voice dubbers

[Guest nickoftime04]

its seems like the same small group of people did the voice overs for a large number of kung fu movies in the 70s. Anyone know who these people are?

Thanks!!

[Guest wanchaitransient]

Vaughn "Savidge" Savido: Australian dubber with that thick romantic voice, became a script writer but the belly went up in the industry by then in the mid 90's, retired, and returned to Australia. He was the other half of Jackie Chan in the 80's. In the 90's, poor Vaughn started sounding like the rest of the awkward wacks he had worked with for so many years. He lost the butter in his voice by the 90's. I remember one dubbing session which I believe was for an Alan Tang movie Return Engagement where I couldn't recognize him. I had been in town and while sitting in and listened in shock to the change. Truly disappointing but he enjoyed this thing and had a decent outlook on life.

Sally Nicholls: Nice woman who worked 10 years straight and longer off and on in the HK dubbing field.

Judy: Met her in the early 80's. She's from Manhattan, a Chinese American who did stage work and had a husband who was a set designer in New York and in HK.

Stuart Smith did his own voice for his IFD ninja movies he starred and continued dubbing for IFD for a while.

Alan Tam was into dubbing in the mid 1980's I heard.

Paul from Oregon and Jimmy from New Jersey. They were exchange students who did dubbing. Jimmy was a boistrous man into kung fu who did Shaw dubbing and dubbing for First Films and left in 1985. Paul was a soft spoken computer technician who dubbed movies from 83 and worked for Filmark until 88.

The rest of the gang are unknowns, English teachers in the Kowloon area from Australia.

I do remember TJ an English teacher from Taiwan who did dubbing for IFD and other HK movies. He worked with the team all the way into 95.

There was an Australian named Rik Watson from Perth who was second in line with Vaughn in the late 80's and 90's and a really happy chap. He was a party animal like me.

There was another Rik, forgot his last name, an older man. He worked with the Shaws, first Films, and many others. I saw him very few times in 86. I heard he did more work into the 90's.

There was this pervert named William from Australia who worked with the gang since 86 all the way until 94, he had that uncontrolled irritating high pitched voice and a mouth full of herpes infections who worked for pennies and ran back to his perverted hole, and this other Aussie chap Robert who smoked 8 packs of cigarretes every 4 hours, smoked the fence, the table, always brought his ugly burned out bitchy katoey girlfriend name Sand with him who always kept on complaining about "her" weight and talking about how she's losing a pound a day by starving herself, and had passed out in the dubbing room on many occassions, falling on the microphone, equipment, and all, right in the middle of a session, ruining everything. I used to know most of these guys and sat in their dubbing sessions which were fun, but torture to the neck and ass sitting all day long, no air conditioning either. Sound tight black rooms(I've been in jails bigger than that west of the Mississippi) full of spike foam that could hypnotize you. Ahhhhhhh @#%$, those were the days. Enough to earn a cold drink, 2 for one. Don't ask about the bar stories! Some of these guys/dubbers were way off the wall, I mean the kangaroos were loose up there as the Aussies say. Only in Hong Kong.

Howdy to all my cowboys, cow girls, and half and halfs! Ride on!-Wan

[Guest killer meteor]

The two dubbers I like are the ones who did Jackie in Snake & Crane Arts Of Shaolin and Jimmy Wang Yu in Master Of The Flying Guillotine respectively. You can hear them in a ton of old school moves. Honourable mention to the guy who voiced David Chaing in The New One Armed Swordsman and Boxer From Shantung. None of the female dubbers ever really appealed to me.

[Guest wanchaitransient]

I LOVE THAT GIRL Who did the Audio dubb (english) In The Loot, same girl i found

her in all the following titles i love her!

Anyone know what else she Dubbed she did Lily Lee in the loot.

That's Joaney. I never knew her Chinese name, but she originally came from Shanghai, very smart and sweet woman. Worked the books at GH before she was spotted and used as a dubber. She had a voice like an angel. She knew one of the dubbers and lived in TST, all of us had lunch together at one point or another. She married a Canadian and left HK in 85. She was a very friendly and beautiful woman, I thought she was an actress at first. It's a pity she never did acting. From what I know, she wasn't crazy about the schedule and bother with it and I can understand that.

The two dubbers I like are the ones who did Jackie in Snake & Crane Arts Of Shaolin and Jimmy Wang Yu in Master Of The Flying Guillotine respectively. You can hear them in a ton of old school moves. Honourable mention to the guy who voiced David Chaing in The New One Armed Swordsman and Boxer From Shantung. None of the female dubbers ever really appealed to me.

One of those guys was an Englishman named Phil Faden and he was a radio announcer as a few other fellows did in the army and did it for a living in the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as dubbing movies from those countries. He had offers to do dubbing from the Shaws but turned them down left to HK for the radio, but eventually dubbed movies. The grungier tough guy sounding dubber is Alan, an older chap who did radio work in the UK who had a wife in HK. Not sure when he came in, I'm guessing the late 70's. Many years later I learned that they had a daughter who is a model/actress in the early 90's in Hong Kong and Europe. I saw her in an HK movie in 1992, but that's another time. Then, there was an Englishman Tony Kavanaugh who dubbed leads with Phil. He was an English teacher. They were the last generation when I was in town, but their hands were full of work in the mid to late 70's. They were laid off in 80's at the end of the old school kung fu movies. Phil did work for First Films and the Shaws during the 80's, don't know what happened to Alan or Tony.-Wan

[Guest nickoftime04]

wan

-wow, i can't believe your knowledge on this subject. i never would have guessed id gotten such a great reply to my question -- THANKS.

im new hear so i dont know of you, but what is your history? How did you fall in w/ this folks?

[Guest wanchaitransient]

im new hear so i dont know of you, but what is your history? How did you fall in w/ this folks?

Many centuries ago, when teradactyls and t-rex's roamed the earth along with the Queen mum, I wanted to know everything about kung fu movies, and that took me all over the world. I made MANY MANY friends through the 80's in Asia, but I was mostly passing through. Back then, there was so much to do without distractions and worries, the parties were flying, people had honor, the women were there everynight, we talked, and talked, and talked, played dominos, cards, and took it day by day with a cold drink. It was a simple life without distractions, cell phones, without demanding jobs that rob away people's time. People were easygoing and there to party. That's how I got around and met all of these folks. Partying around in different clubs with my friends from the industry. People came and went and we all aged, and life changed unfortanely. Still to this day, I am passing through anonymously, but those days of the Hk's 80's scene are LONG gone.|I Whatever information I have is just another segment of my life I am happy to relive. My life is a alternate view of the HK film industry. I lived the life as best as I can and I'd do it again. I'm just a nobody. But a happy and fortunate one. I did what I wanted to do. :hat

Cheers-Wan

[Guest nickoftime04]

word. sounds like it was blast.

PEACE

[Guest Sleepman]

That's Joaney. I never knew her Chinese name, but she originally came from Shanghai, very smart and sweet woman. Worked the books at GH before she was spotted and used as a dubber. She had a voice like an angel. She knew one of the dubbers and lived in TST, all of us had lunch together at one point or another. She married a Canadian and left HK in 85. She was a very friendly and beautiful woman, I thought she was an actress at first. It's a pity she never did acting. From what I know, she wasn't crazy about the schedule and bother with it and I can understand that.

There has been such an Upheaval in interest pertaining to old school kung fu films it seems

even now more so than at any other time since they were actually coming out in droves. i am

of the opinion this has plenty to do with shaw brothers having all their films remastered

into the full glory of widescreen after all of these years there seems to have been a drought

of kung fu movies, it has been very sparse until after the 1980's we only as i remembered at

least in america had the sho kusogi movies to spark some peoples minds about martial arts

films. There seems to be so little information on what seems to becoming such well known

people in america. I believe this will grow if people put out the real movies.

To me the last person to do this was the person who did hero before that there was only

sammo, sammo i believe because he was a martial artist was able to come across with such

startling memorable moments in his films. i think it had to do with his discipline in the

martial arts i believe they propelled him and made him excell in his ability to transfer what

was on his mind to film. Some pinnacle had most obviosuly been reached.

At least we have Sammo Hung, his films are like handbooks for the way to do it right

unforutnately i think people are just going to continue to fall short and such great heights

will not be reached for 7 more years. Now we have more interest in the english film dubbers

which consisted of mostly people from australia and england doing the voice overs.

I sometimes find it so amazing to picture some austrailian men and woman crowded in a

room bringing this film out from cantonsese and mandarin all the way to the yelling and

screaming the crying, the fighting. oh my god i wish i could know what some of these people

look like wanchaitransient you are the perfect person to write a book about this. So many people

just want to hear more. Who else is going to do it, people like ti lung and david chiang all

retired what do they do with their spare time at least write in depth biographies?

No, nothing at all there is a total vancancy in a lot of fans hearts because of this.

I mean who is going to tell their stories someone else? As more and more peoples curioisity

become met - new people to the old school kung fu i think there will be a greater demand

for this.

This is way off almost beyond a long shot but do you have any pictures of this woman Joaney.

She is probably the best cantonese, mandarin to english voice over for a girl ive ever heard.

Period. If not do you or anyone else know what other films she dubbed. She is spectacular.

Sorry guys if half of this did not even make sense i had no time to check for typos.

[Guest ricebowlcinema]

Who did the Ghost Face Killer?

[Guest killer meteor]

God, I HATE his voice!

[Guest wanchaitransient]

Sleepman, thanks for hitting that right in the pocket. Sammo, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and the gang were people who had the guts and manhood to make something special. Those guys are over because nobody wants to work like them anymore. Now it's all wires, too much fancy and improper camera work and eidting, and the result lacks edge and power. It's like a gay ballet nowadays, not a man's business. Back in the day, it was about blood, sweat, guts, and power. You could hear by the fight sound effects they meant business. To complete the art, the dubbers did their thing. Ah, who understands.......|I

Vaughn Savino is a man I had tremendous love and respect for. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't enjoy kung fu movies the way they are and my journey wouldn't be complete. I remember when he worked for Godfrey Ho, Godfrey and his gang would get the footage edited up and he's think of a storyline, he'd then give it to Vaughn to word up and the team would dubb it in 2-3 days. Vaughn was a tireless worker who never sacrificed the quality of dialogue and dubbing. he always wrote a storm up and put on a quality show on his behalf. The conditions were tough and the footage not so inspiring as I had experienced. I remember asking Vaughn which movies he hated dubbing and they were the Korean movies because they were terribly moronic and Thai jungle films because they went on forever and had to be spot dubbed which was a real drag. If the dubbers were off, it was because of the quality of the movie. If the footage was half interesting, you'd have a great session. It didn't take much to get these guys interests perked since the whole dubbing process is quite dull and challenging.

Vaughn's favorite works were with Golden Harvest, not because of the money(which wasn't much more than a Filmark session), but because Vaughn's favorite actor to dubb was Jackie Chan. In particular he enjoyed dubbing Police Story, Heart of a Dragon, and Armour of God. Jackie Chan was Vaughn's favorite because he was a great physical actor and brought out the best of him as an actor and writer in GH's dubbing sessions. I believe that Vaughn was Jackie Chan's other half, his voice and Jackie's acting fit, it was an elegant match, and Chan's movies that vaughn dubbed were during Chan and Vaughn's prime, which was the time that the rest of the west saw and heard them, and they brought out the best of each other and I can go on. It was meant to be and that combination will always have my respect, because their combination of words and skill is the essence of HK cinema. Golden Harvest gave him the original scripts he thought were confusing(to many last minute dialogue changes scribbled in, that were difficult to dubb in) and amateurish(he points out to the Armour of God script). Vaughn completely redid the dialogue to the GH scripts, hammering out witty word wanking sessions. After Police Story, Armour, and Project A-2, Golden Harvest became very tough, demanding, and restrictive, more so than the Godfrey Ho and Filmark works. His work with Top Squad put an end to his creative freedom. Only a few scenes were his(the roller skate scenes) and was told to simplify and tone down the dialogue, in order for western markets to accept the result. After 88, with Golden harvest holding back Vaughn's talent, practically gave up on putting 100% of himself into his sessions and wrote a majority of the dubbs last minute with the help of the other dubbers, that never compared to his previous works. The regular non Golden Harvest dubbing sessions were demanding and were taking it's toll on Vaughn, so it's understandable that he'd ease down a bit. He was a great writer, a tremendously educated man with the credentials of an English Professor, very intelligent, jack of all trades, handsome man, friendly, sensible, simple, and easy going, and wrote MANY scripts anonymously for most of the late 80's to mid 90's HK movies, selling them, becoming uncredited like the rest, or getting his scripts butchered by some HK crap directors. I always thought Vaughn's team ruined his voice. There were a few guys in there, Robert, Harold, ect who complemented Vaughn, but there were guys that Vaughn could have done without with if he had the freedom to choose who he needed. But, Vaughn enjoyed the team he had, because he was that type of guy that loved defying the challenges. He didn't have an ego, only heart and guts. His team didn't have movie quality voices, but they worked hard and with enthusiam on these dubbs, making the Jackie Chan movies they way they were and evolving HK cinema in a very special and important way.

I asked Vaughn to name his most difficult dubb, and he said all of them in a way, but it was a labour of love. If the movie was poorly made or unintersesting, he was on an off day and the others dubbed off sync, but being the professional he was, made his movies entertaining. Vaughn was a man of quality. But he mentioned one particular film, a Chow Yun Fat movie called the Headhunter. Apparently, this was a coproduction that had a negative and confusing reactions by the HK audiences for it's political issues. In 1986, with the popularity of Chow Yun fat, an independant company named Champion Films bought the movie for worldwide distribution. Vaughn wrote and did the dub, but by the time the dub was done, Champion Films found out about this movie's controversy, and being stupidly paranoid, not knowing better as usual, the project was scrapped as being unmarketable for political reasons. Vaughn asked why because the story was far fetched and too confusing for the leyman to understand or take seriously, but your opinion didn't count in HK, which could mean your job. A few months later, Champion Films wanted their money's worth with this Chow Yun Fat movie, rewrote some of the storyline and the dialogue, and rehired Vaughn to redub the new scenes and new dialogue. Vaughn dubbed a version that used all of the footage shot for the movie that had been cut by Seasonal Films/New century Films. Instead of redubbing the entire movie, Vaughn redubbed certain scenes, in an attempt by Champion Films to save money on hourly pay. That's how redubs worked in HK at that time. It was a very messy job. The producers were so paranoid Vaughn had to return many times to do redubbs on the smallest scenes they thought were a problem. To Vaughn, it was an exausting and stupid experience, but that was part of the Hong Kong film industry.

I sometimes find it so amazing to picture some austrailian men and woman crowded in a room bringing this film out from cantonsese and mandarin all the way to the yelling and

screaming the crying, the fighting.

If the movie was entertaining, with quality editing, acting, fighting, everybody would get into the dubb. These people had an interest in this, it wasn't the money which was very little, otherwise it was unbearable, they'd run out after 20 minutes with those conditions.

oh my god i wish i could know what some of these people

look like wanchaitransient you are the perfect person to write a book about this.

The way these guys looked, Vaughn and the females were elegant, but the others looked like creeps and were behind the times. I don't know about Phil and their generation because I wasn't around that gang, but the guys I was around in the 80's, I don't want to sound rude, but most of these guys in the mid 80's look like they rose from the gutter, and it smelled like it in that small session room, something you'd need years to get used to if you can. William would dress up to date, but he was really sick, and had these mouth sores that suspiciously wouldn't heal(they used one microphone by the way) and honestly looked like a corpse with his weight loss, Robert was sick and burned out because he smoked constantly and filled the room with his breath which was unbearable, and his "woman" in the room, it was like the Cirque de Soliel audition. The rest of the dubbers were just plain stinky, dirty, and neglected. We're talking about the simple 1980's here. That was part of the life then and you got used to it. You had a drink and partied it off. They cleaned up their act in 89, they brought along up to date decent people this time. I've attempted many times to do such a thing, but I fell short of the money and the time to do this. Freedom to do this is an issue because I know certain things that these stars and companies don't want public. The things I've learned through the years, ay yai, yai, yai, yai...It's not like it's used to be, you just can let it all out anymore. All of these things shelved my book aspirations. It's understandable with all of the exaggerated or false rumours that are stubbornly going around. Stars, directors, producers, they want you to know their side of the story for publicity. Nowadays, I see SO many exaggerations by the stars, crew, ect made in the name of controversy and interest, that's it's destroying the integrity of their experiences. I can tell you that you'll find more stuffing than the truth nowadays in the HK film industry. This is destroying an intergral part of HK cinema. You had to be on the set to see the truth or know the extras on the set. NEVER get the info from the stars or directors. They have their own versions of what happened. I always stayed with the crew and when I had the opportunity, I'd get to the stars to get the full picture.

So many people

just want to hear more. Who else is going to do it, people like ti lung and david chiang all

retired what do they do with their spare time at least write in depth biographies?

No, nothing at all there is a total vancancy in a lot of fans hearts because of this. I mean who is going to tell their stories someone else? As more and more peoples curioisity

become met - new people to the old school kung fu i think there will be a greater demand

for this.

Nowadays, stars either keep their mouthes closed or tell you a different story. In the industry, stars keep their mouthes closed for obvious reasons, business and personal, and others are tired of the industry and too exausted to tell the tales. Let me tell you from experience, like elsewhere in this world, it's easy to get blacklisted in Hong Kong. It's all about the money and ego, not the truth. Just do the job and keep the "machine gun" from shooting away. One thing that is HATED in Hong Kong film industry is the machine gun mouth and a sure way to starve on those streets.

This is way off almost beyond a long shot but do you have any pictures of this woman Joaney?

I had pictures of all of them at one point, but like most of my life, I lost track most of my belongings and movies. I left them here and there in the 90's. People came and went, and I lost what i had left. I went through some pretty turbulent times which made it difficult to get back to the past. My experiences are stored in the brain. Only memories are left.

She is probably the best cantonese, mandarin to english voice over for a girl ive ever heard.

Period. If not do you or anyone else know what other films she dubbed. She is spectacular.

Joaney was a beautiful woman. She looked like Joey Wong, but with a classic defined face and much more shapely and full. Shed had a unique beautiful look. She was star quality but she didn't like the spot light, she had heard of how demanding acting in HK is. She married this lucky Canadian guy. He had other women at the same time he knew her, and he didn't deserve her. She turned down other producers and actors for him. She even temporarily stopped their relationship so her man could finish up with a Thai women. That's how understanding she was. I hope she is doing fine. She deserves the best.

There was Theresa Humberte, a French woman from France who spoke perfect American English without an accent who. She assisted Vaughn in deciphering the right words and dialogue to use during the late 80's. Her husband was some type of rich businessman and she got into the business because she was looking for typing work. She was educated with all kinds of degrees and she lived in the US for a while and improved her English. She lived in Argentina for a while.

I've never kept up with the complete list of kung fu movies that came out, and could never follow who did what. It was just impossible for me to do during my travels. I either saw these movies at a friend's place, on theater, on tv, you'd always have a friend that collected kung fu movies, so that's how I kept up with the newer releases and I'd enquire about the dubbers, stars, ect that I had an interest in. Then you'd hear about Jet Li and the next day you'd hear about Lo Yei(I remember on the set of Ninja USA when he was flexing and packing on the muscle) and someone else would come up. There were other talented unknowns and lesser knowns, couldn't but wanted to get or know more about all of them.

Only a few people know the behind the scenes stories in HK. Practically nobody cared about what happened during these movies. It was just work and there was no use in talking or you'd lose your job and your reputation. HK is VERY currupt. No secret there. There's no room or freedom for researching in that place anymore. Now, every little detail counts. It's all about paranoia and ignorence. Welcome to the Hong Kong Film farm! It's just not worth it at the end. It's not like it used to be. Cheers-Wan

[Guest whitelotus]

that is for sure.....the greatest posts I have even read here....thank you so much for sharing all that...

Mike

[Guest VonHumboldtFleischer]

You know, there's a buttery-voiced news and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4 called Vaughn Savidge. Could be a coincidence, but how many people have that name?

[Guest wanchaitransient]

news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/ct...avidge.ram

Beautiful work Von! Brings me back to memory lane! :eek I hardly search the web, it's not my thing, but wadayanknow!There's an interesting story behind this one that just comes to my mind that I almost forgot about entirely; in the early 80's, Vaughan Savidge used to work with wording on Godfrey Ho's script ideas and production preparation for the dubbing, to make things marketable. Savidge didn't do the dubbing when I was around, he occassionally dropped by and wording. He did dubbing for the early Filmark/IFD circa 1980-83 as far as I remember. When I was there in 86, he was busy with a big job, he hit it big or something, and was ocassionally there. He also did dubbing I remember in 1988-89 on and off. The story goes both had similar first name, but Savido was from Australia, while Savidge was from the motherland, and Godfrey Ho or Jospeh Lai mixed up the two and Savido was stuck with the Savidge's name. When it came to names in Hong Kong, after a drink, you had a new name. I had never known Savidge so personally like the rest, and regret it, but the short times I knew him, he was a very nice, helpful, and intelligent. I wish I knew him better. A pleasure to speak to definately. He and Savido had the aptience and good humour to get through the pain of those dubbing sessions. Unfortunately, he was a busy man and usually wasn't there when I was around. I met him on the second floor of IFD offices in 86, which was once Filmark International's and remember looking for him, finding him, unloading questions to him and in his busy state, he kindly showed me the way to Savido, but quickly left. The man is great and I owe my life to him. He set the road for when I was a young kid and I owe him my life. CHEERS-A COLD ONE TO EVERYONE ON ME!-Wan

[Guest VonHumboldtFleischer]

So... Savido and Savidge are two different people? My brain hurts.

I actually emailed Roger Bolton from Radio 4's Feedback programme just after Christmas asking if their Vaughn Savidge was THE Vaughn Savidge, and then sent an email around Easter, but I never got any reply. Perhaps I confused them by spelling it 'Vaughan Savage'.

[Guest wanchaitransient]

So... Savido and Savidge are two different people? My brain hurts.

That's why I drink a cold one every few hours. Yes, they are two different people mixed up by incompetance from Ho and Lai and Savido stuck onto that moniker. Savidge did the early Filmark/IFD dubbs and Savido did the mid to late 80's works. I was doing brain acrobatics and twists trying to make sense of it back then and just forgot about the issue, which was nearly twenty years dormant in my thoughts. Savido was called Pete outside of the sessions. I remember in a club, I asked for vaugh, they said you mean John? and Vaughn comes over and says don't worry about them, and he wisked me away for a drink. The way we drank, beer and wine marathon chugging the Shangria La Nightclub into bankruptcy, nobody cared about names, just eat and drink. There was this woman one time, we said no all the time, and she thought that was her name after a while. The guy was easy going with a sense of humor. Man, back then, it was different, it was F**k the world and lets have a good time, and the names went. To this day, I still have to think of my neighbor's names, and that's an insult to a Carioca, which happen to fill up the apartment and the coastline. But, those dubbing sessions gave you pains, you had to drink and party it off.

I actually emailed Roger Bolton from Radio 4's Feedback programme just after Christmas asking if their Vaughn Savidge was THE Vaughn Savidge, and then sent an email around Easter, but I never got any reply. Perhaps I confused them by spelling it 'Vaughan Savage'.

Most of these guys don't have the time and power to talk about the life. It hurts to know if that's the case. he could help us clear up the confusing and get the facts right. I know he never forgot the past and has much to say to us when the time is ready.

I met Savidge outside of a grocery in Kowloon in a brief stay in 88, the guy had a sense of humor, I now remember one of his jokes:

A British man wants to kiss his new Chinese wife, but she says, "Chinese women no kiss." They watch tv one day and a Chinese movie showing a Chinese couple kiss. The husband says "Look, they are kissing!" The Chinese wife says "Yes, but that is a Hong Kong movie."

I was in Guatamala one time, and I had my woman, she didn't want the nozzle put into the tank, so I said put it in your mouth, she said, no I don't do that either, I said what kind of woman are you..I think of Savidge every time I think of that for some reason.

I still have much to learn about Savidge, the man. I wish to clear up the name issue just for peace of mind.

Now, I'm reasonable drunk and I'm going to walk across my uneven floor and have a few slices of bacon. Cheers-Wan

[Guest Sleepman]

wanchaitransient, here are some questions i thought most important to ask please

if you find time answer them at your leisure.

Atack of the killer Voice Dubbers

1) What were some of the things the Voice Dubbers - the people who made english dubbs

for some of the great kung fu classics that seem to have spread out with such popularity

in america had in common? I heard mostly the translaters that made litteral english tran-

slations from films mostly made in china were English and Austrailian, why do you think

they were the ones who picked it up? Was there a huge following in Australia and England

for Kung Fu Films to your knowledge?

2)You met with a lot of these people do you know if the majority were recruited? Were they

fans of Kung Fu Films themselves? What were their impressions of these Kung Fu movies from

the perscective of them living almost different ways of life-culture and being exposed to

films like these.

3)How long would it usually take to complete a film, and who paid them to do this.

I think for the most part some companies have done such memorable work. I bet they never

knew they their popularity would begin to rise as it has here in the states. Since they

were sort of just like the backstage behind the scenes type people, translators never to

be seen only heard.

4)You told a few stories about how you met some of these people *The Cantonese/mandarin to

english voice dubbers and i read it was because of your love for kung fu movies am i right

in saying this? How did you even come about finding these people, where did you travel to

meet them. Did you go specifically to try and meet them or was it more like by chance.

5)What was typically the setting for the english voice dubbers to dubb in a studio? I bet

it was really wild i can only imagine all the screaming and what not clashing of swords

and what not. Do you know if a seperate studio added all the sound effects or if the english

voice dubbers knew what they were working with. Was the same studio mixing them?

6)How much did these people get paid, i think it was probably pretty much a little more than

lunch money i think it should have been more some of them had done such a great job. My

favorite is the team that did The Loot, and Deadly Challenger for some reason. I have heard

this team on other movies including Shaolin & Wu tang a very popular film even 7 steps of

Kung Fu. What other films did the people you meet work on if you can remember.

7)Do you know if any of these people got to meet some of the people they came to do Voice

overs for? What if any where some of their favorite films.

8) Did you ever get to meet any of your favorite Actors? Can you name for us a few of your

favorite films in general.

9)You spent time with English Dubbers how long was this period what kind of things did

you do. How did you become so easily accepted into this group were you part of a production

company of some sort?

10)It seems a lot of these voice dubbers would have to do a lot of practice to get into a

character well at least some. Do you know what it was like did they laugh at it much? It

seems to me they would just not be able to help it because of the ridiculousness of it all

the pure insanity going on in these films. Did you ever meet anyone who hated their job?

What were some of the things they loved and what are your fondest memories of them.

[Guest silver hermit]

wow alot of info and one of the best posts i have read as it fills in so many blanks. guys have asked this question before and never got such a detailed response.

hey "W" if you still have a few contacts it would really be cool if these guys got back in the biz seeing how the genre is coming back(as far as releases) and it would be sweet if never before dubbed films got dubbed with the old fellows at the helm. just wishfull thinking i guess. i'm sure $ and a sign of respect might spark those guys interests again. i for one would lend my studio experience(audio engineering) for any project like that.

[Guest wanchaitransient]

1) What were some of the things the Voice Dubbers - the people who made english dubbs

for some of the great kung fu classics that seem to have spread out with such popularity

in america had in common?

Phil, Alan, Tony and the first generation of dubbers, and including Savidge, Savido, had these things in common, they were nice, fun, were professionals, gentlemens, educated, elegant people who knew how to represent themselves in and out of the studios. When you listen to their dubs, the quality of their work definately reflected what they are as a person.

I heard mostly the translaters that made litteral english tran-

slations from films mostly made in china were English and Austrailian, why do you think

they were the ones who picked it up? Was there a huge following in Australia and England

for Kung Fu Films to your knowledge?

Litteral translations happened by chance, if the lip movements fit the translated dialogue. If not, you have to find other words to make the point of what was being said. It was a time consuming process, even if you were fast and in to the process of finding the right words and writing it out. Savido and the gang had trouble getting the point across in the Korean movies they did. It was trying to dub a caveman. They used few words, spoke them slowly without closing their mouthes much. It was important to speak slowly and cleanly in Asian movies, even to exaggerate them, in order to bring out the words, otherwis ethe words would be muffled and wouldn't match the lip movements. That's what I heard. The dubbers were usually from the UK, Australia, Canada, and some from America, whoever was around Hong Kong at the time. Their voices weren't geared to certain markets. Whoever was around that was good was used, regardless of the accent. I have heard that in America, the companies that bought his films wanted American voices. It wa sa paranoid marketing tactic. The American crowd(youngsters and a twenty to thirty year old average aged viewers of his movies) crowd was not open minded enough to accept these voices they thought. Outside of America, accents didn't market movies. In reality, everybody accepted them.

2)You met with a lot of these people do you know if the majority were recruited?

They were originally recruited, then you had one dubber recruit a friend, or a friend of a friend. It went by word of mouth.

Were they

fans of Kung Fu Films themselves? What were their impressions of these Kung Fu movies from

the perscective of them living almost different ways of life-culture and being exposed to

films like these.

The younger they were, the more they had fun with it. The older they were, the more reserved and uncompromising they were to these movies. There were a few old folks who enjoyed thes emovies and were just fun open minded guys, but these older fellows had their pride. Basically, regardless of age, whomever was involved in dubbing kung fu movies was intelligent and open minded, at a higher level of reasoning, so they respected the positives in these movies, and didn't focus on the negatives.

3)How long would it usually take to complete a film, and who paid them to do this.

This depended on the production company. Golden Harvest was very finnicky with their product. That distribution paranoia that the Hong Kong industry's CEO were made out of. After 87, a Golden Harvest dub would take 2 weeks the average, just for spot checks and redubbs. Savido did Police Story, Armour of God, and Heart of a Dragon in 5 days. After that, GH spot checked every inch of the dub. IFD/Filmark was much less restrictive, or not restrictive at all if I should say. They believed in whetever Savidge, Savido, and the gang would do because they were westerners and wanted their products to appeal to the western audiences. Their target was the younger audience all the way to their 20's, and Savido and the gang were around that age category back then. They all had to double the old voices, which was fun to do.

I think for the most part some companies have done such memorable work. I bet they never

knew they their popularity would begin to rise as it has here in the states. Since they

were sort of just like the backstage behind the scenes type people, translators never to

be seen only heard.

Dubbing work was considered a fun, behind the scenes things. They never made anything of it, just plain fun with money on the side. It wasn't about the money at all. There definately wasn't enough of it to get excited.

4)You told a few stories about how you met some of these people *The Cantonese/mandarin to

english voice dubbers and i read it was because of your love for kung fu movies am i right

in saying this? How did you even come about finding these people, where did you travel to

meet them. Did you go specifically to try and meet them or was it more like by chance.

I met them by chance. I never had a direct goal for the next day. If I couldn't find them or I didn't run into them, then I just didn't find them and didn't run into them. I wasn't in a rush. I met the dubbers through friends and through others aquiantences in parties and at the nightclubs. I knew where the IFD/Filmark building and other production companies were, but I didn't really make friends and really get the info by showing up there. Savidge and savido were nice, but they were too busy for me. My real connections where through friends(crews, ect), who introduced me to the dubbers and stars, and that's when they had the time for me.

5)What was typically the setting for the english voice dubbers to dubb in a studio? I bet

it was really wild i can only imagine all the screaming and what not clashing of swords

and what not. Do you know if a seperate studio added all the sound effects or if the english

voice dubbers knew what they were working with. Was the same studio mixing them?

They listened in cheap primitive ear pieces while playing the loops over and over, there was the entire audio, so they had an idea of the mood and structore of what was going on in a movie, but the music was muted out a bit. After they had finished the dub, a production manager would review the dub to find any mistakes or to see if any improvements were needed.

6)How much did these people get paid, i think it was probably pretty much a little more than

lunch money i think it should have been more some of them had done such a great job. My

favorite is the team that did The Loot, and Deadly Challenger for some reason. I have heard

this team on other movies including Shaolin & Wu tang a very popular film even 7 steps of

Kung Fu. What other films did the people you meet work on if you can remember.

Lead dubbers were paid US $500 for each movie, more if you wrote the dubb script, and much less for the supporting and nonessential dubbers. The prices varied for each person. Usually, if you were a good dubber with experience, and you worked hard and had enthusiam for the art, you would be paid more. The Loot dubb must have combined Phil and Savido's teams. Certain companies would hire the best of each dubbing team. Back then, you had the Shaw Brothers's dubbing team and then you had Filmark International/Asso Asia dubbing team, and the companies would pick and choose the best dubbers from these two teams. That's what First Films and many other compaines did.

7)Do you know if any of these people got to meet some of the people they came to do Voice

overs for? What if any where some of their favorite films.

None of them ever met the stars to my knowledge. The modern movies were their favorites. The Wu Xia and fantasy movies were a pain in the arse as a rule of thumb. Sitting in this small room dubbing silly movies didn't bring out the best from anyone. It was hard work. The Shaw Brothers dubbing process was notorious for producing drinkers.

8) Did you ever get to meet any of your favorite Actors? Can you name for us a few of your

favorite films in general.

I met Jackie Chan in 1985, 87, and 88; the man was incredible when he was in his prime. Speaking to him was the highlight of my travels. Over time, I have heard his ways and he's changed. He's done some VERY questionable things, very twisted in my opinion, but wouldn't dare to elaborate on publically. Ti Lung, I always knew him as Tommy Tang, which is his real name. Lung is a VERY powerful man, like Chan Wai Man in Taiwan. Do not underestimate this man. He can do anything he wants wherever he goes. But, Ti is a great actor, a decent honorable elegant man, and is down to earth and I respect him tremendously. Philip Ko, who is a very classy, elegant, and down to earth guy as well, Eddie Ko, he is the Richard Norton of Hong Kong, very debonaire, an elegant and sophisticated man, dresses very elegant, great actor, I have tremendous respect for him, I've also met Guk Fung, Leung kar Yan, Lau Kar Wing, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Eugene Thomas, Lo Yei, Chang Shan, Simon Yam, Danny Lee, Alan Tang, Eddie Chan, John Cheung, Gordon Liu, Richard Harrison, and MANY others. I met most of these guys on the club or party scenes, with the exception of Richard Harrison and others. I also miss Louis Roth RIP. He had this beautiful Swedish wife too; Roth was a very energetic and open minded man, who wrote scripts as well too. I also had this friend I drank with a few times, never knew his name, but almost every casting agent would hire him to play the guy in the bar. He's in every 80's HK movie that has a bar scene, usually drinking, clapping, or prancy dancing in a club. He looks like Benny Hill, and is just as funny. Never got his name, but we shared the same bottles on many occasions. Then there are people, for personal reasons, that I didn't like, and they are Lloyd Hutchinson and Mark Houghton, among MANY others. My favorite films? MANY I like a little bit of everything but not so much of the 90's work. I like the mainland movies. They used real kung fu. HK kung fu movies are so much full of BS, but I love them for the same reasons you love them. Overdosing yourself on kung fu movies can really burn you out.

9)You spent time with English Dubbers how long was this period what kind of things did

you do. How did you become so easily accepted into this group were you part of a production

company of some sort?

I had met the friend of some of these dubbers in the club, was introduced, accepted as a friend, and was allowed to sit and help out, not with voices, but with truning the script pages. I even went out into town with this English chap and we went to UK bars and recorded background noise of the Brits and used them in the dubbs. We had a few drinks two and joined in the crowd. I never interfered in the studio dubbs, because everybody had to finish within a few days, so I didn't want to waste their time and ruin the dub.

It seems a lot of these voice dubbers would have to do a lot of practice to get into a

character well at least some. Do you know what it was like did they laugh at it much? It

seems to me they would just not be able to help it because of the ridiculousness of it all

the pure insanity going on in these films.

These guys did dubbing for years, getting into character was very easy to do. They practiced their lines for an hour and then recorded them. They did all of their laughing the night before in the clubs. In the sessions, they laughed if someone had an off day, being off sync, the wrong lines were read, leading to two different voices dubbing one character at the same time, bad timing, coming in too early or too late, or skipping lines and being off sync because of that, complete silence waiting for someone's line, with the actor moving his lips and nobody talking but waiting; they loved with they did, rarely did they mess up. The most difficult work was dubbing an argument where the actors talked over each other. A few minutes of scenes like that could take an entire day. Then you had the sex scenes. There were two dubbers who were known for doing the best sex dubbs and that was Phil and a traveling American woman named Georgia, who had a sensual voice, who dubbed porno movies in Taiwan. When it came to those scenes, the room would be cleared with just the two doing the moans and growls. That was the decent professional thing to do, unless one of the dubbers was a pervert, and just sat in to languish in the passion of things, which happened almost all of the time.

Did you ever meet anyone who hated their job?

What were some of the things they loved and what are your fondest memories of them.

Everybody on the team loved with they did. There were some dubbers who came and went, who weren't part of the team, just passing by. The most hostile and impatient of the dubbers were usually the people with egos or big mouths. They didn't last more than 20 minutes, or a day. If the person made it through a day of bad work, it would lead to an expensive overtime. There was no room from unserious people. To be a dubber, you had to have the inclinition to do it. If not, you wouldn't last. What they loved, all loved writing, partying, enjoying the finer things in life, just enjoying life, these were simple people who didn't let big dreams distract their lives. Fondest memories, MANY! I'll have to get back to you on that some other time, because there are plenty of fond memories. My fondest memories, hanging out with Savino, Robert, Aussie Rik, Joaney, and partying away with Paulo Tocha, meeting Jackie Chan in his prime, and the stars and partying everyday with a different woman or a woman that deserved my time, at a different nightclub every night/morning, hanging out with Lo Yei and his brother, who was a great friend to me, even though we didn't speak the same language, Tong Lung in Manila 1986, Bill Borak for lending me his Kowloon flat on many occasions, Craig for getting me the connections I needed and lending me his flat in TST, and that 20 year old university student Carolina Choi for letting me stay with me for a long while, even though her father hated gweilos and was on a mission to chop my Willy off, and many other anonymous people who've all helped me out of friendship.-Wan

[Guest SKARBROMANTIS]

Can you tell us more about the Shaw dubbing team?

[Guest gogalee]

Yup! they definitely come fr. a small group, i noticed in any Ocean Shores movies that the female dubber there belongs to one person, most of the time she dubbed the voice of hsia kwan li and other female stars as well, you'll noticed that it came fr. only one person.

[Guest wanchaitransient]

Can you tell us more about the Shaw dubbing team?

They were the first generation of dubbers in the 60's through the seventies- unfortunately I was only present for the second generation of dubbers so I have little knowledge on them except for the leads. The conditions were horrendous, worse than IFD/Asso Asia/Filmark. In the whole damn 10 miles of studio, they didn't have one decent dubbing room. The team did dubbing in chicken farms, closets, with out of date they could barely see the movie out of, where it would interefere in the dub, and no ear piece, no audio, so they were going by pure gut timing which is nerve wracking. The Shaws wanted to make you earn every penny out of the dollar. The made the dubbers dub 3 to 4 versions of one English dub for distribution to America, south Asia, and England. Then, the German's, Dutch, French, and Italians picked up a version and dubbed it in a little more comfort in their own countries, while the Shaw's team suffered immensly sweating blood. It wasn't until the late 70's did they dedicate a half decent room to dubbing.

Yup! they definitely come fr. a small group, i noticed in any Ocean Shores movies that the female dubber there belongs to one person, most of the time she dubbed the voice of hsia kwan li and other female stars as well, you'll noticed that it came fr. only one person.

Ocean Shores! I remember the boss was pirating his own movies to California, and was busted by interpol and spent 10 years in prison, that idiot. It was during those dubb sessions that I met Joaney through the gang. The dubbing was horrible, because it was sped dubbed, which meant the scenes that one of the dubbers held a karaoke microphone, and the rest of the team huddled around it and dubbed over any dialogue scene while watching a tv in the office, while a technician quickly cut the movie's sound off. This way, the dubbing went much faster, one day, and cost less to do. The Shaws tried this in the 80's, but the result was so bad, that English version of their sped dubbed movie was barely marketable, and question their reputation. Ocean Shores paid lunch money for that, US$50-100.00 for F quality work, but the owner wanted money and cared less about quality. Savino knew about the Ocean Shores dubbing conditions, and only did a few dubb there because the rest of the team was involved. Joaney did dubbing there until 1985.-Wan

[Guest Sleepman]

Joaney, << that woman rules! Best female english dubber ive ever heard. Cutest too. Thanks for answering all those Q's. I tried to pin it down and come around from every angle as if i was doing an interview. ty

[Guest thesleepingfist]

this is an interesting topic....

wow never knew that Jackson hung the owner of Ocean Shores got arrested by Interpol and sent to prison for ten years, when did this happen as he was active throughout the mid 70's to the late 90's when he closed the door of the company

The American Ocean Shores was a subsidiary so how was he pirating his own films? I know for certain films he had licences that were worldwide, a lot of the Eastern Heroes releases were sublicensed from Ocean Shores..hence the Ocean Shores watermark appearing on various Billy Chong films amonst others they released

"The dubbing was horrible, because it was sped dubbed, which meant the scenes that one of the dubbers held a karaoke microphone, and the rest of the team huddled around it and dubbed over any dialogue scene while watching a tv in the office, while a technician quickly cut the movie's sound off. This way, the dubbing went much faster, one day, and cost less to do."....that seems nearly unbelievable???

Shaws had very good dubbing and foley facilities as can be seen in various documentaries including the Alan Whicker project that Falkor or Toby Russell was releasing showed...cant believe the conditions were so bad yet the results were so good

Have to chase up Rick Thomas who continues to dub to these days, he did an interview with Daniel Wu for "Giant Robot" a few years back, he told some cool stories but never anything like this, whoa "William from Australia who worked with the gang since 86 all the way until 94, he had that uncontrolled irritating high pitched voice and a mouth full of herpes infections who worked for pennies and ran back to his perverted hole"..see if he or Ted Thomas who dubbed the Bruce Lee movies remember any of these stories and guys

I met people in HK who continue to dub to this day, a lot of Chinese cartoons and TV shows as well as recent movies, and the revised dubs of classic movies for the "full length" english dubs and noboy ever told me stuff like this..Wanchai Transient, who are you? This si great stuff, your real name should be revealed so we can pay respect for you not only surviving the madness but being able to remember so much and enlighten us.....

Someone should make a movie about all the characters that were in Hong Kong, behind the scenes

[Guest nickoftime04]

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