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Episode 81 - Foreign Stuff on Netflix


Justin_Case001

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Alright, alright, easy, there.  Just cool your jets, chief.  This isn't what you probably think it is.  Just let me explain.

Y'know what really grinds my gears?  When I see something I want to watch on Netflix, so I hit play, and then a few minutes in the actors start talking, and only then do I realize--it's not in English!  Just subtitled.

Okay, now I have to take a detour.  See, I hate subtitles.  Can't watch anything with 'em.  This isn't some kind of xenophobic or racist thing, so don't you even.  It's much simpler than that.  I'm a slow reader, and it's just how I process information.  I can't read and watch at the same time.  I've tried.  Can't do it.  I can't keep up with the text, I can't process what it says while watching the picture.  It's just ruins it for me.  I end up missing half of the text and half of the movie.  I love reading books and I love watching movies; I don't like trying to do both simultaneously.  So, I refuse to watch anything that's not in English.  Once again, I have nothing against anything from other countries, I just can't read and watch at the same time.

So, back to the Flix.  There's lots of foreign films on American Netflix, which is fine, but what I hate is that it's not made apparent.  The title's in English, the description's in English, but then you start watching and it's like a cruel prank.  I mean, y'know, for me.  The only way to find out before watching is to scroll your ass down to the audio settings, look at what options are available and see if subtitles are enabled.  There should be a big, clear, obvious logo, a watermark, a seal in the corner, something very apparent on the thumbnail denoting that it's not in the predominant language for the region.  (And of course, this would be different in every region.)  That way, I would know to avoid it.  Other people who don't mind subtitles can knock themselves out.  More power to you.  But I would know to not waste my time or get my hopes up.  I've found so many things that looked great and then I had to bail as soon as they started talking.  Drives me nuts.  :Cozy:

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When watching a movie that was originally made in a language I cannot understand, my order of preference is:

1. Subtitles - the best. I hear the voices of the original actors, in some cases (if I know some words of the original language) I can pick out some words.
2. Voice-over translation - this is when the translation is spoken over the original soundrtack, usually by one or two (one man and one woman) voice actors. This is how it is done on TV in my country (because it's cheaper for the TV station), but I like it - not as good as subtitles, but OK.
3. Dubbing - this is when a group of voice actors fully replace the voices of the original actors - it's almost as if the movie was made in the different language. I dislike this. If I know how the original voices sound it's annoying. Even if I don't, since it is impossible for the translated text and the original text to take up the same amount of time (because diferent languages use different length sentences/words to express the same thing), sync between the video and audio is awful and it really annoys me to the point where I cannot really watch it.

 

However, Netflix should show the country the movie was made in and whether it has subtitles or some other version of translation.

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