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Foreign Movies - "What Did He Say?"

The problem with foreign films is that they are in foreign languages. People often want to a movie in a language they don't know, but they can't understand what the actors are saying. There are two ways for moviemakers to solve this problem - subtitles and dubbing. Neither method is perfect. The disadvantages of subtitles are that they are not accurate or are short. That is, the actor's words are not translated correctly, or only part of what he says is translated. In older films, especially the subtitles are hard to read because the words are the same color as the background.

Dubbing means that the original sound track in the foreign language is replaced or "dubbed" by one in the language of the audience. This method has problems because the movement of the actor's mouth and the words do not always agree with each other. Also, the distinctive voices of the original actors are lost, and very often the picture and the words seem strange together, such as when American cowboys speak French.

In the early 1900's Japan first started showing movies from the West. Films were silent then, and the Japanese created their the kabuki theater to serve as a guide to the movie. This used a character from the kabuki theater to serve as a guide to the movie. This guide was called benshi.

The benshi enjoyed performing, so rather than using a prepared script, he made up his own comments. People would come back just to see a benshi 's performance, and they became very popular. A good benshi was often more important to a movie than the stars or the director.

- Norman Downe, Entertainment Editor.

1. What are the disadvantages of subtitles? Of dubbing?

2. Why did the benshi become so popular?

3. Do you prefer dubbed movies, or movies with subtitles?

4 .Would you like a benshi to help you understand foreign films?