Do Subtitles On Movies Bother You?

Some of the best movies these days are being made in non English languages, so it behooves movie fans to get used to subtitles. 

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I was quite impressed with Parasite, it is exceedingly clever and much of the dialogue is refreshingly blunt. Even though it is not an action movie per se, and is in the Korean language, this is a "never a dull moment" flick that has an underlying satiric social message. 

The only movies I have watched for the last forty years have been on television. Since my hearing isn't what it used to be, the closed captioning is on all the time.

As for movies or TV programs in foreigh languages, the facial expressions and the tone of the voices fill out the picture as to what is going on..

What irritates me some is the sappy music that is often played during the program, which appears to have nothing to do with the story.

No. My wife is from the Philippines and we watch alot of Filipino TV. All of them are subtitled now so non Filipinos can keep up with what is going on.

We also watch alot of Korean movies. Parasite was good, but way too dark. Our favorite Korean movie is Along with the Gods". There are 2 parts and both are on Netflix. Another good one is Train to Busan. That is a zombie movie. There is a Korean series called Lone Survivor, based on the US version, but with a Korean government, of course. Another good series is My Country. All of these have subtitles

I am just used to seeing them on the TV even when we are not watching foreign films.

Train to Busan was good for a zombie flick.

No.

For many movies in the last few years, the soundtrack overpowers the dialogue to the point that I wish sometimes there were subtitles, even when the movie is in English.

Agree. I don't know if I am getting old or what but sometimes I can hear all this background noise and can't understand what is being said. Then turning up the volume doesn't help. More noise and it sounds like they are mumbling.

Other than that I watch a lot of foreign films so I am use to subtitles.

I don't think it's an age thing, because I noticed it years ago, when my hearing had recovered well from childhood ear infections, but hadn't been affected by work yet.  At first, it was mostly action movies that were the problem, but then even dialog-driven dramas became hard to hear. 

I have noticed that I don't seem to have as much problem with British films - they seem to keep the soundtrack low enough to be background, rather than louder than the conversation.  Or maybe they just enunciate better.

I enjoy watching foreign-language films. There are a large number of them that are excellent. 

My favorites would be, Das Boot, Roma and Seven Samari's.

Similarly, my choices would be Das Boot, Seven Samurai and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

I haven't seen Crouching Tiger.

I've seen it. It's a great movie. I have watched it several times and I see something I missed each time I watch it.

I'm hearing impaired.  Subtitles and closed captioning are necessities.

What is irksome is when subtitles or closed captioning are not available.  While I'm not deaf, I do tend to pass on videos and films that do not have subtitles or closed captioning.  So, it doesn't matter to me if the audio is other than English.

I watch a lot of Netflix where I turned on and never bother(ed) to turn off the captioning, as I am usually multi-tasking and listening to music as I research online while watching a movie on its connection. The oddest thing about this is, I almost never bother to turn on "C/C" when doing similar things with Comcast On Demand or regular television shows.

On Netflix, I have often watched entire movies in a foreign language. You do have to focus on the text. It's 'fun,' if that is the right word. And, sometimes 'funny' when a foreign culture's local wit injects itself into my mind through a spoken line of text!

Speaking of the trend to put "sappy" as a member calls it music into movies, I usually don't mind it when appropriate space is made for it. That said, I was watching, "Containment" (I think) and maybe several other relatively serious features ("War of the Worlds") on cable and there is this melodious 'noise' that overlays the scenes and all I can think about is where is the source of this supposed to be coming from? If the song pulls you out of the scene its doing too much!

Lastly, there is a movie on Netflix, "Self-Made - Inspired by the life of Madam C. J. Walker" with a song by White Stripes: "Seven Nation Army" (2003) in it! Madam Walker died in 1919! Talk about being pulled into and out of a scene!

I can understand why low budget movies are not dubbed but given the size of the English speaking audience and the low cost of dubbing compared to the increase in viewership it doesn't make sense not to dub it in English. Some very low budget movies might only use one mic which makes it harder to dub (because background and voice is on the same track) but most movies the voice tracks, background, sound effects are all on separate tracks so they can be modified and mixed for the final cut so it's easy to drop the non-English voice track and replace it with an English voice track. I grew up with Kungfu theater on Saturdays and of course we all made fun of the dubbing but we loved those movies and we probably wouldn't have watched if we had to read subtitles. I think it's important to note the more action oriented the movie is the more distracting subtitles are since you miss the visuals because you're always reading text. If you've already spent millions to film a movie why wouldn't you spend 10-15 grand to dub it in English or any other language that a billion or more people speak given the increased sales potential. I've never minded subtitles on documentaries during interviews since it's a real person speaking so you don't want to dub over their voice but for an actor it's not that big of a deal. I don't have HULU but my biggest complaint about Amazon Prime is they have a lot of nondubbed movies but they don't separate them or distinguish them in any way unless you click on the subtitle section then it will tell you, I usually check when I see lots of foreign names in the credits if there's one no problem but if they all sound Russian or something there's a good chance it's non-English but that's the only way to tell on the Prime listings.

I find dubbing to be more distracting than subtitles.  The mismatch between the actor's mouths and voices irritates me, maybe because I had hearing difficulties as a child and taught myself to read lips, and still do so as a matter of habit.

I have been watching some So Korean and Chinese historical dramas and the subtitles on some of the episodes does not match up with the visuals. They are either in front of or behind the visuals. That can be a bit distracting, especially, when trying to match the facial expressions and movements to the subs.

And I agree that the dubbings are very irritating to try and watch, when the words on closed captioning does not match what the people are saying. That is, IMO, worse than the subs being off kilter from the visuals.

I am hearing impaired as well, it is a hereditary nerve condition that has run in my Father's side of the family for generations. Mine did not start until I was around 40 y/o, but, some children are born with the condition.

If the sound of whatever is playing on screen is adequate for me to hear it with just my hearing aid I don't have to deal with the closed captioning. But, at times that is needed, if they even have it.

Sorry to hear that. Actually, I watch some Portuguese-made sci-fi series on Netflix (again) and I love it when the english-sounding voices are so quality matched to the lips that I can not discern minute errors. Also, I pull back from looking too intensely just in case I break the 'magic.' (Smile.) I want to stay in the moment.

I agree with Sandy. I dont mind dubbing on a low rent action film, but Parasite won the highest award at Cannes and won 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture. That would not have happened had the film been dubbed for English speaking audiences. Because the actors are saying Korean, not English words, their mouth movements could never be made to match the English words. 

I haven't seen Parasite yet but I prefer dubbing even if it's mismatched with their mouth movement since I tend to cook, clean, go on the computer while I watch sometimes I even close my eyes and rest so I need the English soundtrack so I don't lose track otherwise I'll just watch something else or shut it off.

What is starting to annoy me greatly: After all that I have stated above there is something that is beginning to irritate me that did not before. It is closed-captioning that apparently is "doubled-up." What I mean is there are movies where the actors may be or appear to be speaking English I can understand and the captioning is using English words that mean the same thing but are not EXACTLY what the actors are saying on the screen.I am left wondering if the actors are being "creative" in their word choices or are the captioners following the scripts!

I used to think it was 'fascinating' and instructive, now it is just well, annoying a bit. It's like a "two-minds" dueling to win out thingie.

I don't mind them, but I find that after a while if there is too much dialog, I tend to fall asleep, LOL. 

Watching 1 1/2 hours of subtitles is a very effective sleeping pill, I have a real problem with that and I rarely make it through the full movie in one sitting.

I can watch them. Some of them, I will get popcorn with and read all the way through. I did this with, Life of Pi and adored the story.

I used to go to Spanish movies with English subtitles in high school to help me learn the language.

You learned English from the movies????

I used to go to Spanish movies with English subtitles in high school to help me learn the language.

I am learning some Korean and Chinese by watching some of their historical dramas with subtitles. That is really fun to do. I love learning new languages. And I can learn a lot of words that are often repeated in the various episodes and how they are used. So when I hear them being said by the actors I can get a better drift of what is being said when the subtitles are a bit off in the translations.

I have two problems here. First of all, in most cases if the movies are not English language ones, the subtitles are in Mandarin and only sometimes in English.  Secondly, I'm a methodical slow reader, and too often the subtitles are flashed onto the screen for too short a time for me to get far into them.  In situations like that it's necessary to watch a movie more than once in order to remember the scene and focus on the posted words alone. However, sometimes the action itself and some other factors allow for an understanding of what is probably being said, and then sometimes the movie is so beautiful and lyrical and the action so plain that knowing what is being said isn't so necessary - I think of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as falling into that category. 

I think of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as falling into that category. 

I agree.