drunken master weirdness
07-02-02 | 05:43 PM
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From: Metro Detroit
drunken master weirdness
Okay.
So I'm in Border's the other day and I get Sony R1 Drunken Master. I take it home, put it in the spinner and fire up the Cantonese language option and the English subs.
The characters start talking in English. I figure, "My bad" and go back to the options again. I make sure I choose Cantonese and go back.
It starts off and they're talking Cantonese. I figured I'd had a senior moment and opted for English the first time.
All of a sudden, I'm hearing dubbed English. Then it goes back to Cantonese again.
Throughout the movie, while most of it was in Cantonese, some English slipped in occasionally.
While I did think for a minute that I'd watched so many Hong Kong movies I was starting to do simultaneous translations, I do tend to dismiss that theory.
Has this happened to anybody else with this DVD (or any other).
I play lots of foreign films and this is the only one that's done the audio track dance like this.
Thanks.
Joel
ps.
Gee. If it turns out my DVD player is getting ready to go belly up, I might have to get a new one, like a Malata. Huh.
So I'm in Border's the other day and I get Sony R1 Drunken Master. I take it home, put it in the spinner and fire up the Cantonese language option and the English subs.
The characters start talking in English. I figure, "My bad" and go back to the options again. I make sure I choose Cantonese and go back.
It starts off and they're talking Cantonese. I figured I'd had a senior moment and opted for English the first time.
All of a sudden, I'm hearing dubbed English. Then it goes back to Cantonese again.
Throughout the movie, while most of it was in Cantonese, some English slipped in occasionally.
While I did think for a minute that I'd watched so many Hong Kong movies I was starting to do simultaneous translations, I do tend to dismiss that theory.
Has this happened to anybody else with this DVD (or any other).
I play lots of foreign films and this is the only one that's done the audio track dance like this.
Thanks.
Joel
ps.
Gee. If it turns out my DVD player is getting ready to go belly up, I might have to get a new one, like a Malata. Huh.
07-02-02 | 06:31 PM
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Columbia couldn't find a complete audio track for either the Cantonese or English tracks. So they inserted the English track into the gaps in the Cantonese track and vice-versa. It's pretty disappointing.
07-02-02 | 06:38 PM
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From: Iowa
You're not imagining things. Unfortunately what you experienced is perfectly normal for that particular disc.
Cheers,
Gabe
From Adam Tyner's review here at dvdtalk...
One curiosity is that the Cantonese audio goes in and out of English in the first hour or so. I thought perhaps there was some sort of glitch that this disc exploited on my Toshiba SD-3109 DVD player, but the same thing occurred on an Audiovox DVD-1500 as well as my DVD-ROM. No explanation is provided for this on the menu screens or packaging, so I'm unsure if this is representative of the best elements available or if there was a master error of some sort. (If this was covered in the commentary, I must've missed it. Apologies.) I would personally have preferred for any particularly battered portions of audio to be replaced with snippets from a Laserdisc or even (gasp!) VHS than to switch back and forth between languages.
One curiosity is that the Cantonese audio goes in and out of English in the first hour or so. I thought perhaps there was some sort of glitch that this disc exploited on my Toshiba SD-3109 DVD player, but the same thing occurred on an Audiovox DVD-1500 as well as my DVD-ROM. No explanation is provided for this on the menu screens or packaging, so I'm unsure if this is representative of the best elements available or if there was a master error of some sort. (If this was covered in the commentary, I must've missed it. Apologies.) I would personally have preferred for any particularly battered portions of audio to be replaced with snippets from a Laserdisc or even (gasp!) VHS than to switch back and forth between languages.
And over at dOc...another review
Comments regarding the audio:
"There is a minor audio problem where the Cantonese track changes randomly to English a few times. I understand that Columbia Tristar found sections of the Cantonese audio unusable and the English dub was inserted in its place, so technically it doesn't really "switch."
Comments regarding the audio:
"There is a minor audio problem where the Cantonese track changes randomly to English a few times. I understand that Columbia Tristar found sections of the Cantonese audio unusable and the English dub was inserted in its place, so technically it doesn't really "switch."
Gabe
07-02-02 | 07:00 PM
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From: Silicon Valley, CA
this point has been brought out over and over again on a few of his movies on Columbia and on Warner (Thunderbolt comes to mind as well). The question always remains, 'why couldn't the gaps have been dubbed in Cantonese to get consistency'? It's not like it it couldn't be done, dubs happen all the time in US movies when editing out profanity.
07-03-02 | 09:11 AM
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From: Metro Detroit
'why couldn't the gaps have been dubbed in Cantonese to get consistency'
At the very least a simple disclaimer would help avoid somebody like me running around forums trying to find out what's up. It wouldn't change the dialogue issue, but it would be some sort of caveat and I could choose or not choose.
I wouldn't be irritated because they didn't offer the information on top of the audio track.
Thanks for the 411.
Joel
07-03-02 | 10:08 AM
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DVD Talk Gold Edition
Shortly before this title was released, word of a Hong Kong Legends re-release in R2 came down, so I passed on it. It's too bad Columbia handled the language track the way they did, but we should be thankful we're getting Cantonese at all (Disney?).
