil the whole effect. It must make an already difficult job much more
so... However, given the eventual DVD fate that most films probably aspire
to, wouldn't producing decent translations for the subtitles seem to be
getting more important than it has been historically ?
Steve Welburn
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