【精英翻譯】的部落格

Are Subtitles Still a Turnoff for Western Audiences?

看不看字幕，東西大不同！

精英翻譯社轉自https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0058/356560/web/

During his acceptance speech for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2020 Golden Globes, director Bong Joon-ho had a message for Western audiences: “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

奉俊昊導演在二○二○年金球獎最佳外語片得獎感言中向西方觀眾傳達了一個訊息：「一旦你克服那一吋高的字幕障礙，你就能接觸到更多令人驚豔的電影。」

His words may seem strange to audiences in Taiwan, where subtitles are present in every movie and TV show, even the Chinese-language ones. In the West, however, subtitles are often seen as a hindrance to viewing pleasure. It’s no wonder that foreign films so seldom win the top prizes at awards shows.

他的話對台灣觀眾來說似乎有些奇怪，在台灣每部電影和電視節目，甚至是中文的節目都有字幕。然而，在西方，字幕常被視為是觀看樂趣的阻礙。難怪外國電影很少在頒獎典禮上獲頒最大獎。

Subtitles, in one form or another, have been around since the early days of silent film when dialogue was written on-screen between scenes. But as talking cinema became the new standard, English-language subtitles in American movies largely died out.

不管是以哪種形式，字幕從無聲電影早期就已經存在了，那時對白是寫在場景之間的螢幕上。但隨著有聲電影成為新的標準，美國電影中的英語字幕大多漸漸消失了。

In Asia, on the other hand, films made in Hong Kong—the heart of Asia’s film industry at the time—were commonly subtitled. Due to the large number of Chinese dialects spoken both inside and outside of China, subtitles were provided so that everyone would understand the dialogue—no matter what dialect they spoke. As a result, subtitles became a familiar feature for most Chinese film viewers.

另一方面，在亞洲，香港（當時亞洲電影業中心）拍攝的電影通常會上字幕。由於中國境內和境外使用的中文方言數量繁多，提供字幕才能讓每個人都聽懂對白——無論他們說的是什麼方言。結果，字幕對大多數華語電影觀眾而言成了熟悉的特色。