Plenty of moviegoers can’t stand subtitles.
They’re distracting, and they draw your attention away from the visuals of the film to the bottom of the screen. At least, that’s how critics frame it. But those who use subtitles say the words actually help them focus, even the ones who aren’t hard of hearing.
The subtitle wars are not just between you and your friends once you finally pick a show to watch on Netflix. Subtitles could be your only way to enjoy a foreign film.
When director Bong Joon-ho won a Golden Globe for his film Parasite this week, he took the opportunity to make a pitch for the much-maligned words at the bottom of the screen.
Director Bong Joon-ho upon receiving a Golden Globe award for PARASITE:
“Once you overcome the 1 inch tall barrier of subtitles, you’ll be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
“We use just one language: CINEMA”#GoldenGlobes #BongHive pic.twitter.com/O2QhPzuGfa
— spring • 스프링키스 (@jekkibby) January 6, 2020
“Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” the South Korean filmmaker said through a translator.
In other words, as one Twitter user quipped, “bong joon-ho was like: *taps mic* learn to read. thank you.”
bong joon-ho was like: *taps mic* learn to read. thank you
— watch succession (@kerrybishes) January 6, 2020
Bong is not the only director to challenge the public’s focus on films that come exclusively from Hollywood.
“Listening to Bong’s gracious, humorous, subtly barbed speech at the Globes,” Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang wrote, “I was reminded of [Roma director Alfonso Cuaron’s] similarly droll words when he collected his foreign-language-film Oscar last year: ‘I grew up watching foreign-language films and learning so much from them — films like Citizen Kane, Jaws, Rashomon, The Godfather, and Breathless,’ he added with the friendliest of winks.”
Parasite joins Roma and Never Look Away as recently released foreign films that received critical acclaim but less buzz than their American contemporaries. Last year, a critic at the Washington Post wrote that Never Look Away, a post-World War II look at the meaning of art, was “one of the best — and most beautiful — films out now.” Yet you probably haven’t heard of it.
Bong had good reasons for calling out the public’s aversion to subtitles. While one headline in 2014 declared, “U.S. Audiences Are More Comfortable With Subtitles Than Ever,” another shortly afterward claimed that this was not the case. “U.S. box office for the top five foreign-language films has declined by 61% in the last seven years,” according to IndieWire.
But filmmakers such as Bong are working to change that. Watching with subtitles can seem bothersome, but as a good story carries you along with it, you’ll forget you’re even reading the words. Some of the best films require subtitles.
