American Avalon DVD Dubtitled

The Appeal to Miramax petition site has learned of Miramax’s latest mistreatment of imported Asian cinema. The American DVD release of Mamoru Oshii’s live action sci-fi drama Avalon contains a heavily re-written English dub and no literal, accurate subtitles.

Quoting from the site: the subtitles on Disney’s [Miramax’s] release are dubtitles, meaning they are an exact transliteration of the dub script rather than a translation of the original dialogue. While this is often tolerated (though not preferred) by fans if given the original language when the dub is fairly accurate to the original dialogue, Miramax’s version changes the dialogue and even adds new dialogue where there was none. Thus, in the original language, one can see subtitles where there is no dialogue. This is the second time that Miramax has allowed a film to be subtitled, but has not allowed it to escape changes to the story in this process (the first being Iron Monkey).

DVD File says: For the English version, in a manner similar to the original theatrical release of Blade Runner, the principle character provides narration that deprives the viewer of contemplating intentionally ambiguous aspects of the film, of debating possible interpretations, and of drawing conclusions that are purely personal. Apparently, the decision was made that English-speaking audiences aren’t bright enough to absorb and interpret. Pity.

The original Japanese DVD version of Avalon includes optional literal & accurate English language subtitles.

Source: Jagged Team