Unbelievable that this still happens in this day and age, but apparently the Magnet US-editions of "Let The Right One In", both DVD and BluRay, feature what might be called "gaps" in translation, although gaffes might be a better word.
This is baffling for two reasons.
1: The Swedish DVD is known to have excellent English subtitles.
2: I've seen the Magnet's subtitles praised on many a website though they obviously differ from the Swedish version.
Make of this what you will, but Magnet has responded it will change the offending English subtitle track for future printings.
Just to warn you that you might have to be pretty damn sure about which version it is you are buying...
Icons of Fright was the first one that broke this news with many damning examples, but a nice overview of the reactions so far can be found here at From the Front View, while Row Three includes a comment from a BluRay buyer who angrily claims he only understood what was really happening because he understands some Swedish. Ouch!
Magnet is kinda infamous for not having correct subtitles. HAHA.
Does anyone know how the Canadian DVD (released by Mongrel Media) compares?
A goddamn travesty by magnet... Those assholes will hear the end of it...
When they fix this... I will buy it! (Let this be a lesson to these studios that pandering to the lowest common denominator won't help sales but alienate the fans of this material!
I am sorry but this chaps my A$$!!! I pre-ordered the bluray months ago and have been waiting all year to see this film. Now I wasted $25 on this crappy translation! They should offer to replace the dvd for anyone that wants it.
I saw the comparisons in dialog and it blew me away that they would do this to us.
Did not know this. Wish I didn't. Now I feel ripped off with my blu-ray version.
Unbelievable? Hardly. This is just Swedish for Dragon Dynasty.
I see your point Rhythm-X, but Swedish is almost painfully easy to translate to English.
Most sentences will feature the same flow and amount of words, and will often even share the same inflections, unlike what you get with Asian languages which are really totally different.
I'm not making excuses for atrocious translations of Chinese, Korean, Thai or Japanese dialogue, but I never expected anything like this with Swedish.
Second worst US subtitling snafu ever in my opinion (the worst still being the first Dreamworks DVD of Mamoru Oshii's "Innocence"...).
Baffling. Maybe more frustrating than not having subs at all.
Why can't they just license the English subs from the Swedish release?
Not sure it ruined the DVD for me, I probably won't buy a new version with correct subtitles. If you haven't seen the movie yet I'd definitely wait for a DVD with the correct subs though.
JB Jr., the issue I have is not whether the film is enjoyable or not despite a shitty translation. It's that since Magnet botched the translation, I did not receive the version of the film I had wanted (the version I viewed twice in theaters) and purchased to watch on DVD. It's like purchasing the director's cut of a film on DVD, and instead receiving the Theatrical cut. In this case, I wanted to purchase the theatrical cut on dvd, and did not receive it. LTROI is in many ways a subtle film, and these mistranslations change many of the scenes. Can it still be enjoyed despite that? Yes, but I did not get what I paid for. I hope this gives them a wake up call. They deliberately put out an inferior version of a great film. They should not treat their customers like this.
i hear what your saying i really do but in the real world i know that mark cuban fired the coach of his b-ball team for losing one game in a almost perfect season and folks bitched about that for two years. and yes there putting a new dvd with new subs out but there not gonna exchange any off the old one so really all this cyber-bitching and people not buying any more magent dvds is pointless cause mr. cuban and eveyone else at magnet is not gonna lose one wink of sleep . plus I gotta get timecrimes this tue
Dear oh dear, this is a shocker alright.
I have to admit that even before this story broke, I watched the film over last weekend and, although it's still something of a genre masterpiece in my opinion and remains very touching, I was certainly a little disappointed after it finshed in that it seemed a little...err...'simple', if you know what I mean?
It's more of a dismay that Magnet/Magnolia are not even offering the 'olive branch' possibility of an exchange, which is an awful way to treat customers. I'm sure it's a huge financial risk to undertake such a refund/exchange program but for passionate film folks like us on this board, it's a bit of a slap in the face to those that threw their money down the moment this film came up for grabs.
Even if an exchange were offered, it's something of a moot point for me here in the UK as the cost of shipping the disc back to the US again means this is quickly becoming the most expensive film I've bought in a fair while, not helped by the poor currency exchange rate between the UK and US.
Anyway, I'm personally going to stump up and double dip to buy the DVD release from it's native Sweden - I can't find any confirmation anywhere which definitively states the subtitles on the Swedish DVD are the superior same as in the original theatrical version, other than those mentioned in the banner headlines at the top of this article, but I'll take a risk.
The link to the (english language) store I bought it from is....
http://english.megastore.se/template/next,Search.vm?searchinput=Låt+Den+Rätte+Komma+In&searchcat=FILM
..... if anyone else is interested?
If anyone wants me to, I'll happily post a message here whenever the disc arrives to confirm whether the subtitles are better or not? Should be a week or so before it turns up....
Peace,
Majorforce
@majorforce
Do keep us posted if you could, I'd be intrested to hear what you turn up. Thanks for the link as well!
I saw it first on DVD and enjoyed it, but I did look at the comparisons as soon as they became available and I think I might have enjoyed the film more with those translations. I have sent an email to Magnet requesting that they introduce a replacement program, but my world won't end if this is the only version I ever own.
loved the movie, the bad subtitles didnt ruin it for me
I understand Magnet pushed hard for deleted scenes with the producers, so if it weren't for their insistence these would be forever lost. Can't speak to the subtitle issue, but I'm damn happy they atleast felt the need to give us something we couldn't get anywhere else as far as bonus material.
The director and media company that made the Scandinavian DVD/Blu Ray release lost their mind due to the freezing cold wind and snow as we speak.That is the only reason I can think of as an explanation for giving us such a mediocre release,they spat us in the face with just a handful of features as a commentary track,a couple of trailers for the movie and some movie stills.The American release got deleted scenes and featurette.How is it possible to mess up such a easy releases,I'm quite frankly very angry.This is a Swedish movie,our neighbor country,and they couldn't be bothered giving the fans of the movie something extra.There is no excuse for this act,I will NEVER buy the Scandinavian DVD/Blu Ray release.A great movie getting nothing but great reviews ,people running into the cinema to see the movie and everybody in production made money.But when it was the fans turn to receive something "the powers at be" got greedy and skimped out on a using time and some money making this a great release.So this is what the fans are rewarded with,no thanks...I wouldn't buy this Scandinavian DVD/Blu Ray even if my life depended on it if I sat in a deadly Saw 1-5 killing machine.I would just let the time run out and be done with it.This is a sad tale.
Right then fellow twitchers,
I'm sure some of us are still quite-rightly smarting over the Magnet subtitles issue but further to my prior posting on 27th March, I'm now in receipt of the Swedish DVD release 'Lat Den Ratte Komma In' and, as promised, I wanted to give yourselves an update as to how the subtitle issue stands on that particular version.
Now, although I've not watched the whole disc yet, as the film only arrived today, I'm happy to report that it does indeed appear to carry the correct theatrical subtitles. Yay!
As I'm sure most of you would have read through by now, there is a link at the top of Twitch's article above....
http://iconsoffright.com/news/2009/03/let_the_wrong_subtitles_in_to.html
..... which displayed the difference between the theatrical and Magnet releases.
Along the same lines, I've organised a similar collage of screengrabs direct from the two DVD's now in my possession, the US 'Magnet' release and the Swedish 'Sandre Metronome' version, to directly compare the two.
This might be a bit of a clumsy way to do it, but I've uploaded a 'Word' document to ....
http://www.zshare.net/download/58096594381e6808/
.... with a small handful of pictures embedded in it, so if anyone wanted to download it and have a look, you're all more than welcome of course.
I've tried to use some of the same shots as seen on the 'iconsoffright.com' link above which highlights some of the major differences most will already be familiar with, but I have to say that even though I've literally only flicked through the Swedish release, the US release in comparison seems to be absolutely LITTERED with differences from start to finish.
A few other notes as well:
1) The swedish release has a far shorter running time than the US version (circa 6 minutes) but I believe that this is to do with the conversion from PAL to NTSC and nothing more.
2) It also comes with a nice cardboard slip case.
3) The transfer rate in 'Mbps' is noticeably higher than the US version; I don't know if this gives a legitimately higher quality picture in any way but, to my eyes at least, I swear it looks just a tiny bit 'crisper'.
Hope this is of some interest; do feel free to drop me a message here if there are any other queries.
Rock on,
Majorforce