American movies in Japan

[Roland Domenig]

> 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 true for a large part of the japanese film production, the so-called
pink eiga, which generally use 'afureko', 'after recording' or
post-recording. one reason why for this choice are the low budgets with
which the films are made and which prohibit many takes of each scene.
filmmakers therefore primarily concentrate on the images and don't have to
care much about sound. besides, with post-recording you can keep the crews
small. this are important considerations for (very) low budget movies.
this could change, however, with the advance of digital video. zeze's TOKYO
EROTICA, for instance, the first pink eiga shot on digital video, used sync
sound instead of 'afureko'.

> It's curious the way that Japanese TV shows are sometimes buried in Japanese
> subtitles.  
the use of subtitles in japanese tv shows is indeed a very strange (and
expensive) phenomenon. in recent years tv-stations are using japanese
subtitles in japanese films in another way as well, that is in special
broadcasts targeting deaf people. the satellite station eisei gekijo, for
instance, every month airs several (japanese) films with (japanese)
subtitles. in the same way, some tv-drama have an additional sound-track
explaining what is happening on the screen for blind people.



roland domenig
institute of east asian studies
vienna university