Some people might think that it is so much better not to have to read subtitles of foreign films, when dubbed versions are readily available, but I definitely am not in their number. If a movie is announced as dubbed, I start running the other way; to me, a subtitled product is preferable to a dubbed one, ten times over. Let me take you through my reasoning and then you may tell me if I am too off the mark on this.

Dubbing vs. subtitling in Europe and Latin America - A short rundown

In the film making industry, dubbing mostly refers to recorded voices that replace the voices of original actors and speak the local language of the target market, with the purpose of making them more widely accessible to the general public. However, geographical preferences on dubbing vs. subtitling differ greatly, while not appearing to have any discernible cause. Just so that you have a rough idea, in Russia, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, the general practice is dubbing, with virtually no chance to watch movies in their original versions. Before the advent of digital pay-TV and multi-language audio track DVDs, subtitled versions were considered in these countries almost an exclusive elite product for the artsy-intellectual circles. In Latin America on the other hand, (excepting Brazil) mostly all foreign-language programs, films, cartoons and documentaries shown in free-aired TV channels are dubbed into Neutral Spanish, whereas cable and satellite TV films may be either dubbed or subtitled, or both.

In my home country, Uruguay, luckily the majority of cable TV shows, films and series are subtitled, as are all foreign motion pictures shown in theaters - maybe with the exception of children's movies and cartoons. As of late, you can also get to see on cable TV the same shows either dubbed or subtitled, depending on the airing time. Whenever my zapping finger hits a dubbed series or movie, I move on, and this is why.

First, it is quite irritating having to listen to actors and actresses who you know how their own true voices sound like - speak with other voices, in Colombian, Mexican or Neutral Spanish accents. It has quite a dissociative effect.

Second, and maybe this is just a professional quirk of mine - being as I am a translator of English and Spanish - I love to listen to and identify the different accents, whether a singsong Irish brogue, a rolling Glasgow burr, a slow Southern drawl or the particular accents of the different American minority groups. When dubbed, these differences disappear, are diluted, or when attempted on the soundtrack, sound like badly spoken Spanish, detracting as a result from the general value of the film.

Third, and here we come to the crux of the matter: how can I be sure that the dubbed version is correct, after witnessing, day in, day out, gross translation "horrors" in subtitles? Let me give you just a couple of examples:

Closeout

"The Mentalist" is, as you probably know, a successful procedural crime TV series airing this year in the U.S. at CBS for the second season, with Simon Baker cast in the role of mentalist Patrick Jane. In one of the first season episodes, a young woman says, when questioned in the course of an investigation, that "when my husband came back [from the war] he closed me out". The subtitle read: "cuando mi esposo volvió [de la guerra] me liquidó". A closeout is indeed a "liquidación", or, as any passably good dictionary will tell you, "the selling of all the merchandise in a store (generally because a store is closing)". Therefore, it can also be translated as "cierre", to signify that a business or firm is closing down, or going out of business. This was, as you will certainly have deduced by now, not the type of closeout referred to by the young woman, who had been shut out, ignored, or excluded by her homecoming spouse. The correct translation should have been, instead, "me excluyó", or "se alejó de mí", or "dejó de hablarme". To further complicate the issue, "liquidar" in Spanish has another connotation; in criminal contexts it can be construed as to kill, wipe out, terminate...you get the general drift. Hence, this was not only a mistranslation, untrue to the intended meaning of the original version, but one that could completely mislead the viewer.

Wrongful death

"Reservation Road". This Focus Features and Random House Films motion picture, starring Marc Ruffalo and Joaquin Phoenix, is a moving drama touching on revenge and redemption. In one of its scenes, a reference is made to "wrongful death". This was translated in the subtitle, no less, as "muerte equivocada" (which in backtranslation would amount to "mistaken (or erroneous) death". My legal background made me laugh out loud. A "wrongful death [action]", as any good legal dictionary will tell you, is "a lawsuit brought on behalf of a decedent's survivors for their damages resulting from a tortious injury that caused the decedent's death". [Black's Law Dictionary, 3rd. Pocket Ed., 2006, p. 788]. Exactly the situation depicted in the movie. And in legal Spanish criminal law terminology, there is a very precise equivalent for "wrongful death": "muerte causada por homicidio culposo". Nothing whatever even closely related to a "mistaken death"......




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BOTTOM LINE: Tarantino manages to serve up one of his better films in this rather fun and unique re-imagining of end of World War II, filled with his trademark witty dialogue and violence. The film is however way too long, putting a major dent in an otherwise very clever film.

THE GOOD: Regardless of whether you like his style or not, director Quentin Tarantino manages to create a unique cinematic experience with every one of his films. "Inglourious Basterds" is no exception and is actually one of his best, offering an unusual, multi-layered story that simultaneously contains a clever plot, fantastic characters and Tarantino's trademark style. Although the title refers to a crack team of Nazi hunters led by a perfectly cast Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, the main protagonist appears to be "Shoshanna" (Melanie Laurent), who escapes after her family is slaughtered by a Nazi death squad and finds herself in a position where she can destroy the entire Nazi leadership in one foul swoop. However, there are also at least two other stories going on, with the British and Americans hatching a plan to likewise wipe-out the Nazi leadership at the same opportunity as Shoshanna, and the nasty but engaging Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) who is hot on their heels as the defacto bad guy. The film unspools like a novel, broken up by chapters, and as such, it does not follow a conventional film structure. In the hands of another director this would have gone south but Tarantino shows just how good he is at shaping all of these disparate storylines in to one cohesive narrative that all come together in the climax. The dialogue is fantastic, particularly in its use of building tension in most of the scenes. Rather than have a gory blood-fest of violence, Tarantino uses the dialogue to slowly build the tension until all hell breaks loose (and even then, it is somewhat restrained). Surprisingly for a Hollywood film, Tarantino has actually used an incredible amount of foreign languages with subtitles rather than using English throughout. "Inglourious Basterds" is a fictional take on history that is fun to watch and is a prime example of Tarantino doing what he does best.

THE BAD: The film is way too long. The issue lies in the otherwise spectacular dialogue scenes. Tarantino uses the dialogue to build tension between characters, particularly in the sequences where you do not know whether the good guys will beat the bad guys. However, the dialogue in some instances just keeps going and going and going, where some select editing would have tightened it up, made the tension-build stronger and delivered a much cleaner and fast-paced film. The first sequence with Col. Landa and the Frenchman hiding Jews under his floor boards is an excellent example. The tension is good, but the dialogue manages to include "Hello, how are you? Having a nice day. Well that's nice," etc, etc. In each of these scenes, you know about half way through where it is heading, and you find yourself ahead of the scene rather than in it. If Tarantino had chopped about thirty minutes out of the film, a feat easily accomplished, "Inglourious Basterds" could have been a masterpiece of filmmaking.



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On August 7, 2009, the eagerly-awaited film G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra debuted in cinemas. Most of the roles in this film are martial arts masters. In this article, I will introduce these martial-arts used in G.I.JOE.

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra was directed by Stephen Sommers. G.I.JOE is an acronym for the Global Integrated Joint operating entity. The G.I.JOE team uses the latest spy and military equipment to battle against the bad gays. It is no stranger to the world of martial-arts. There is a character in this film holds black belts in Taekwondo. Taekwondo is a Korean martial art. Tae in Korean means to strike with foot. Kwon in Korean means to strike with fist. Do in Korean mean method.

There is another character in this film who is the master of southern praying mantis Kung Fu. Kung Fu is one of the most popular fighting skills on this planet. In ancient Asia, people use Kung-Fu fighting skills to protect themselves.

On the other hand, tai chi Sword and Zen sword were used by other G.I.JOE team-members in the film. By the way, Wing-Chun fist was used as one of the most popular powerful fighting skills by the captain.

Snake eyes and storm shadow are the two main enemies in this film. These characters introduced many G.I. Joe fans to the world of ninjas. Storm shadow was trained by the Ninja master, but in the end, he betrayed elite G.I. Joe team. They became opponents.

In this film, Snake Eyes was played by Scottish martial arts actor Ray Park. He is a master of martial arts. He also played as a stunt-man in star wars. Park was trained in Chinese northern Shaolin Kung Fu temple. Various martial arts styles are mastered and he holds a second degree black belt. Screen veteran Gerald Okamura played as hard master in this film. He is the Ninja master who trained two kids. To perform the spirit of the martial arts, Okamura practiced Kendo, aikido in real life.



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