Dubbing and subtitling, and "Spirited Away"...

[katsaris]

Couple years back I'd seen "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the cinema. Chinese language, greek subtitles. As expected.

Yesterday it was on TV and I got the chance to see it again. And quite unexpectedly it was an English-dub version, subsequently subtitled with Greek. No Chinese to be heard anywhere.

My only guess as to why they did this is that the channel (or subtitling company) had no translators that knew Chinese at hand.

Still. Weird. And just a little bit annoying.

---

Also - four, five days ago, I saw "Spirited Away". A very, *very* good movie. I heartily recommend it to everyone. Might myself go to see it again one of these days/weeks.


I especially liked all the bizarre little ways that the rules of the magical place worked. And how each one of Chihiro's actions had all the bizarre unexpected little side-effects. E.g. her compassion in one place, in No-Face's case, fairytale-likewise gives her the tools of surpassing another obstacle, which in turns gives her the tool to pass yet another obstacle - which however wouldn't have been there if she hadn't shown that compassion to No-Face in the first place!

An action that seemed to be good, ends up being harmful, ends up being not so bad after all... The motif repeats without ever becoming boring, ever.

Several mythological touches as well (though common tropes in fairytales) were also there, especially the "Don't look back" thing, and the "Eating the food of the place makes you a part of it", the former remindful of Orpheus and Euridice, the other of Persephone. But I've seen each of these in several other stories as well.

It's also nice how Chihiro is smart enough that she hardly ever breaks any of the rules she has been instructed with! That's a first where fairy-tales are concerned! The heroes in them *always* mess up/ignore the instructions they'd been given.

I *loved* this movie.

*g* If *I* had been writing it mind you, there'd be a somewhat grimmer atmosphere in it in a handful
place, and a somewhat less comfortable ending for a handful of the characters.

But then again a happy end for all is occasionally good. Depends on my mood at the time, I guess. You definitely come out of the story wanting Chihiro and Haku to live happily ever after though, as a friends of mine said.

Comments

[skaly.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorite movies of *ever*. I love No Face in particular. I think he's actually kind of complicated. The train sequence is another favorite. The music during that scene felt very somber and otherworldly, and perhaps a little sad. I still get a little choked up when I see that little girl spirit standing alone at the station as if she's waiting for someone, while everyone else moves on.

[alternativa.livejournal.com]

Can't say that i'm a friend of manga cartoons, or even hentai :P for that matter, but my nephew is so crazy about it. that i might even take him to see it.
Of course i'll drag him to see Pirates then :P
Is is that good as a film or should i drink 5 6 coffees before in order not to snore during it?

[katsaris.livejournal.com]

*g* If you drink 5 or 6 coffees then you'll have to make sure to visit a cinema that offers a break in the middle of the movie, wouldn't you?

*g* Anyway, I don't think you'll be bored. As I said I thought it was a quite good movie; some bits in the ending might have felt a tiny bit too comfortable given the grim bizarre-ness that preceded them, but that may just be me...

Check it out and keep in mind to tell me what you thought about it. :-)