Godzilla Minus One Dub Makes Fans Furious
When a good movie in another language gets a bad dub, the viewer suffers — and some say that's the case with "Godzilla Minus One." Here's why an English language version of the film is causing fans to speak out.
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00:00 When a good movie in another language gets a bad dub, the viewer suffers.
00:05 And some say that's the case with Godzilla Minus One.
00:08 Here's why an English-language version of the film is causing fans to speak out.
00:12 The latest Toho Godzilla film made a huge impact when it debuted in theaters in late
00:16 2023.
00:17 The film earned an impressive $115 million worldwide against a super lean budget and
00:23 became the highest-grossing Japanese Godzilla movie ever made.
00:26 The movie has earned plenty of praise for its visuals, but the script of Godzilla Minus
00:30 One is equally worthy of attention.
00:33 That's why a new English-language dub of the film on Netflix feels so egregious.
00:37 It changes at least one key line of the screenplay, draining the film's climax and other key
00:41 moments of their raw motion.
00:44 An ex-user pointed out one of the dub's most upsetting changes.
00:47 The user notes that the film's very last line is worded differently in the English-dub
00:51 version.
00:52 The scene comes after Godzilla has been defeated by a group of determined civilians, whose
00:56 victory was assured when the movie's hero, Koichi Shikishima, flies a plane full of explosives
01:00 straight into the creature's mouth.
01:02 A former kamikaze pilot suffering from debilitating survivor's guilt, Shikishima is sure that
01:07 his love Noriko is dead and plans to kill himself to save the rest of Tokyo.
01:12 At the last minute, though, he decides to live, and afterwards hears the news that Noriko
01:17 actually survived the blast he thought had killed her.
01:20 The pair reunite, and she tearfully asks him, "Is your war finally over?"
01:25 Except that's not what Noriko says in the English-dub version of the film.
01:28 Instead, she asks, "Can this war of yours finally be done?"
01:35 It's a subtle difference when looking at the line in a vacuum, but tonally and in context,
01:39 it makes a major difference.
01:41 The original subtitled line is poetic and hopeful, and it frames the private war Shikishima
01:46 has been waging as something that eventually passed.
01:49 The English line, however, sounds more like a plea, as if she's asking Shikishima to get
01:53 over his baggage.
01:55 This surely wasn't the intention of the writers responsible for this translation, and was
01:59 clearly worded to match Noriko's mouth movements, but it still softens the impact of the film's
02:03 final moment.
02:05 Another scene that doesn't hit as hard in the dubbed version comes partway through the
02:08 movie, when Shikishima thinks he's lost Noriko after a harrowing Godzilla attack.
02:13 The scene ends with Shikishima screaming in grief as black rain splatters his face.
02:18 In lesser hands, the scene of a man falling to his knees to howl in grief might feel cliched,
02:23 but it's executed perfectly here.
02:25 However, in the Netflix dub, the scream is for some reason dubbed over by an English-speaking
02:29 actor as an ex-user pointed out.
02:32 Never Have I Ever star Darren Barnett plays Shikishima in this version of the film, and
02:36 while Barnett does an admirable job in other sequences, some viewers clearly think this
02:40 dubbed scream turns a dark moment inadvertently funny.
02:52 Fans of the film, including actor and comedian Simon Pegg, have already taken to social media
02:56 to speak out about the Godzilla Minus One dub situation.
03:00 In an Instagram video, Pegg said,
03:02 "If you are going to watch Godzilla Minus One, by the way, just as an addendum to what
03:06 I was saying yesterday, watch it in Japanese.
03:09 Don't watch it auto-dubbed."
03:10 On the other side of this argument are fans of the film arguing that dubs are necessary
03:14 for accessibility, and that being dismissive of a dub is disrespectful to voice actors
03:18 who worked hard on them.
03:20 While defending the English-language dub, one ex-user wrote,
03:23 "I prefer subs, but I'm also very fond of many English dub performances in famed Japanese
03:28 filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's films."
03:30 It's clear that the discourse surrounding dubbed films and subtitles will continue to
03:34 rage on with strong opinions on both sides.
03:37 It's also clear that Godzilla Minus One deserves a dub that doesn't lessen its incredible impact.
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