voice-overs in TV-dramas

Aaron Gerow gerow
Mon Nov 30 00:15:09 EST 1998


>How come that Japanese TV-dramas place so much emphasis on voice-over
>narration? (Schoolgirl stares into the camera; voice-over: "Hiroko,
>looking disappointed"; schoolgirl A walks away from schoolgirl B after a
>brief conversation; voice-over "schoolgirl A, walking away; schoolgirl
>B, watching schoolgirl A walking away", and so on, and so on.) One feels
>tempted to explain this as a device to make up for bad acting or
>directing, but perhaps there are other reasons. 

A very good question and one that has been asked for many years in 
relation to cinema as well, especially given the existence of the benshi. 
 There have been the trite culturalist explanations--"Japanese like to 
have things explained to them"--but it is an interesting issue that is 
increasingly becoming central to current TV.  As I have said before in 
several posts, one of the other big trends in recent TV, especially in 
variety shows, is to print the words being spoken on screen (usually only 
major lines or gags, but sometimes--as in one of Uthcan Nanchan's 
shows--EVERY line of dialogue).  It's great for those of us who can't 
always catch the words, but why do those with Japanese as their native 
language need/like this?  It can easily be related to the use of 
voice-over.

I think the words-on-screen issue relates in part to manga, but it and 
the voice-over are definitely part of a long history of managing and 
regulating reception of the image (something I've discussed in many 
places).  But it also raises many narrative issues: "Whose" voice is it 
when the words appear on screen (it is not simply that of the person 
saying them since their speech has been doubled and part of it divorced 
from them)?  Some of the words are closer to third-person 
commentary--like a voice-over--so what is the status of that voice?  
Given that some of the words are themselves rendered meaningful as images 
(some are in larger print to emphasis particular words, others animated), 
there is an effort to analyze the dialog, comment on it, and to make the 
words part of the image, but "who" is doing that?  What do these words do 
to help the narrative, especially if they are mostly redundant?  How do 
viewers relate to this voice?  Given that the word-thang is not done in 
dramas--only in variety or news shows--what can we then say about the 
enunciation of narrative in drama? Why voice-overs there but not words on 
screen?  Etc. etc.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
KineJapan list owner
For list commands: send "information kinejapan" to 
listserver at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Kinema Club: http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html





More information about the KineJapan mailing list