After ‘Parasite,’ Are Subtitles Still a One-Inch Barrier for Americans? | Hacker News Reader

After ‘Parasite,’ Are Subtitles Still a One-Inch Barrier for Americans?

nytimes.com

9 pointsvo2maxer10 comments

Thanks for posting, this subject has been really interesting to me.

I have some friends and family members who just can't do subtitles. To the degree that they take one look at the screen, see subtitles, and seem to deflate or let their attention drift away, move into a different room for a conversation, etc. So I try not to put those movies on when they're around.

But I've noticed that these individuals don't really do complex films, either. In company, they generally prefer light conversations that flit from topic to topic. I have wondered if this natural capability for a refreshingly vibrant, wide-coverage attention-shifting mode (I am actually envious of it in some ways) brings a corresponding complication to the act of watching a movie. These people will often ask things like, "OK, so what's happening? I'm so lost." If you throw subtitles AND a complex plot into the mix, it's just so far out of their wheelhouse that they may straight up fall asleep, etc.

I want to emphasize though that I don't think this reflects upon their intellect, rather that it's just a difference in how they operate.

By the way I thought the film itself was great, not sure how one of the medical miracles in particular was even remotely possible while another one or two seemingly lesser medical issues were terminal, (hope that's not a spoiler) but it was just such an attractive film from the start in so many different ways.

I do admit I would have preferred a more Ocean's 13-type departure from the social commentary approach if possible, but I think I've also shifted into a mindset of seeking out more gentle entertainment after overcoming depression.

One data point - someone I know has dyslexia, which very rarely comes up in their day to day life (they're an avid reader of books and work in tech) but which apparently makes movies with subtitles completely unwatchable.

Only 5-10% of people have dyslexia, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn there are other differences in language and cognition between different individuals that make a subtitled movie a challenge for more.

Some may be fine with subtitles, but the fact of the matter is that most films are supposed to be visually immersive. You simply cannot focus on important subtleties in a film if your eyes have to be focused on a line of text across the bottom. The human eye actually has a very narrow range of in-focus vision.

Not to mention the idea that cinematographers take great pains to frame every shot like a painting, telling a story visually.

Movies with subtitles is like going to a museum where they have printed the name of the artist and the background information in big white block text on top of the painting itself.

This is true only if you really aren’t used to watching films with subtitles.

In many countries, foreign films with subtitles are the norm, and its what most people watch all the time. Once you are used to it - it doesn’t hurt immersions whatsoever, and reading subtitles is done almost subconsciously and require no discernible effort.

One can absolutely feel immersed even with subtitles. After a while reading the text happens subconsciously in a fraction of a second. Given hiw slowly people usually speak, there is plenty if time to read subtitles and look for subtleties of the shots.

Yes, there's a bit of a learning curve, but it is pretty easy afterwards.

I watch a LOT of subtitled video, even when there is a dub available. And even I can find it challenging.

Sometimes the dialog is dense. And the visuals are dense at the same time. I often feel like I am trading off one against the other.

My daughter has a visual impairment and subs are not fun for her. She still muscles through them though ... even if it means hitting pause every few seconds.

I much prefer subtitles to dubbing. Which is annoying because a very large percentage of Netflix content now is foreign language with bad dubbing instead of subtitles. There are some shows that look interesting and I’d watch but I just can’t get past the dubbing. It would be great if they could add some kind of option to use the original track and subtitles.

These days most of them have an “audio and subtitles” icon at the bottom of the screen when they start playing. You can switch to the original audio, and enable subtitles in any of multiple languages.

Now I feel like an idiot for not noticing this! Thanks :-)

Personally I really appreciate the photography and visual details of films and find that I feel I have to choose between reading the subtitles and noticing those intricate details in a film.

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