American movies in Japan, subtitles in Europe

[Susanne Schermann]

Some more comments on subtitles.
Michael Raine wrote:

> >From what I remember, commercially succesful foreign films in most major
> markets are dubbed (eg. Western Europe). 

This is not true for France, a great filmloving country. Here, most foreign
films are released subbed and dubbed, the second being "for the kids".
Normally, there are far more theaters with the subtitled film.
In Germany, every film is dubbed - with some important exeptions: most
Japanese films are with subtitles.

My theory is (and Japanese friends told me about that) that the Japanese
audience had and has a very awkward feeling seeing Western foreigners
speaking fluently Japanese (many of us will have had the same experience
even now...). This "iwakan" favored subtitles, I think.
I think also that subtitles are cheaper and quicker to make, but I'm not
sure if this had an influence.
Susanne Schermann
Meiji University