Showtime HD showing “Hero” dubbed into English?!
I just arrived home after a long nighttime bike journey (a highly recommended experience), and noticed that Showtime was airing the film Hero in HD. I honestly did not love this film when I saw it in the theater — I like my kung fu films with less computer graphics, more fun, and less emotional artifice — but I figured I could watch it and maybe brush up on my Mandarin. And maybe I’d enjoy it, my expectations were probably too high for the film the first time around.
But even though this film played an extremely successful theatrical run in the United States in Mandarin with English subtitles, Showtime has deigned to show the film dubbed into English. I watched a few minutes, and it is horrific. If I weren’t so annoyed, I’d be laughing every time the Emperor King of Qin opened his mouth. The voice work is distractingly bad.
A word to Showtime — show films in their original language. Dubbed films are like a bizarre puppet show.
