Table Of ContentS P E A K I N G
I N S U B T I T L E S
R E VA L U I N G S C R E E N T R A N S L AT I O N
TESSA DWYER
Speaking in Subtitles
For Ivy and Csilla
Speaking in Subtitles
Revaluing Screen Translation
Tessa Dwyer
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© Tessa Dwyer, 2017
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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The right of Tessa Dwyer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Contents
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
Part 1 Devaluation and Deconstruction
1. Sub/Dub Wars: Attitudes to Screen Translation 19
2. Vanishing Subtitles: The Invisible Cinema (1970–4) 52
3. Dubbing Undone: Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (1973) 79
Part 2 Errant and Emergent Practices
4. Media Piracy, Censorship and Misuse 109
5. Fansubbing and Abuse: Anime and Beyond 135
6. Streaming, Subbing, Sharing: Viki Global TV 164
Conclusion: Error Screens 186
Bibliography 189
Index 220
Figures
I.1 Subtitled frame from Leos Carax’s acceptance speech video
for the 2013 LA Film Critics Association Awards 1
1.1 & 1.2 Publicity posters for Le scandale (1967) and The
Champagne Murders (1967) 23
1.3 Disappearing subtitles in Ringu / The Ring (1998) 29
1.4 Bob and his interpreter mis/communicate in Lost in
Translation (2003) 30
1.5 In Friday Night (2002), conversation is rendered clearly in the
English subtitles 30
1.6 In Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), a radio broadcast is subtitled 31
1.7 In Linda Linda Linda (2005), Makihara struggles to declare
his love to Son 32
1.8 Subtitles in La jetée (1962) 34
2.1 Launch of the Invisible Cinema 52
2.2 The Invisible Cinema’s emblematic seating pods 56
3.1 Opening credits of Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (1973) 79
3.2 Publicity poster for Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (1973) 83
3.3 Film stills from The Girls of Kamare (1974) 85
3.4 Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (1973) 87
3.5 Publicity poster for The Crush (1972) 89
3.6 Publicity poster for The Crush (1972) 90
3.7 Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (1973) 91
4.1 & 4.2 Publicity posters for Fucking Åmål / Show Me Love
(2002) 115
4.3 Italian poster for The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) 117
4.4 ‘Guerrilla’ English subtitle in The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers (2002) 123
4.5 DVD cover of a pirated copy of Iron Man (2008) 125
5.1 Translator headnote from a fansubbed episode (62) of
Yakitake!! Japan (2004–6) 143
5.2 English fansub of Burakku rokku shuta / Black Rock Shooter
(2012) 145
figures vii
5.3 A comparison of three fansubbed versions of Kokaku kidotai /
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2003) 146
5.4 Animated part-subtitling in Man on Fire (2004) 155
5.5 Animated subtitles in Man on Fire (2004) interact with
diegetic objects 155
5.6 Chairman Kaga’s subtitled speech in Iron Chef (1993–9) 156
5.7 Subtitling in Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (1989) 158
6.1 Official Viki Channel, Episode 19: Where Do Viki Subtitles
Come From? 164
6.2 Viki’s Ninja Academy training programme 167
6.3 Timed comment appearing in a pop-up box on My Amazing
Boyfriend (2016) 169
6.4 Bullet-style subtitles on Tiny Times 3 (2014) 170
6.5 Audience’s text comments during a screening of Tiny Times 3
(2014) 170
6.6 Viki App for Apple iOS 174
6.7 Endangered Languages Map on Viki, © 2016 181
Acknowledgements
Thanks to family and friends for all their support over the years, and espe-
cially to Rhian and my mother Joan for providing invaluable assistance
and proofing. Thanks also to colleagues and mentors Mehmet Mehmet,
Angela Ndalianis, Ramon Lobato and Con Verevis, and to Gillian Leslie
and the team at Edinburgh University Press. Additional thanks to the
School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University for a grant
that helped with final publication preparations.
Portions of Chapters 5 and 6 were published previously in ‘Fansub
Dreaming on Viki: “Don’t Just Watch But Help When You Are Free” ’,
The Translator 18 (2) (2012): 217–43. Reprinted by permission of the
Publisher (Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandfonline.com).
Introduction
When Holy Motors (2012) was awarded the 2013 Los Angeles Film Critics
Association Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, director Leos Carax
didn’t attend the ceremony. Instead, he sent an acceptance speech in the
form of a short film around a minute in length. I love this short piece,
but my love of it has nothing to do with its image montage or, for that
matter, with Carax’s films – none of which I had seen when I first viewed
it. It’s the voice that draws me in, and the words oozing over the visuals,
dripping with a viscosity thicker than the blood that appears flowing
through streets. Carax’s accented English imposes itself upon this film
and the award it nominally accepts, constructing a self-reflexive basis
for critique. His voice-over begins with an introduction: ‘So, I’m Leos
Carax, director of foreign-language films.’ Immediately, the audience
Figure I.1 Subtitled frame from Leos Carax’s acceptance speech video for the
2013 LA Film Critics Association Awards.
