TheBoost said:

DominicCobb said:

Ew, dubs.

I support dubs.

No matter what, if the film isn't your language, you're going to lose something.

Subtitles means your eyes are going to constantly NOT be on the picture. This fundamentally changes the vieweing experience, especially for films as gorgeous as Kurosawa's.

Dubs are equally flawed, but in a different way. I'd rather not be distracted from the image when watching an epic, visually stunning Kurosawa movie.

For something like Ingmar Berman, I'll take the subtitltes, because there's so little speaking in something like "Persona."

But both are still a compromise.

Of course that's the shame of linguistics in general. It's a question of the lesser of two evils. However, one is much less evil. To me, seeing dubbed mouths is as distracting as reading subtitles. More importantly, dubs are usually of poorer quality. I highly doubt Kurosawa directed the actors who performed on the dub. Plus, how great of actors are these dubbers anyway? Better than Mifune and Shimura and co.? Doubtful.

And obviously to truly appreciate a masterpiece like Seven Samurai you need to watch it more than once.

I don't think dubs are ethically wrong or they should be burned or anything. I do think they should be preserved. But you won't catch me watching something with a dub (well sometimes I make an exception if it's lesser fare - Bruce Lee, Godzilla such). They just don't sit right with me. Hence, "ew."