One of the fun things I sometimes get to do at my day job at Fatso is reading and approving customer film reviews. We have to look out for foul language and other inappropriate material that may not fall within the boundaries of an “acceptable review” (racist remarks, political rants, etc). After doing this for awhile you begin to notice some recurring themes or sentiments that are popular among the customers: “this is the worst movie ever made”, “this movie is too slow”, and – shock horror – “this movie has subtitles!”. For the seasoned cinephile, to warn other people that a movie is subtitled may seem a little odd, but the truth is we’re in the minority here – there’s a whole world of people out who just can’t stand subtitles.
Here’s a selection of the kind of feedback we get on English-subtitled foreign films:
13 Assassins
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Mongol
Seven Samurai
Timecrimes
City of God
You get the picture.
So occasionally while there will be that viewer who will actually concede or get used to the subtitles, with minor reservation (“This was subtitled BUT I enjoyed it anyway”), the majority find them a nuisance and a hindrance to their enjoyment of a film, and as if in haughty disgust, will react by returning DVD without giving the film a chance at all. I can absolutely understand there is a type of casual moviegoer out there who’s only after a night of brainless, undemanding entertainment, but I also believe any aversion to subtitles is a state of mind thing that can be overcome. ANYONE with a well-functioning brain in their head can watch and enjoy a subtitled movie. If you can process image and text – something we do on a daily basis without giving much thought – you CAN process subtitles in a movie.
If you’ve never seen a subtitled film in your life for whatever reason, the best way around this is a gateway subtitled film (I’ve been known to state the obvious). I can’t remember exactly what mine was, but I’d say it was something by John Woo, maybe A Better Tomorrow or The Killer. This was around the time Woo was getting a lot of buzz, being championed as action’s saviour, because he was heading to America to make movies etc, so naturally, as a young budding film geek I had to get amongst and what the buzz was all about. But as far as I can remember I have never had any problems adjusting to “reading a movie”. Sure, I would sometimes scratch my head (e.g. characters in The Killer calling each other Mickey Mouse and Dumbo), but I’ve never experienced any sort of revulsion or discomfort. Now it’s second nature that I don’t even think about it. It’s just a matter of: “Okay, this film is in a language I don’t understand – I’m glad it’s subtitled so I can understand it.”
The most common gateway subtitled films tend to be high-profile, talked-about foreign films with large crowd appeal, e.g. an Oscar winner like Life is Beautiful, or something like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on a bestselling novel. Generally speaking, moviegoers who would not go out of their way to watch an Andrei Tarkovsky flick will likely watch these films because of their “water-cooler value”: you bring them up in a conversation in the office or wherever, people can chip in, feel comfortable about discussing them. Either that or they’ll just wait until the inevitable English language remake comes out. It’s clear that the issue with subtitles is widespread enough that Hollywood will spend millions of dollars to produce a version for a section of society who don’t like them.
I’ll say this: there are problems with subtitles. It can be tricky to evaluate a lot of aspects of a film that’s not in your native tongue. It’s difficult to gauge the accuracy of the translation, and nuances are often lost. Sometimes they’re hard to read/too fast/too simplified. But I’ll also say this: cinema is a universal medium; wooden line readings, bad plot twists and ugly cinematography are the same and identifiable in any language.
The funny thing is it’s also possible to enjoy a film even if you have no clue what any of the spoken dialogue means. I don’t recommend it as a regular thing, but I have leapt into the un-subbed abyss in the past, mainly to watch Mondo Macabro-type fare where English subtitles are not a luxury that’s available to them. A few Bollywood flicks, no-budget Turkish extravaganzas like Turkish Star Wars and The Biggest Fist – movies so out there, their sheer delirium outweigh any need for translation. As an experiment, for the next edition of Shelf Life, I’m going to review 3 films that are not subtitled and I will probably have trouble understanding. Until then, here’s a taste of The Biggest Fist (fan-subbed!), a film that’s completely enjoyable with or without subtitles:
