Member Graeme Of Death Posted November 26, 2019 Member Share Posted November 26, 2019 Been watching a few old DVDs of kung fu and HK films, Shaolin Vs Lama, Hitman in the Hand of Bhudda, Rich and Famous, God Of Gamblers. Who does the subtitles for films? How do companies go about getting subtitles for their releases. Just wondering because when watching Rich and Famous I couldn't help but notice nearly every subtitled line of dialogue is absolute fu*kin' nonsense. Which made me think who ever releases these films just got some Chinese student who had been studying English for 6 months to translate it. Also does no one ever watch these back before they're released and go hold a minute, that doesn't make a bit of sense? I'm sure even a few of the 88 Films Asian ones have had a few lines in them where the subtitles are nonsense. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted November 26, 2019 Member Share Posted November 26, 2019 As bad as those are, imagine the ones that are from Google Translate on the initial releases of many mainland films. I just wait, if I will watch them at all. With what is going on in HK, I have no interest in most if not all films from that area anymore. These pre takeover films were about the underdog, now they are about the overlords. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted November 27, 2019 Member Share Posted November 27, 2019 22 hours ago, Graeme Of Death said: Also does no one ever watch these back before they're released and go hold a minute, that doesn't make a bit of sense? A very good question, and I think it's the same case with the dubbed versions too. 22 hours ago, Graeme Of Death said: Who does the subtitles for films? How do companies go about getting subtitles for their releases. I guess the poor quality might also reflect a poor wage?, I cant see these older company's paying anyone that much for the task of subtitling?. At least not in the case of the releases you are talking about. Go further back to the 70's, some of those old burnt in subs are near imossible to read. I think some early expeirence with these kind of prints, put me of subtitled versions for awhile. That all changed with the arrival of DVD. Some fans have picked apart the Hong Kong Legends releases. However, when they first burst onto the scene. You could at least read the subtites and follow the plot. Sadly it didnt mean the end of poorly subtitled releases on DVD. 21 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said: These pre takeover films were about the underdog, now they are about the overlords. They might not feel like the under-dogs themselves anymore?. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted November 27, 2019 Member Share Posted November 27, 2019 2 hours ago, DragonClaws said: A very good question, and I think it's the same case with the dubbed versions too. I guess the poor quality might also reflect a poor wage?, I cant see these older company's paying anyone that much for the task of subtitling?. At least not in the case of the releases you are talking about. Go further back to the 70's, some of those old burnt in subs are near imossible to read. I think some early expeirence with these kind of prints, put me of subtitled versions for awhile. That all changed with the arrival of DVD. Some fans have picked apart the Hong Kong Legends releases. However, when they first burst onto the scene. You could at least read the subtites and follow the plot. Sadly it didnt mean the end of poorly subtitled releases on DVD. They might not feel like the under-dogs themselves anymore?. Certainly not! They are preparing for a sort of soft power revenge after the 100 years of shame. There are all kinds of problems with this. They will find out that being a pain in everyone's ass trying to prove you are superior, like the US, UK and France have done will make you more enemies than friends. The point about the underdogs is that there is hardly anyone to root for like in the old movies where they took it to the man! Also, the revisionist history is ridiculous, along with the fact that despite all it's improvements, China is as filthy as San Francisco, so once people go there, the illusion is broken. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted November 27, 2019 Member Share Posted November 27, 2019 The English subs on prints of HK films were mainly a concession to censors. Shaws did fairly good ones, but a lot of the fly-by-night companies seemed to leave it to the producer's kids! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member CT KID Posted November 28, 2019 Member Share Posted November 28, 2019 If there the white burnt in subs with the chinese subs underneath your in for heartache and misery.... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted November 30, 2019 Member Share Posted November 30, 2019 On 11/27/2019 at 10:34 PM, NoKUNGFUforYU said: Also, the revisionist history is ridiculous, along with the fact that despite all it's improvements, China is as filthy as San Francisco, so once people go there, the illusion is broken. Something so many Empire have done in the past. On 11/28/2019 at 2:19 AM, CT KID said: If there the white burnt in subs with the chinese subs underneath your in for heartache and misery.... If you drop on a release/print with subs like this, best to just forgot about the subtitles. Trying to read/understand them will only bring you mental pain like you said. To make the expreience of watching True Game of Death evenr harder. The VHS bootleg I picked up had burnt in English subtitles, even though it was dubbed. To make things worse, they had also added some Asian dialect subs. Meaning most of the full screen picture had two different kinds of white burnt in subs. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted December 1, 2019 Member Share Posted December 1, 2019 I've been tempted to resub some of those burnt in jobs. Also, Toby and Jamal resubbed a few of those where they were incomprehensible. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Graeme Of Death Posted December 1, 2019 Author Member Share Posted December 1, 2019 How do they end up incomprehensible? Who is it that does them? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted December 1, 2019 Member Share Posted December 1, 2019 9 hours ago, Graeme Of Death said: How do they end up incomprehensible? Who is it that does them? Every now and then they are cut off, etc. Also, grammar is so bad on Angry River I could just take the text file and go through it, etc. Still would need certain lines translated. Toby and Jamal mostly. There are other fan subs. Chen Hung Lieh on this site does exceptional work . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DragonClaws Posted December 3, 2019 Member Share Posted December 3, 2019 Still got a DVD copy of Donne Yen's flick Satan Returns(1996) to watch, but I've got a feeling the subtitles will the rsemble the ones @Graeme Of Death is talking about here. Anyon else on here own or ever watched a copy of the U.K WideScreen R2 M.I.A DVD release?. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TheKungFuRobber Posted December 3, 2019 Member Share Posted December 3, 2019 (edited) The subtitled version of Hitman in the Hand of Buddha was done by FLK, and was my primary justification for making my custom edition, other than the fact that the FLK version looks like a student project. Just a bunch of clips cut together, the whole film is the VCD print but it has had clips added from the Korean version with some poor cropping, whereas my edition is the actual HK version played at 24FPS (proper runtime of 91 minutes compared to the 93 minute FLK edit which is nonsensical crap at best with clips added that shouldn't be in the film and bad makeshift cutting to remove the Korean dialogue for the irrelevant additional footage), using the best sources I could find. It's not perfect but it's night and day compared to the FLK, which is a PAL source encoded to NTSC. The subtitles I made for the film are much better than the FLK ones. I'd imagine by now FLK will have downloaded my version and are selling it by the pound. Edited December 3, 2019 by TheKungFuRobber 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member CT KID Posted December 14, 2019 Member Share Posted December 14, 2019 On 11/30/2019 at 9:19 PM, NoKUNGFUforYU said: I've been tempted to resub some of those burnt in jobs. Also, Toby and Jamal resubbed a few of those where they were incomprehensible. Have you ever thought about doing Showdown at the Cotton Mill? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted December 14, 2019 Member Share Posted December 14, 2019 Something the Kung Fu Robber could and I could work on. I could get a translator for some of the serious garble. He could upscale the print. 40 minutes ago, CT KID said: Have you ever thought about doing Showdown at the Cotton Mill? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member CT KID Posted December 14, 2019 Member Share Posted December 14, 2019 That would be awesome if you guys ever do it, been wanting a better version ever since rarescope released theirs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted June 17, 2021 Member Share Posted June 17, 2021 On 11/28/2019 at 2:19 AM, CT KID said: If there the white burnt in subs with the chinese subs underneath your in for heartache and misery.... Too bad that no-one adopted the Yin-Yang approach to subtitling that Shaw's Movie News staff had utilized. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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