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.

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/bl … -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)

Last edited by shakkun (2008 July 08, 10:35 pm)

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.　

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.

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.

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.

Last edited by woelpad (2008 July 09, 4:24 am)

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.