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Comment by brianprovost | Hacker News Reader

This sounds fun:

"Watching a movie can be a raucous affair - films are translated into local languages such as Luganda by VJs, or video jokers, who add their own jokes and improvised commentary, live."

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It's really funny. Even in my country where there aren't enough literate peoples, you find a hobo telling you what happened in movies such as Matrix, Avengers, Inception from what he heard the translator (VJs, video Jokers) saying.

But you know where all of this started ? In 90's with movies of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. We grew up not understanding what those "Chinese" were talking about but we (still) enjoyed it. We didn't know why they would start fighting ( unless it's about saving a girl, revenging a murdered parent...) but we enjoyed. At that time some cool guys started translating those movies to us with their "knowledge" of Chinese ... Lol.

It really is, and it's a very enriching way of experiencing art. For a long time, this is how stories propagated -- they were told and retold by various people, who sometimes added details or even entire story twists of their own. Improvisation was a natural part of storytelling which movies rendered somewhat unnecessary, but to which they do lend themselves to some degree.

This explains the appeal of RiffTrax and collaborative cult films like the Room.

Most Bud Spencer movies in the 70s and 80s, as most series were synchronized very "freely" in Germany and had often different stories.

I first saw the Indian film PK with very dodgy fan-supplied English subtitles. Rewatching with official subtitles was a disappointment :)

Mystery Science Theatre 3000, anyone? :)

Hadn’t read of that one, sounds good will check it out.

Have you seen Hercules Returns

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_Returns

Sorta reminds me of What's Up Tiger Lily

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_Up,_Tiger_Lily%3F

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