English speakers generally do not understand Japanese

[drainer at mpinet.net]

Exactly, that's what I was trying to get at; I think that often times we 
don't realize the difference between trying to sell the film abroad and 
releasing it domestically. As you pointed out, the model used in Japan is 
different (subtitles being used almost specifically to sell the film 
abroad).

What I would like to suggest is that Japan isn't unique at that -- if you 
were to look at the South American market or even portions of the European 
market you would find very similar characteristics. For instance, seldom did 
we see subtitles (foreign DVD releases) in Brazilian movies after the 
festival and international commercial success of City of God. And we are now 
seeing that with Japanese films as well -- after the recent remakes much 
more is being released on R1 DVD, as well as being played on TV (I am 
currently in America, I've noticed at least 4 different Japanese movies on 
Showtime, Cinemax, Starz, this month).

The main difference is that Japan has a thriving film industry, whereas the 
former heavily rely on government subsidies to release their films. Maybe 
it's a matter of Hollywood vs. them.

Another good point you bring up is the lack of subtitles on Japanese DVDs 
itself... which is strange, provided that TV shows subtitle almost 
everything!!

-d



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason Gray" <loaded_films at yahoo.co.jp>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: English speakers generally do not understand Japanese


>
>> There could be various reasons for this: maybe to
>> stick it to the man and
>> the hegemony enjoyed by English speakers (/sarcasm),
>> no one present to do
>> the subtitling (you'd be surprised)
>
> As someone who makes part of my living creating English
> subtitles for Japanese movies, there *are* enough people
> to do them (though I wouldn't use the word "surplus"). A
> large percentage of the films that have subtitles made for
> them are never seen in that form outside of film markets
> (AFM, Cannes, Berlin etc.), let alone festivals. The
> subtitles are paid for in the hopes of selling the film
> abroad, not the DVD. In the process of making subs that
> will eventually be burned on a print (or two), there are 2
> or 3
> 仮ミックステープ (interim draft videos) with
> computer-generated electronic subs. The final draft could
> so easilly be ported to DVDs, but rarely is. Out of all
> the films I've worked on (or collaborated on), only one
> domestic (R2) release has had the subtitles extant.
>
> I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that R2
> Japanese DVDs with English subs generate any more profit
> for companies than those without. Other than that, there
> is no clear answer to the question.
>
> Most Japanese DVDs don't even have Japanese subtitles,
> which I wish they did!
>
> jason gray
>
>