Re: [Semi-OT] Godzilla and the Dub Wars

Phil Yff wrote:

I'm not going to expand in too much group-related detail for those who
haven't gotten to listen to it yet:

But finally listening to the commentary on Classic Media's vintage-Toho
Godzilla "Ghidorah" DVD (preferring to wait and Netflix on "Monster Zero")--
The two geeky fan-historians from CM's earlier "Mothra vs."/"Raids
Again" wave has been replaced with NPR film historian David Kalat...And
although he's reading from a prepared film-history commentary, listening
to him virtually evangelize a feature-length defense of the dubbed US
cut is required listening for all of us formerly in the sub-snob
community back during the Dub wars. At least on enthusiasm, this guy
can make a convincing argument. ^_^

Although I haven't heard Kalat's commentary, I agree with him. Godzilla in
both Japan and the US is campy. Part of its charm in the US is the campy
nature of the dub.

And as Kalat points out, the "chop-socky" bad-dubbing of Asian kung-fu films was produced in cheap Hong Kong studios with baffling lost-in-translation attempts to translate the script at face value, and no attempt at synch, just to fill some equal-time rule for their own audience--
While the Japanese Toho dubs were overseen by American release studios, who made the effort to rewrite scripts, match lip movement, hire dub-industry voice actors, and even restructure editing to improve the continuity and make it more approachable to US audiences...To the point that Toho was later co-consulting with US studios on how the material should be edited in both countries.

(There're amusing bits on the "Mothra vs." commentary where they interview the 60's dub actors about the early days of 60's import-dubbing, and how that odd "clipped" delivery was intentionally created to suggest Japanese living in Japan--And not have them all pretend to be Americans or speaking perfect English for no apparent reason.)

BTW, the dialog in the original Japanese is not Shakespeare nor are the
Japanese speaking characters Shakespearian actors. The Godzilla movies are
fun in the same way "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" is fun. "Attack of the
50 Foot Woman" certainly didn't win any Oscars for its acting and
screenplay. Yet, I have seen it more often than I have watched "Gigi", the
movie that won the Oscar for best picture hte year "Attack" came out.

Kalat points out that, while everyone was trying to "copy the sensation of King Kong" after a successful 1952 re-issue (and a generation of kids now working in the movie business), at least the Japanese took the TROUBLE of building huge painstaking miniature sets, writing elaborate storylines, grooming actors who spent their main time working on Kurosawa's films, and, at the beginning, even shaping political metaphors for their giant special-effect monster epics--
What monsters were we doing in 1952?..."Beast From 20,000 Fathoms", followed by a lot of big radioactive bugs filmed in a week by Roger Corman for American International. Like *we* have any right to judge. :)

Derek Janssen
ejanss@xxxxxxxxxxx
.

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