Wouldn’t it be
nice if...more DVDs came with a choice of subtitles?
You may say – but
look! DVDs usually already come with a choice of subtitles!! Indeed as I write,
I have in front of me a copy of a Region 2 Special Collector’s Edition of Chinatown that offers subtitles in
English, Danish, Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish
and Swedish as well as English subtitles for the hearing impaired. An
embarrassment of subtitling riches. Yes indeed. But this is not quite what I
mean.
I mean subtitles
which are addressed, not to different
audiences (French-speaking vs. German-speaking; hearing vs. Deaf, etc.), but to
the same audience who might simply
wish for different experiences of the film.
This is something
that DVD should be an ideal format for. And yes, there are many comedy films
which feature special feature subtitle tracks of various sorts on DVD. (My
favourite is probably the Ultimate Definitive Final special edition of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (2002),
which includes in the (unbelievably) Special Features ‘NEW! Subtitles For
People Who Don’t Like The Film’ which are a remix of lines from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2.) But these are gag
tracks, détournements, rather than ‘translating’
subtitle tracks. In 2010 we saw
Jean-Luc Godard fulfil what was, apparently, a long-cherished dream by releasing Film Socialisme at Cannes with audience-unfriendly subtitles.
When the film was released on DVD in the US by Kino Lorber it came with more
conventional titles too – but the choice to watch Godard’s ‘Navajo English’
titles was still there.
Once viewers cop on
to the fact that one translator’s set of subtitles might not be the same as
another’s, they often turn out pretty intrigued. And a few, brave distributors
have taken up the challenge.
I’m thinking of
the subtitles offered on the 2007 Discotek Region 1 DVD release of Herman Yau’s
Ebola Syndrome (1996). This offers
both ‘crazy Hong Kong subtitles’[i]
and more recent conventional English subtitles:
I was, admittedly,
a little suspicious; some of the craziness in the ‘Hong Kong’ subtitles seemed
a little too good to be true, as with the following double entendre (the first title is from the conventional subtitles and the second from the 'crazy Hong Kong subtitles'):[ii]
But both sets of
subtitles can be used to watch and follow the film.
Ebola Syndrome is not the only Hong Kong
film to offer this feature on DVD. Wilson Yip’s Bio Zombie (1998, released on Region 1 DVD by Tokyo Shock in 2000)
also offers a choice of English subtitles (though it does not make a feature of
this on the cover of the DVD). Apart from the Cantonese original dialogue and
the English dub, viewers can choose Cantonese dialogue with English, or with ‘Engrish’
subtitles:
The Engrish
subtitles are the original subtitles for an earlier, Mei Ah DVD release. These
two subtitle tracks are entertainingly different, as we can see if we look at a
short sequence from one scene where the two anti-heroes properly launch their
careers as zombie killers. Here are the conventional English subtitles:
The same scene
with ‘Engrish’ subtitles goes as follows:
In some cases, it
is impossible to tell from the Engrish subtitles what the intended meaning of
the dialogue is, for instance, in this remark (the ‘correct’ subtitle is the
first one):
Cantonese speakers
who know the film are welcome to write in and explain how both these
translations can somehow be of the same Cantonese line of dialogue. In some
cases, the subtitles actually achieve the feat of saying the opposite to each other:
Nevertheless,
viewers of the Mei Ah DVD with only the ‘Engrish’ subtitles seem to be pretty
philosophical (see here and here), counting the DVD release’s low
price as a trade-off for the rather exotic translation.
Another example of
‘alternative’ subtitles, which I have commented on before, is the 2003
Criterion Collection edition of Kurosawa’s Throne
of Blood, which was published with two sets of subtitles by named
subtitlers: Linda Hoaglund and Donald Richie.
The two subtitlers
also contribute short pieces about their approach to subtitling in the sleeve
notes to the DVD. Hoaglund’s subtitles aim to achieve a slightly archaizing
register; Richie’s are intended to be fluent and easily readable. Their
subtitles are distinguished by different fonts:
A last, and very
pleasing, example of customer choice is the 2005 Region 1 Animeigo release of Incident at Blood Pass, also known as Machibuse, which offers ‘Japanese with
full subtitles’ and ‘Japanese with limited subtitles’:
I got very excited
about this; I thought that perhaps the ‘limited’ subtitles were ordinary dialogue
subtitles and the ‘full’ subtitles were the ones which included headnotes for
culturally specific concepts, explanations etc. In fact, on enquiry to Animeigo,
the ‘limited subtitles’ turned out to be the headnotes only, plus titles for
in-vision verbal material, without any dialogue titles:
The ‘full’
subtitles included both:
In a helpful
email, the company told me they included this feature as a response to customer
feedback; they have many viewers with enough Japanese to enjoy listening to the
dialogue, but not necessarily enough Japanese to read Japanese script in inserts and
captions easily, or catch cultural references. Apparently this is now a regular
feature on Animeigo releases.
But, readers may
say, these are really marginal examples, from a few films, most of them aimed
at a pretty niche audience. Are they really relevant?
Yes, I think so,
for several reasons:
1)
Providing a choice of subtitles
underlines the fact that all translation is based on choice and interpretation, and therefore good-quality screen translation cannot be taken for
granted.
2)
It helps to remind viewers that
the quality of the subtitles has a direct impact on the viewing experience. Many
DVDs seem ‘thrown together’ with
little thought to the quality of the text, much less the usability of menu
design or, perish the thought, the appropriateness of the translation choices.
Thinking about subtitle choice could be part of an overall awareness of the
importance of DVD design (and yes, I’m aware that DVD sales slipped nearly 20%
in 2012 on the year before – nevertheless, I have faith. Like books, I think
that just because they’re not the only game in town doesn’t mean they
are about to disappear).
3)
Naming the subtitler, as with
naming any translator of a text, is good practice, as Chris Durban has repeatedly argued.
Good quality should be appropriately rewarded.
4)
Seeing translation prominently
featured in the options and extras of DVDs helps people to be aware how
indispensable translators are in the making and distribution of film.
5)
Subtitles are a potential site
for play and 'added value' entertainment; in this sense, the more craptastic, the better.
Is it ‘the way of
the future’? Probably not; we know from tired experience that distributors and DVD publishers are pretty cavalier about subtitles. But there are a number
of films which are crying out for a nice premium rerelease with added
translationy goodness: think Mädchen in Uniform – wouldn’t it be great to be able to access the original French subtitles
by Colette, or the scattered English subtitles – all 124 of them – which
appeared on the first translated print screened in the UK in 1932? Or what
about Bekmambetov’s Day Watch, whose
UK and US releases disappointed viewers who had been looking forward to the
funky theatrical subtitles? Where subtitles have generated controversy and
complaint, DVD would offer a nice opportunity to compare and contrast – for
instance, the much-complained-about version of Les 400 coups rereleased by the BFI in 2010 which had to be resubtitled when audiences pointed out that quite a lot of the
dialogue in the film never made it as far as the subtitles.
In the meantime,
I’d settle for companies providing a choice between subtitles for the
hearing impaired, and subtitles for the hearing. Too many companies cut corners
like this. You know who you are. (Please feel free to name and
shame offenders in the comments.)
Carol O’Sullivan
(c) 2013
UPDATE 2014: Delighted to say that there is a French translation of this post on Les Piles Intérmediaires under the title 'À quand des "sous-titres pour ceux qui aiment vraiment le film"?'.
[i] ‘Hong Kong’ subtitling is a recognized phenomenon in which
subtitles are produced by non-native English speakers and as a result feature
startling, and sometimes hilarious, translation solutions. For more on this see
David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong: Popular
Cinema and the Art of Entertainment. Madison, WI: Irvington Way Institute
Press, 2011, p.78
[ii] For interested French speakers, the French subtitle for the Metropolitan
DVD release (2006) reads “Li, va jouer dehors, / je
dois parler avec Kai” (titles by Jean-Marc Bertrix).
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