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[JimDunlop2]

One of the most useful things to learn in Japan, if you study NO other kanji, try to learn the kanji for EIGO and NIHONGO. It will save you a ton of trouble in the short and long run. Here is a lesson in: HOW TO READ A DVD JACKET AT THE VIDEO STORE FOR FUN AND PROFIT.

First of all, on the back of MOST DVDs you will see a couple of icons. Learn them by heart.

Please refer to the following picture:




First, let's look at the picture of a disc on the far left hand side of the frame. It shows you which languages the DVD is in.

The circle with the number 2: (2)) means: there are two soundtracks. The first one (in katakana) says: orijinaru (EIGO) (dorubi saraundo)

Notice the kanji for EIGO in parenthesis? The first character is for English the second character "GO" means language and you will find that common to any language, whether it be NIHONGO (Japanese) or whatever...

The second item says: NI HON GO in kanji.

So what this tells you is that there are 2 soundtracks: the original English, and dubbed Japanese. Both are presented in Dolby Digital surround.

Next frame you see a box that looks like a TV with a "2" in the middle and 4 little boxes underneath it. This tells you what subtitles are offered on the DVD. Once again, 1. NIHONGO (in kanji) means you have Japanese subtitles available (probably the default setting is for them to be turned on when you play the disc) and 2. EIGO. So you have English subs too (closed captioning if you prefer)....

Then, next to that, 16:9 indicates the film is presented in "Academy Flat" widescreen format. Unless you have a wide TV, you will get those black bars running across the top and bottom of your screen.

Next to that, Dolby Digital is the sound certification. If you have a 5.1 surround speaker setup in your home, you can take advantage of this feature. If you don't that's OK. It will still work.

The far icon indicates region. Notice this DVD is in Region 2 format -- which means it's made to play on Japanese DVD players. If I try to bring this back to Canada with me, I will need either a Japanaese, or a Region-free (or region-hacked) DVD player in order to play it. NTSC is the video system used in N. America and Japan (versus PAL which is used mainly in Europe).

There is all sorts of other information contained on the back of the jacket, but I don't want to get into that here. If you want to know some of the gory details (like the difference between anamorphic wide and academy flat, DTS versus Dolby Digital) you can ask on the thread or just send me a PM. Either way works.

The picture I was referring to (if you didn't see it embedded into the message is HERE: http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6240/dvdcoverexamplerl9.jpg


Some DVDs (if they are native to Japan) will not have the above info. If that's the case it probably means there are no subtitle/dubbing options. Most anime is Japanese only unless purchased outside of Japan...

Also, many FOREIGN movies will be dubbed/subbed into Japanese but NOT into English -- for example Amelie (French/JPN) or Quo Vadis (Portuguese/JPN).... Then you are just outta luck.

SOME Japanese films are presented with English subs but I'd say less than 50%. Those that are are generally pretty decent.

Finally, my only other comment - if you want to ASK whether a particular title is in English (despite everything): Kono eiga ni wa, Eigo no jimaku arimasuka? Should be sufficient to make yourself understood.

[Eva Pilot]

I learned this the hard way and got sick of getting home and having no subtitles.

This would have come in really handy a few months ago!

But it is helpful information indeed.

[Ai]

Wow thanks!!! I needed that info.