What's this about lousy subs on IVL Shaws?

[Guest Steve Barr]

I've read this kind of comment a few times and don't understand it. The subs seem pretty accurate to me (I'm slowly learning Mandarin) other than the usual changes such as using the character's name instead of "eldest sister" or whatever.

[Linn1]

lousy subs. The early batches had subs that repeated themselves, were mispelled, too small, didn't translate signs or onscreen text, etc. They fixed most of that after the first few batches, but they kept the too small subs for at least a year and still didn't translate signs. They fixed the too small bit a year or so ago I think. One thing they haven't fixed is that they were always translating the Mandarin soundtrack, even if the film was Cantonese. You wouldn't notice that if you were watching the Mandarin soundtrack.

[Guest Steve Barr]

Ah, thanks Linn. As far as translating the Mandarin vs. the Cantonese, how would that manifest itself? Different names of characters and places? Given that HK subs sometimes get he/she confused, I assumed the translator was working off of one of the Chinese subtitles and not from the movie (which would also explain why signs weren't translated).

[Linn1]

as for working off the original Chinese subtitles, the question would then be what soundtrack did the person who did the Chinese subs use? If that's the guideline. That also doesn't stop the mandarin soundtrack from being different from the cantonese one. The "dub" was sometimes completely different between the Mandarin and Cantonese versions. The easest way to see what I mean is look at Buddha's Palm and flip the soundtracks back and forth over a couple of segments.

[Guest Steve Barr]

the question would then be what soundtrack did the person who did the Chinese subs use?

In the days before sync sound productions, I wonder if the Cantonese/Mandarin dubbers and the subtitle creators used the movie script as a guide. If a script didn't exist at the beginning at least the dialog could be written down as scenes were shot.

It would be interesting to know how all this was done and how it has changed through the years.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Cantonese

[Guest killer meteor]

The Shaw subs on the actual theatrical prints were fairly decent. The DVD subs vary from awful to OK - often, they're fairly stiff

According to Planet Hong Kong, subtitles were traditionally done using a tape recording of the dialogue, rather than a visual reference