6 ms·

Here is a fun one: film interpreter (解畫員 in Chinese/Cantonese) Many many years ago, foreign films (primarily from Hollywood and in English?) were becoming popu

by k_sze 7y ago

Here is a fun one: film interpreter (解畫員 in Chinese/Cantonese) Many many years ago, foreign films (primarily from Hollywood and in English?) were becoming popular in Hong Kong, but the general populace was either too illiterate or didn't speak or read English. Dubbing in Cantonese was inexistent back then (I guess the studios didn't distribute the films to the Hong Kong movie theatre chains or distributors with dialogue and sound effects on separate sound tracks, like they can today thanks to object-based encodings); subtitling was also useless or inexistent (maybe due to lack of technology, and also due to poor literacy levels). So the movie theatres hired film interpreters. The film interpreter would literally stand next to the silver screen during the screening, and verbally explain, in Cantonese, what the actors were saying or relevant English text displayed on screen. Obviously that wasn't very scalable. As technology progressed and as the population's literacy and education improved, it became feasible to put subtitles or dub the films in Cantonese. So the job of the film interpreter became obsolete. Nowadays, the verb (解畫, to interprete a film) has been hijacked to mean something else: to defuse a misunderstanding that was a result of ambiguous or careless wordings in speech between two parties.

rangibaby 7y ago
This movie has a “video joker”: https://youtu.be/KEoGrbKAyKE https://youtu.be/KEoGrbKAyKE
- lisper 7y ago
  That was oddly fascinating. Thanks for that pointer!
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  To anyone passing by, I cannot recommend this film enough and encourage everyone to see it.
keiferski 7y ago
IIRC this practice is still common in some African countries. I can’t find the article but I believe it was in Nigeria...? The creative act of “dubbing” was itself part of the entertainment and often wasn’t actually true to the dialogue in the film. Edit: found it. Uganda, not Nigeria. https://www.economist.com/baobab/2012/11/02/coming-to-you-live https://www.economist.com/baobab/2012/11/02/coming-to-you-li...
- taneq 7y ago
  > The creative act of “dubbing” was itself part of the entertainment and often wasn’t actually true to the dialogue in the film. So basically all of their translations were the equivalent of Bad Lip Reading? Sounds hilarious and frustrating at the same time.
  - jdietrich 7y ago
    More like Mystery Science Theater 3000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnrWdCdjYxs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnrWdCdjYxs
  - myself248 7y ago
    I like to think they might've been like Ghost Stories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_(Japanese_TV_series)#ADV_dub https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_(Japanese_TV_ser... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv0w6EffYfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv0w6EffYfY
  - naniwaduni 7y ago
    From a certain perspective, this is the case for all translations, ever.
- k_sze 7y ago
  I don't understand the language in the video, but you mean like this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2sZoMgtEXY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2sZoMgtEXY EDIT: so I guess it's only obsolete in some parts of the world.
- zshrdlu 7y ago
  We used to call them "DJ" movies Kenya, and they were particularly popular in rural areas. They were typically shown in "cinemas" which were basically dingy shacks that mothers disapproved of. They also used to edit the movies and redistribute them. They are obsolete now, replaced by guys who torrent movies and sell them on DVDs.
maxnoe 7y ago
EVERY Movie and every TV series is dubbed for the German market. It sometimes is hard to find cinemas that offer original voice.
- pimmen 7y ago
  I'm Swedish and we almost never dub entertainment, unless it's for kids. It just drives me insane when I go abroad and listen to the dialogue being completely butchered on TV. Imagine being the director of the movie and seeing this, remembering all the hours you put into directing the actors to give your vision life, and now your work is being mangled. And then politicians in these countries wonder why they're so bad at English...
  - k_sze 7y ago
    There's a quasi exception though: French dub of Japanese anime. For some reason, the French language's intonations work really well to accurately portray and convey the original tones in Japanese anime. e.g. Lupin III (the anime) works really well in French dub. English dubs usually fail to do the same. It's as though English just doesn't work for the genre.
    - jacobush 7y ago
      I have thought about this, and I agree. The best English anime dubs are when the voice actors overdo it a little and draw from the Japanese voice acting.
    - paganel 7y ago
      The Italian ones are really good, too. The Italian intro/“sigla” [1] for the Lupin the 3rd anime series has stuck with me for 25 years, ever since I first heard it. [1] https://youtu.be/AKmzwpALHg4 https://youtu.be/AKmzwpALHg4
      - k_sze 7y ago
        Now that you mention it, I imagine that other Romance languages of continental Europe (e.g. Spanish and Portuguese) could work really well, too. How does German work? Is it possible that Germanic/Saxon languages aren't good for dubbing anime?
Juliate 7y ago
Pretty common in France too.
- k_sze 7y ago
  Still common? Or was common?
  - Juliate 7y ago
    Still common. We have both: original (Version Originale, VO - with subtitles usually) and translated/dubbed (VF - Version Française).
    - k_sze 7y ago
      And the interpreter still does it live?!
rasz 7y ago
No voice-overs in HK? Dubbing is expensive, voice-over takes couple of hours to record and edit by two man team (dialogue reader and video engineer). In Poland all pirate VHS in the eighties/nineties had voice over funded by pirates themselves, often using same voice talent as legal distributors/TV stations (Everyone over 30 knows the voice of Tomasz Knapik). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over_translation#In_Poland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over_translation#In_Pola... fancy, two readers, example (Total Recall): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7F0VEP3gw4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7F0VEP3gw4
- k_sze 7y ago
  Good point, but I guess even voice-overs were (from a technological/economical stand-point) out of the question during those olden times. Hong Kong back then was not exactly known to be technologically advanced or even on par with the Western world.

by k_sze 7y ago

rangibaby 7y ago

This movie has a “video joker”: https://youtu.be/KEoGrbKAyKE https://youtu.be/KEoGrbKAyKE

lisper 7y ago
That was oddly fascinating. Thanks for that pointer!
soulofmischief 7y ago
To anyone passing by, I cannot recommend this film enough and encourage everyone to see it.

keiferski 7y ago

IIRC this practice is still common in some African countries. I can’t find the article but I believe it was in Nigeria...? The creative act of “dubbing” was itself part of the entertainment and often wasn’t actually true to the dialogue in the film. Edit: found it. Uganda, not Nigeria. https://www.economist.com/baobab/2012/11/02/coming-to-you-live https://www.economist.com/baobab/2012/11/02/coming-to-you-li...

taneq 7y ago
> The creative act of “dubbing” was itself part of the entertainment and often wasn’t actually true to the dialogue in the film. So basically all of their translations were the equivalent of Bad Lip Reading? Sounds hilarious and frustrating at the same time.
- jdietrich 7y ago
  More like Mystery Science Theater 3000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnrWdCdjYxs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnrWdCdjYxs
- myself248 7y ago
  I like to think they might've been like Ghost Stories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_(Japanese_TV_series)#ADV_dub https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_(Japanese_TV_ser... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv0w6EffYfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv0w6EffYfY
- naniwaduni 7y ago
  From a certain perspective, this is the case for all translations, ever.
k_sze 7y ago
I don't understand the language in the video, but you mean like this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2sZoMgtEXY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2sZoMgtEXY EDIT: so I guess it's only obsolete in some parts of the world.
zshrdlu 7y ago
We used to call them "DJ" movies Kenya, and they were particularly popular in rural areas. They were typically shown in "cinemas" which were basically dingy shacks that mothers disapproved of. They also used to edit the movies and redistribute them. They are obsolete now, replaced by guys who torrent movies and sell them on DVDs.

maxnoe 7y ago

EVERY Movie and every TV series is dubbed for the German market. It sometimes is hard to find cinemas that offer original voice.

pimmen 7y ago
I'm Swedish and we almost never dub entertainment, unless it's for kids. It just drives me insane when I go abroad and listen to the dialogue being completely butchered on TV. Imagine being the director of the movie and seeing this, remembering all the hours you put into directing the actors to give your vision life, and now your work is being mangled. And then politicians in these countries wonder why they're so bad at English...
- k_sze 7y ago
  There's a quasi exception though: French dub of Japanese anime. For some reason, the French language's intonations work really well to accurately portray and convey the original tones in Japanese anime. e.g. Lupin III (the anime) works really well in French dub. English dubs usually fail to do the same. It's as though English just doesn't work for the genre.
  - jacobush 7y ago
    I have thought about this, and I agree. The best English anime dubs are when the voice actors overdo it a little and draw from the Japanese voice acting.
  - paganel 7y ago
    The Italian ones are really good, too. The Italian intro/“sigla” [1] for the Lupin the 3rd anime series has stuck with me for 25 years, ever since I first heard it. [1] https://youtu.be/AKmzwpALHg4 https://youtu.be/AKmzwpALHg4
    - k_sze 7y ago
      Now that you mention it, I imagine that other Romance languages of continental Europe (e.g. Spanish and Portuguese) could work really well, too. How does German work? Is it possible that Germanic/Saxon languages aren't good for dubbing anime?

Juliate 7y ago

Pretty common in France too.

k_sze 7y ago
Still common? Or was common?
- Juliate 7y ago
  Still common. We have both: original (Version Originale, VO - with subtitles usually) and translated/dubbed (VF - Version Française).
  - k_sze 7y ago
    And the interpreter still does it live?!

rasz 7y ago

No voice-overs in HK? Dubbing is expensive, voice-over takes couple of hours to record and edit by two man team (dialogue reader and video engineer). In Poland all pirate VHS in the eighties/nineties had voice over funded by pirates themselves, often using same voice talent as legal distributors/TV stations (Everyone over 30 knows the voice of Tomasz Knapik). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over_translation#In_Poland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over_translation#In_Pola... fancy, two readers, example (Total Recall): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7F0VEP3gw4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7F0VEP3gw4

k_sze 7y ago
Good point, but I guess even voice-overs were (from a technological/economical stand-point) out of the question during those olden times. Hong Kong back then was not exactly known to be technologically advanced or even on par with the Western world.