American movies in Japan

[M Arnold]

Michael Raine <michael.raine at yale.edu> wrote:

> arguments had more force? One thing I've never been able to understand is
> the argument that dubbing was difficult -- it seems to me that much of the
> sound on Japanese film at least through the 1950s was post-recorded.

While subtitling definitely is cheaper than dubbing, could it be that in a
domestic film post-recording is cheaper (or easier?) than sync sound?  This
is something I find myself wondering about often (a few times on this list
as well), as I've seen dozens of Japanese films even into the 80s and 90s
that were made with post-recorded sound.  In fact I saw a few scenes of
Satorare when it aired on TV a couple of weeks ago, and although I wasn't
paying much attention I had a strange feeling that the dialogue was dubbed.
Does anyone know for sure?

With the exception of TV broadcasts, subtitled copies of films do seem to be
more available than dubbed versions.  (Sometimes the major networks show
subtitled versions of films late at night however.  When I watched Teorema
on TV in the middle of the night a couple of years ago it was subtitled.)
It's curious the way that Japanese TV shows are sometimes buried in Japanese
subtitles.  I'm also a little surprised that while English subtitles on
Japanese DVD releases are slowly becoming more common, Japanese subtitles on
Japanese DVD releases are extremely rare.

As Markus remarks, Japan is described as a "Jimaku no kuni," but I also
wonder about early silent films, which all--foreign and domestic--seem to
have been dubbed.  Dubbed live, that is.

Michael Arnold