If it's a foreign movie (ok, if it's a movie dubbed in Japanese), then likely the subtitles will not match what's being said. That's from experience with Harry Potter, LotR, Spiderman, X-Men, Sin City, Dexter, Battlestar Galactica, etc. Now, some come close.

What I think happens is it's using subtitles released for the Theater. They later dub the movie with emphasis on scene matching, but stick with original subtitles that cared more for content. It makes sense to not waste cash re-doing subtitles when a perfectly usable set exists.  I notice the same thing is true with subtitles done for foreign movies in the US.

Now, what I am noticing is that Japanese dramas and movies are fairly precise if not dead on accurate.

What my main gripe is, why oh why do they remove Japanese sub-titles from these hundreds (thousands?) of anime/Japanese imports to the US? Is the space on a DVD really that limited?

Thank you guys for the great tips!
But man, those J-DVDs are expensive as ....!!!! I wanted to buy the Tiger & Dragon drama, until I saw the price-tag... Sheees!
Anyway, I think I'll buy some Japanese DVDs (and not Dramas / DVD boxes since they're so incredibly expensive), so do you guys have any recommendations for good Japanese movies with exact subtitles?

Thank you guys!
Zorlee...

Zorlee wrote:

Hi everyone!
I'm about to order a lot of Japanese dubbed + subtitled movies. Preferably Japanese movies, but I'm also interested in American movies dubbed in Japanese with good quality subtitles.
I browsed www.yesasia.com and saw a lot of movies with Japanese audio/subtitles, but I've read around on this forum, and I understand that the subtitles are sometimes really bad? Like a "summery" function, and not the text of the exact words being said.
What movies (both Japanese + American dubbed) can you guys recommend, what has high quality audio and especially subtitles?

I've been eying the following:
http://www.yesasia.com/global/a-knights … /info.html

http://www.yesasia.com/global/inside-ma … /info.html

http://www.yesasia.com/global/fearless- … /info.html

These are just examples of movies listed as J-dubbed and subbed.
What should I look for when buying DVDs, to be sure (if one can be) that I'm getting good quality subs?
It's hard for me, since my japanese reading skills are so low, that I can't tell if the subs are bad or not at the moment, so I don't want to read bad subs and getting frustrated by the fact that they're not exact.

Please give me your recommendations for movies, internet stores or anything for building a little J-movie library on a broke-ass-student budget
Thanks!

Zorlee...

Just me little opinion but I wouldn't bother with non-Japanese films dubbed into Japanese. From my experience there is fixed voice that they use to dub all caucasian people that doesn't sound natural at all.. You wont pick up very good habits from watching those evn if your intentions are good. Just stick to hish quality Japanese cinema such as,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Life_(film)

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_(2004_film)

I'm sure you can get those from amazon.co.uk with English subtitles

Thank you guys for the input!
I'm talking about Japenese subtitles though, not English! Exact Japanese subtitles is what I'm looking for, and I'm wondering if you guys know of any good movies that you know have exact J-subs?
I'll probably buy from either Amazon Japan or yesasia then