toddly6666

I remember watching subtitled foreign movies my whole life, never dubbed. My parents would take me to foreign movies I think even before I was a decent reader. I vaguely remember just watching the movie without reading them, and then all of a sudden I was like "hmm, maybe I should start reading them to know what's going on." But no matter how hard I try to remember, I don't remember how old I was when I started to really watch & read as if it was no big deal. I vaguely remember not being able to keep up with the subtitles because they were fast. And then eventually, I was able to keep up.
I'm taking an estimated guess, but I think it may have been between 7 to 10 years old when I started to actually seriously read and follow the films, because the foreign movies of 1984-1987, such as Jean De Florette, Babette's Feast, My Sweet Little Village, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Tampopo, Les Ripoux, My Life as a Dog, seem to be the ones that stuck in my mind the most when I was a child.

Does anyone remember their earliest foreign movie watching experiences and how old they were when "reading a movie" stopped becoming a challenge?

devilshalo

I watched subtitled TV shows all the time as a kid. A lot of Japanese shows Like Kikaider, Kamen Rider, Getter Robo G, Abarenbo Shogun, etc.

I think my first cinematic experiences were:
Kikaider 3-D at the Varsity Theater in Hawaii, 1973.
Godzilla VS Megalon at the Kapahulu Theater, 1973.
Kung Fu Instructor at the Golden Harvest Theater in Hawaii, 1979.

TGM

I still can't.

RichC2

I was probably 12 or 13, my folks weren't so big into movies much less foreign ones. I don't really recall seeing any all the way through until City of Lost Children in '96.

Solid Snake

I think my first subtitled film that I remember may have been a Jackie Chan film...I saw Rush Hour and immediately started to go Hong Kong crazy to see action like that again. I got some Chan DVDs that had dubs..and the more I noticed the more recognized that these were not in English. this was in 2000, I was 14. So from there I began my venture in DVDs and films..unknown to me that I'd change from an interest in Genetics only to now currently be the Film Major that I am, I'd like to thank Pulp Fiction for that. First DVD with subtitles...I think may have been Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...and I got that thing like...2004. Now that I work I can buy all the foreign films I want..

Hokeyboy

I grew up watching lots of subtitled movies, like "The Red Balloon" and "Beauty and the Beast" (the Cocteau version), and it was never a problem. I don' see what the big deal is. Then again, when I went to see "Crouching Tiger" years ago, the minute the movie started and the subtitles were on the screen, a bunch of geniuses towards the front yelled out "YOU MEAN I GOTS TO READ??!?!?!!", got up, and left.

That's a true story.

Ridiculous!

stingermck

Age 5. Return of the Jedi

GoldenJCJ

^ My first movie going experience was when I was 3 and my mom brought me to see RotJ. The only thing I remember about it was my mom leaning over and reading Jabba's subtitles to me.


As far as any other subtitled movies, I didn't really start watching them until I was old enough to rent them to view by myself. My family has never really been into foreign films so I never watched them until I started renting/buying movies for myself.

The first subtitled movie I watched all the way through: Amelie. Which makes me wonder, if I had seen a shitty foreign movie the first time out would I have continued watching foreign films or given up?

asianxcore

Probably around 7 or 8.

My Step dad is really into HK Action Flicks, so there was lots of subtitled John Woo movies and Shaw Bros. in our household.

Ash Ketchum

The first experience I had reading subtitles that I recall was seeing THE LONGEST DAY on the big screen when I was ten. All the German and French scenes were in German or French with subtitles. When it premiered on TV a few years later, all the German and French scenes were dubbed!

My church's youth counselor took us to a French film at Union Theological Seminary when we were about 12 or 13--Bresson's DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, in French with subs. and a hard sell to kids that age even if it was in English! I don't know what that lady was thinking. The evening didn't go well.

I was still in high school (age 17) when I started seeing subtitled films on my own at revival theaters, starting with THE SEVEN SAMURAI.

My daughter started at a young age (about 9) when I started bringing home tapes of Japanese animation in Japanese with fan-subs, starting with KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE. I took her to her first subtitled film in a theater that same year. It was another Miyazaki film, CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO. When I asked the cashier if there was a children's price she said no because they weren't expecting kids because it was subtitled. I pointed to my daughter and blurted out, somewhat indignantly, "She can read!"

riotinmyskull

crouching tiger is the first film i saw in a theatre that was 100% subs...not sure what my first film ever was though. i wish i knew.

toddly6666

Do you think subtitled animated films are the best way to go when starting kids earlier with foreign flicks? I saw a lot of animation and foreign films my whole life, but I don't think I saw a subtitled animated film until I was in college...I hate dubs usually, except on animated films, because usually they are good dubs (such as on the dvds of the Miyazaki films). Miyazaki films certainly seem to be the most inspiring films to get a kid to read movie subtitles at an early age. When I show these films to my son when he gets older, I wonder if I should do it your way or just play them with the good dubs.

Dubs versus subtitles on foreign animated films is a separate thread for argument anyway. As long as there is great attention made to the dubbing of animated films, I totally support those dubs. But then again, when I think of a Disney movie like Alladin being released in other countries, I can't imagine any one else other than Robin Williams doing the voice of the Genie. (I'm assuming that countries were using their own most famous, native-country comediens to dub the Genie voice, so maybe it's not that bad.) And then while the Miyazaki films all have excellent English dubs on their dvds, a great movie like Persopolis actually had a lot of attention paid to the English dubbing, but it just was awful. So in that case, the original French was better. I guess who ever interprets the animated characters better, that's going to be the prefered listening version.

devilshalo

Wouldn't that be the original language version? I'm just sayin'.

Nausicaa

My folks were never into foreign films, so I can't remember exactly, but probably at some point in my early teens (around 11-13). That's when I started using the internet and slowly exposed myself to worlds of music and film I never knew existed. I imagine Japanese animation was the launch point. It was also the start of my 'rebellious teen' years. Fortunately for my parents, the rebellion manifested itself not in sex, drugs, and alcohol, but in a strong aversion to American pop culture. Almost exclusively, I watched and listened to what, at the time, I thought was pretty obscure stuff.

toddly6666

It could and could not, that's why there is a whole other argument/debate over this topic. Sometimes it depends on the country too. For French animated films, I usually prefer hearing the original French. For Japanese animated films, I prefer hearing the English dub. And then there were those animated tv shows that were internationally-made (for example, a US/Japan production) and played in many countries. I'm not exactly sure of the history of the Transformers 80s cartoon, but I think the show was intended to be made for English-speaking and Japanese-speaking. I've heard the Japanese dubbing of Transformers and it just sounds plain and generic, not enough personality and uniqueness like on the English-dubbed version. I wonder how Transformers sounds dubbed in Spanish, Arabic, Swedish, or Hebrew? It sounds good in Russian though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIVMDovxXRo

Torchur317

I prefer to watch foreign movies dubbed to be honest.... I have no problem with subtitles but I'll pick dub over them any time if I have the choice....

Ash Ketchum

I would argue that subs. are essential on most Japanese animated films, esp. for children who can read well enough to follow them. The Japanese voice acting has a totally different emotional quality from the American dubbers, who often sound like they're just reading lines. Learning to listen to the spoken Japanese, esp. to the frequent English words thrown in (e.g. "loveletter"), is instructive to the child and helps in understanding and appreciating the story/culture.

My first copy of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO was in Japanese with no subs. at all and I showed it to lots of kids (daughter, nieces, nephews, their friends). They sat there thoroughly entranced. Even kids as young as two. Give it a try.

PORCO ROSSO - a Miyazaki film set in Italy between the wars. The French dub is on the R1 DVD and it features Jean Reno voicing the main character. Definitely the way to go with this film.

toddly6666

Thanks, I have all of Miyazaki films - his films are gold. That's cool that Jean Reno did the voice of Porco Rosso. I can see that fitting better than the slightly-pissed off Porco voice on the English version.

I don't know how old your kids are now, but if you still show English-subtitled or non-subtitled animated films to kids, I highly recommend you finding the Kirikou films, the Barbapapa French tv show (70s version or current version - both are good), and a hard-to-find English subtitled version of Monkey King. After Miyazaki and Disney, these animated features are mesmirizing regardless if there are no English audio or English subtitles available:

paradicelost

I must have been in my mid 20's when i realized that dubbed films weren't as good as the subtitle version and when it came to the Asian films the dubbed version is almost unwatchable.
I remember being 24 or 25 and not wanting to rent "Tombs of the Blind Dead" since it said it was subtitles only. Then after that i rented i think a Chow Yun Fat movie from blockbuster and it was dubbed and I could only sit through about 20 minutes of it. From then on I only would watch the subs version.

OldBoy

same here. been loving them ever since.

calhoun07

I guess I can't think of the first one I saw, but the first one I enjoyed quite a bit and wanted to own a copy of it was Wings of Desire. But I was in my late teens by the time I got that. I paid $80.00 for a VHS copy as well!

But I had seen subtitled movies before then. They never really bothered me. My Life as a Dog was another favorite of mine. So I suppose I was in my early to mid teens when I started to embrace subtitled movies.

aintnosin

As a kid, I was a big fan of war movies like The Longest Day and Tora! Tora! Tora! so I got used to it early.

devilshalo

The funny thing for me is that I had been so used to most of the Shaw Bros films being the Larry Bensky edited for tv dubs, that it took me some time to get used to the actors (Fu Sheng, Ti Lung, the Venoms, Gordon Liu, etc.) real voices.

paradicelost

I can tolerate it when it comes to Italian films for some reason i don't notice it as much. I know when i would rent Mario Bava films I'm guessing the dub version was the default version on the disc since that is what would always play automatic when you put it in the player. Now majority of time i watch with the subs but if i'm tired I'll watch it dubbed.

PopcornTreeCt

Wow.

This thread makes me sad.