May 02, 2007

You Just Don't Expect It, Do You?

(Posted In Action Animation Asia Cult DVD News Drama Random Geek Talk Sci-Fi / Fantasy TV Thriller )

3rdgig.jpegI feel a little as though I'm putting my head on the block. Partly feel a little guilty, you see. Mostly, although people do ultimately make their own decisions and we're not here to puppeteer the nation, people do, of course, take notice. There's something that's happened then - unlikely give the company involved (Panorama) and given the recent track record on HK DVDs being much better than the reputation of very early issues which still haunts preconceptions about them.

The HK DVD of 'The Laughing Man', then, has virtually incomprehensable English Subtitles on it. Now, I've not had anything to this extent before, so I don't really know what the next step is. We do, because this site costs money to run, use affiliate links, you see. So we make a very small, helpful profit from things like this (well, we go by pre-order basis, so it's not as though it's maliciously done) and so I feel the need to point this out. I would suggest putting the breaks on this - whether that's ordering it, opening it - and take gentle steps towards poiting out the DVD is 'not fit for the purpose for which it was sold', as the technical term seems to go.

Still, given it has been 18 months since the unsubbed R2 J, given that HK knows what it's doing (increasingly so) I hadn't, as I've mentioned, expected this. Nope, not even give how sophisticated and wordy the scripting / dialogue is on this show. Shame. Mine is either going back, or it's going in the bin.

» Posted by logboy at May 2, 2007 02:34 AM
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Reader Comments

Panorama also screwed up the subs on the full-length series. They looked like they came straight out of Babelfish: made up words, non-existing grammar etc.

Seeing as how this is a complicated story you really need them too.
Absolutely incomprehensible, this.

I've ordered this disc but failed to check if it was Panorama publishing it. It hasn't shipped yet so I'll check if I can still cancel it.

Moronic.

» Posted by Ardvark at May 2, 2007 03:26 AM

My brother bought me a 3-disc, 80dollar, complete series of Samurai Champloo...i don't know where he bought it or who makes it but the subtitles were severely mis-aligned with the dialog and they were also unreadably quick...

the fan-subs i watched a year prior were clean(white letters which i prefer, and timed correctly and long enough to read), informative(sidenotes about japanese culture to understand the dialog), they were witty and without the stupifying swearing of the commercial subs and dubs featured on AdultSwim which were included on the DVD release i was given...

i almost wish the commercial side would pay those who have already completed fan-subs instead of paying people who uninspiringly translate for a job and not for the love of a series.

» Posted by CoNTRoL at May 2, 2007 07:12 AM

I'm currently doing some academic work on Ghost in the Shell, including a discussion of how the series was released on DVD across the various regions, so if anyone has copies of this you don't want (and can't return) I'd be willing to take it off your hands for cheap.

» Posted by Brian at May 2, 2007 07:53 AM

Academic work on Ghost in the Shell?

What fun courses you have!
Can I help? The DVD-releases make for fun drama because few movies have been as thoroughly screwed up as these, with each subsequent release fixing a bug and introducing a new one.

» Posted by Ardvark at May 2, 2007 08:12 AM

That's funny, aren't Panorama usually known for rather high quality releases?

» Posted by Munin at May 2, 2007 09:51 AM

"Academic work on Ghost in the Shell?"

Yep. It's actually for the PhD dissertation I'm in the process of writing. I'll be covering the history of anime in North America and I'll be using Ghost in the Shell as one of my primary case studies of a transnational transmedia franchise.

» Posted by Brian at May 2, 2007 04:08 PM

Great ... mine just arrived today. This is exactly the news I needed to hear. UghhhHH!!!!!!!

» Posted by visitor Q at May 4, 2007 10:55 PM

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