Small things, mostly

The Vietnamese dub (Nha Trang, Vietnam)

Walking around late one night near the train station in Nhà Trang, I stopped at a street side drink stall. People huddled around a television that was showing a movie. Someone cleared some space and handed me a small plastic chair. As I settled, I realised that it was an Indian movie.

Small things, mostly

On Vietnamese TV, they use the same voice talent to do the dub for all actors. It is not so much a dub; it is a voiceover that narrates the individual dialogues and sometimes provides additional context.

I could still hear the original Hindi soundtrack. As the dub always trailed the actual dialogues, I would laugh at a joke, and the rest of the audience laughed a few seconds later. Soon it was like a ritual - as soon as they heard me laugh, they would burst out laughing.

Update 2019: I remembered this incident while watching a documentary called Chuck Norris vs Communism. It tells the story of Irina Nisotor, a Romanian translator who was hired by the black marketers to dub bootleg Hollywood videotapes. Irina dubbed for 3000 movies from her makeshift studio - recording the voiceover for each character in the film. It is said that Irina’s was the most familiar voice in Romania after the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu ‘s.

Links: Chuck Norris vs Communism

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