The frustrations of being not an intended audience member

[dangermousie]

Grrrrrrr. Trying to watch something (Silence) in Mandarin, no subs, is making me mega-cranky. It's not like Hindi where I can understand the basic gist, even if not the nuances. Here, unless someone says sorry or ILY, I am utterly in the dark. This thing is 30 eps long, and is now up to ep 11, but subs are out only for the first two (in comparison, Tokyo Juliet which is roughly the same vintage has subs for 9 eps out). If this subbing will never get finished, I will watch the entire thing anyway (figures that the one with least subs is my new obsession. Why did I have to get hooked on this one, of all things?) but I am going to be completely mystified about what's going on (well, actually since 2 out of 30 are subbed, I guess only 93% mystified). Reading the thread on d-addicts forum to find more info this morning did not make me feel much better as it's full of upset people. I think someone else subbed ep two from ep one, but I am kinda confused on who is doing what and when. I knew I should have stuck to English or Russian entertainment. When I take over the world, I'll make everyone learn Esperanto. Or something.

In less head-deskery matters, behind the cut is a scene that is currently making me swoon in a girly fashion from one of the later episodes of Silence. Watching without subs, I have no idea what they are saying in this scene (for all I know he could be telling her about his plans to open a raccoon hat factory in New Zealand), but I turned to mush anyway. I do get such a Bollywood vibe with t-doramas. Seriously, if you just changed the music to something written by Javed Akhtar and put Rani and Shahrukh in instead, this could be a scene straight out of Bollywood.



[Error: unknown template video]

Comments

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I have so much sympathy for you! While I'm lucky that I only have to watch episodes of Sapuri for one day (so far) before the subs come out, there is a lot of other stuff (mostly Japanese variety shows) that I'm watching completely unsubbed, and most of the time without any hope that I'll ever find out exactly what is going on.

My RL friends are shaking their heads at me for watching programs in a foreign language like this, but *shrug* I can't seem to stop myself. ;) And I have learned to pay attention to body language and expressions more than ever before.

One thing I wish is that the people who produce these things would realize that there is a market out here for asian dramas, so maybe there would be official subtitles as a matter of course. On the other hand, fansubs (at least by some of the really good teams like SARS) are so superior to anything that might be officially produced, that I hate to lose that quality and the cultural insight that those groups provide in their fansubs.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes! I am not the only person who watches stuff in language she doesn't know.

A huge part of me is glad that I am able to watch it at all, even unsubbed, and that's something that would have been completely impossible before the days of the internet, but I guess I am greedy and it's driving me nuts. It does seem that this is being subbed, however slowly *crosses fingers, toes and eyes*, so I guess I shouldn't complain because your situation with the shows sounds worse.

I can't seem to stop myself. ;) And I have learned to pay attention to body language and expressions more than ever before.

Exactly. If the choice is between watching this in a foreign language and not watching at all, I'll watch it in Mandarin, thank you (or Swahili, or Estonian). And, my ranting aside, it's not as frustrating as I was afraid it would be. I might have no idea about what they are talking about, but I can tell what they are feeling.

wish is that the people who produce these things would realize that there is a market out here for asian dramas, so maybe there would be official subtitles as a matter of course.

Oh yes. I've been spoiled by Bollywood where there are subs as a matter of course. I was shocked to discover how few of the doramas have official English subs (I have no idea about jdoramas per se, but I've been watching mainly the Taiwanese ones, and so far I came across a grand total of one dorama that was officially subbed). It seems a bit odd.

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

You've hit on a bugbear of mine. I cannot believe that after all this time (I mean Long Vacation came out in 1996) that there are still no official English subtitles for that show. Thank goodness for fan subs. I guess I'm a bit luckier because there's a huge huge Chinese market for Japanese dramas so I can always find Chinese subtitles. The problem is I'm so slow reading in Chinese but at least I can get the gist of it and pause and look up a dictionary :) It's a lot of hard work so I only do it when I have time and I am very, very obsessed ;)

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm a bit luckier because there's a huge huge Chinese market for Japanese dramas so I can always find Chinese subtitles.

And not only that but Chinese subs come out fast. ina has told me that there is such a demand for them that there are subbing groups that basically compete to see who can get their subs out fastest.

I do appreciate, though, the time and painstaking care that groups like SARS has put into their fansubs. Hana Yori Dango, for example, had a lot of humor that was dependent on language and culture and that would be completely lost if they hadn't taken the time to explain some of those things through their subs.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, thank you! You gave me an idea. Which is to get a Chinese dictionary (because this thing will inevitably have Chinese subs). It's going to be a crazy amount of work, but hey. That's how I read my first book in English, looking up every word almost, because I wanted to read it badly. Hmmmm. *OK, I am officially insane :P*

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

i felt the same frsutration when i watched MG2 without subtitles in our local channel. i was pulling my hair out!

there are korean/japanese dramas available with subs, but i hate it when it done by chinese,because they tend to screw up the grammar big time.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

i was pulling my hair out!

Heeee. I know the feeling. So frustrating. I want to bang my head against the wall in the hopes that my brain would magically realign and I'd know Mandarin :) It's my own fault for starting on a show that isn't even done, but I couldn't help it and now am being punished :P

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

thats why i stopped watching if there are no subtitles, it can get veryyyy frustrating. *lol* its very addictive!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I was all greedy 'well, at least I'll see some now and the rest later' and now there are no subs and I am grumpy and at the same time glad I saw these and it's like a crazy loop. But it's so angsty and cute and romantic. I just wish I knew what the heck they were saying! I think just to chill out on the whole Silence thing, I am going to switch to Tokyo Juliet for a bit (Goong is something I want to watch in a nice large block).

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

i watched Goong partly without subtitles. so yeah it was like "argghh someone translate please".

i wish they'd invent a tv that automatically transcribes and subtitles whatever foreign language you're watching on. LOL

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would pay a LOT for this kind of TV. I found a webcite with Silence ep synopses (up through 6) so it's something. I just never thought I'd have to put that much effort into entertainment :)

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

yeah, its like realllllllly taking a LOT of time just to get all of this stuff. heeh!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Isn't TV about vegetating? Not learning new languages and computer tech? :P

P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Wish I got into jdoramas instead as these seem to be subbed a lot more. *grumps* But they are not as melodramatic!

Re: P.S.

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

yes doramas are not that melodramatic, there are some, but not that much. i just got hooked on it because of the pretty boys. shallowness alert!

Re: P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Pretty boys are good. Angsty sobby messed up pretty boys? More than good. :P

[ameyadevi.livejournal.com]

dude.. i am having the hardest time finding subbed goong episodes. Plenty for eps 5-8.. and i found the first part of one, but otherwise i'm stuck. Are you watching from a certain person who has some chronologic-like, by any chance?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I bought a DVD which has yet to get to me, but yes, I've found the early ones on line from user x0xcinderellax0x. The problem is that his/her account seems to be suspended, for whatever reason. I suggest you try d-addicts: http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/index.php. Or catdecember, who is my Guru, might have other links. Sorry!

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

I'm reading through your old Silence comments and happened to watch the Christmas clip mentioned at this post at work. Gah! I should have known better, because now I have a huge lump in my throat and am desperately trying to hold back tears while grinning madly at the same time.

He's obviously creating a fake Christmas for her because he won't be there for the real one and it's so incredibly sweet and sad at the same time.

And I completely agree about the Bollywood-ishness of it all. I've had the same comparison in mind for several times already. I also think there is something undefinably Shahruk Khan-ish about Vic Chou. There are, for example, all those running scenes he seems to be doing in every dorama I've seen with him :), or it could just be that the current huge celebrity crush I have on VZ is just like the one I used to have on SRK at one time.