it's easy enough to find Japanese DVDs, but i'm wondering the best way to find them with japanese subtitles. is there an easy way to explain to clerks what i'm looking for? i can usually get them to understand that i want subtitles, but they only bring me DVDs with english subtitles.

is there a certain phrase i should use?

considering their t.v. shows have subtitles, i figured finding DVDs with subtitles wouldn't be an issue, but i'm having problems.

any ideas? is there a way to search amazon for DVDs with subtitles?

thanks for any advice // help.

If you're buying in Japan, I've never bought a DVD which didn't have both Japanese and English audio and subtitles. All DVDs seem to have both. This is only for foreign movies though, Hollywood and such.

I don't think many if any that are imported to the US (region 5?) have subtitles in Japanese. You may have to get (region 2?) disks. Plus, it's not a guarentee you'll have exact subtitles or any at all.

If it has "kanji" "curtain" (too lazy to get my IME) on back, you should be good to go though. Oddly, some settings don't work on my DVD player (the one for EXACT subtitles for the dubbed audio - Enlish movie w/ Japanese dub that is).

Be careful with Hollywood dubs, they usually have two audio streams (English and Japanese) and two subtitle streams. The Japanese subtitle stream does not usually correspond to the Japanese audio stream. It's more for watching the English audio stream. I guess because dub audio is restricted by timing and mouth syncing, the dialogue gets warped a bit. The subs provide a closer translation of the English (I think). I located a bunch of Japanese subs for Hollywood movies a while ago but I found them useless for this reason.

For TV shows, any of the official dvd boxes (the super expensive ones) have subs for dramas. There are also cheap knockoffs that don't. Maybe check out this list? http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blo...-of-honour

Edit: Oh yeah, could you just specify 日本語字幕 to the clerk? I don't know how you would ask for exact subs though (if that's what you're looking for)

The phrase you're looking for is 日本語の字幕（にほんごのじまく）

I'm surprised you've found DVDs with English subtitles and no Japanese ones. In my experience, you either get Japanese only or Japanese and English. You are in Japan right?

shakkun Wrote:Edit: Oh yeah, could you just specify 日本語字幕 to the clerk? I don't know how you would ask for exact subs though (if that's what you're looking for)

吹き替え字幕? At least the Japanese versions of Disney DVDs offer these 3 options for 字幕: 英語, 日本語,　日本語吹き替え.　

woelpad Wrote:吹き替え字幕? At least the Japanese versions of Disney DVDs offer these 3 options for 字幕: 英語, 日本語,　日本語吹き替え.　

吹き替え is dubbing. In your Disney DVDs, 日本語吹き替え字幕 are subtitles of what the Japanese voice actors are saying and 日本語字幕 are the subtitles of what the English voice actors are saying. (I think)

wrightak Wrote:The phrase you're looking for is 日本語の字幕（にほんごのじまく）

I'm surprised you've found DVDs with English subtitles and no Japanese ones. In my experience, you either get Japanese only or Japanese and English. You are in Japan right?

yup. i'm in Japan, but i've only really been looking on amazon.jp. i live around 1.5 hours from the nearest Jusco, so the last thing on my mind when i get out inaka hell has been "time to buy DVDs!"

thanks for the phrase. i'm headed to the store this weekend, so hopefully that will work out.

Your definition sounds a bit crude, given the subtleties involved in traditional subtitling that makes it an art form proper. Aside from that, yes, I assume that dubbing is what shakkun means when he asks for "exact" subs.

woelpad Wrote:Your definition sounds a bit crude, given the subtleties involved in traditional subtitling that makes it an art form proper. Aside from that, yes, I assume that dubbing is what shakkun means when he asks for "exact" subs.

"subtleties in subtitling" - there's something that's not that easy to read!

Sorry, I'm not following though, I thought that 'exact' subs were ones that mirrored exactly what was being spoken in a Japanese film.

Are we instead talking about getting DVDs of English films, watching them with Japanese audio dubbing and reading the dubbing subtitles? Is that what we mean by 'exact'?

I completely agree, any subtitling where judgement is needed is an art and so is dubbing.

woelpad Wrote:Your definition sounds a bit crude, given the subtleties involved in traditional subtitling that makes it an art form proper. Aside from that, yes, I assume that dubbing is what shakkun means when he asks for "exact" subs.

Sorry I'm not sure if this is supposed to be directed at me. Definition of what? By exact I simply mean corresponding exactly to the words of the audio. I assume that's what the OP was interested in. It has nothing to do with quality of translation judgement calls.

A clarification of whether you or TGWeaver are concerned with english movies or japanese movies/shows would indeed be appreciated. The two run through each other in this thread and then there's another thread on a similar subject which has 'exact' even in its title. It gets confusing.

Let's assume that it is for Japanese movies for which you want the subtitles in japanese. I'm only aware of movies where they add subtitles for the hearing impaired, in which case you also get all the (Wind rustling through the trees) type of comments. I don't think the speech parts are terribly "exact" either, but my experience is somewhat limited.

Okay there has been some confusion. I am not looking for anything. My comment was a reply to the OP, not a request. For the record, I personally only find one kind of subs useful:

Japanese movies with Japanese dialogue and subs which correspond very closely to that dialogue.
Hollywood/English movies dubbed in Japanese with subs which correspond very closely to that dubbed dialogue.

I use "exact" to describe these, which is I guess a bit inaccurate. Basically the distinction is with subs that just give the gist, or in the case of Hollywood movies, are translating the dialogue according to different conventions.

I can't speak for TGWeaver obviously. I guess I was assuming this is what most students of Japanese were looking for in Japanese subs.

wrightak Wrote:

woelpad Wrote:吹き替え字幕? At least the Japanese versions of Disney DVDs offer these 3 options for 字幕: 英語, 日本語,　日本語吹き替え.　

吹き替え is dubbing. In your Disney DVDs, 日本語吹き替え字幕 are subtitles of what the Japanese voice actors are saying and 日本語字幕 are the subtitles of what the English voice actors are saying. (I think)

Hmm, the dubbed Disney DVDs I have have:
英吾 (English subtitles for the Engligh audio track)
日本語 (Japanese subtitles for the English audio track - i.e. translating what was said in English, which is different from the Japanese audio track)
吹替用字幕 (translation of on-screen English text such as store signs to accompany the Japanese audio track)

This is what I've seen for movies such as Aladdin and Mulan (though I think Mulan just had the first two options.) If any of the Disney movies you have have exact subs for the Japanese audio track, please let me know because I've been looking for a long time.