#subtitles

#subtitles

At the 2020 Golden Globes, Parasite director Bong Joon Ho described subtitles as a "one-inch-tall barrier." In that case, the filmmaker was specifically talking about Anglophone audiences watching films made in languages other than English. It's always encouraging to see film and television viewers get outside of their comfort zones, and the success of international series like Lupin and Squid Game have been grounds for encouragement.

I used to think there were two types of people: the ones who only use subtitles when necessary, and the unappreciative philistines who use them for no good reason. I was willing to die on this hill, arguing that they distracted from the purity of the audiovisual experience: the cinematographer's attention to detail, the glimpse of a tear in an actor's eye, the punchline of an expertly timed joke, and so on.

"Errors in subtitles aren't unheard of, but sentences like 'Is gameover. if you fall, you are out' are an entirely different kind of bad."

Nearly half of all Americans use subtitles when they watch TV, and Netflix is enhancing the experience by introducing a new subtitle option that focuses solely on dialogue.