How would DJG with English voiceovers do in USA?

[jaderock]

Just like "Iron Chef" on Food Network has a good American following, what if DJG had a US version with English voice-over?!? How well would it do (let's say on a major network or on cable TV)? It has succeeded in other Asian countries, but what about the USA? Are we ready for something so different in prime time from what we consider the norm?
Would the storyline and characters hold up in the ratings? Or would the cultural differences turn off the majority of viewers?

Everyone's thoughts and comments appreciated.

[chigirl68]

I think it would go over if played on the history channel. On broadcast prime time I doubt it.
American's are so used to trashy TV. This is apparent with "Desperate housewives" being # 1 show and the popularity of "Sex and the city". Not that there are not decent shows on broadcast TV just not very many. You can see why some of us have chosen an alternative.

[ricekrispies]

DJG wont be the one bringing in the korean wave on our primetime. Not that it's not good enough or that it wont catch on. but the concern (from the investors) i think would be that it doesnt have the look that it'll be something great when you see it without watching it. Selling this show to the american public will be a tough one.

A dubbed show on primetime? i doubt that will ever come to be. Dubbing is ONLY for animes. The success of the iron chef as a dubbed show is an entirely different ballgame. Iron chef is more like the MXC show on spike tv. Personally, i hate dubbed shows. Like i said, it's only for animes. If they dub DJG, it'll be just plain silly. An english-speaking Chosun, oh my. so there, dubbing really is out of the question.

But even if they do work on those things i mentioned above, no one would still tune in. America is not ready for this kind of programming.

[july2005fan]

i hope it'll go on primetime, but i doubt it

[archergurl]

probably wont...investors might think that viewers might not be intreasted by ancient korean shows with english voice over...anyway, it'll sound weird having english in DJG....

[GreginVancouver]

A dubbed version would only work if all the voice actors had "asian" accents. That's not being racist just the realization that in the eyes of a non-asian majority audience people speaking with modern American or British accents in an Asian historical drama would look and sound unnatural. The challenge would be different modes of speach used to convey various forms of politeness that has all but disappeared from modern English.

I watched DJG dubbed in Japanese and everything seemed perfectly natural as Japanese has the proper range of honorifics to apply to seniors and those of higher social status. e.g. "Han sangun-sama" and "o-sama" ("Your highness" for the king)

[mojo]

I like GreginVancouver's idea!
that's terrific^^ yeah, it would be realistic!

[persephone]

I hate it when there are english shows with "asian" accents though. They just sound a little stupid.

[djanggum]

persephone.. i agree!! they sound a bit "racist" when they do that... -_-''' well, i guess not racist if the people are asian... but most americans cant do asian accents...
i doubt daejanggum will be popular in america, because the cultures are different in so many ways. it'll be too hard to understand the whole situation in the palace.. o.o ...

[Allen]

it would actually be cool if there was english voiceovers, because a lot of my friends here in canada are interested in great tv show series, and i told them about this, they did some research got interested but then became disappointed when there wasnt a english voice over version .

[Soju]

I personally MUCH prefer subtitles to voice-overs. One particular thing I liked about the way Michael Han did the subtitles here was to include little explanatory "sub-subtitles", with the botanical and various common names for the various herbs. He tried to do something similar when he was helping subtitle "Immortal Yi Soon-shin", until the folks in LA told him to cut it out -- phooey, I thought it added a lot to the show. It would be hard to add such content with dubbed dialog.

I do note that all the Non-Korean shows I see on KBS's VOD's are all dubbed into Korean, so I guess my dislike for voiceovers is not universal.

A distinction would also have to be made between a show like "Iron Chef", which is an entertainment show, where the voice actors just read translations form the Japanese. For a drama, it would be expected to actually attempt lip-synch, which is a lot harder to do without it being hokey.

[Guest]

I have lived in the US almost all my life but I have yet to see a single foreign movie shown on major US networks during prime time. Only major foreign movies that are shown widely are the BBC shows shown on PBS. Perhaps there may have been one or two but I just don't remember. The point I am trying to make here is that there are still very large barriers in the US for foreign cultural products to be marketed toward majority of Americans.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's when most of the acting parts that were given to Asians were minor roles. Television series "MASH" come to mind. This series depict Koreans as being incredibly poor/uneducated/needing protection of the US military. MASH is a landmark series with the highest ratings. These types of series (or other) have left such an everlasting impression among the public that it may be very difficult to portray Asian cultures in any other dimension. In DJG, we see a very advanced culture of Asia. This is a period of time before USA even existed and yet the Asians in DJG, unlike in MASH, are very cultured. Culture depicted in DJG series is perhaps even more advanced than that of US today. This depiction may not go well with majority of American who maybe more ingrained toward traditional roles for Asians.

Cultural products are different than products such as cars, toys, or electronics that Americans buy from Asia. Cultural products must over come a higher barrier. This involves racial and cultural acceptance and belief in its equivalence. I do believe that it is bit premature to give America such credibility. I hope I am wrong.

[victoria]

Guest said:

I have lived in the US almost all my life but I have yet to see a single foreign movie shown on major US networks during prime time. Only major foreign movies that are shown widely are the BBC shows shown on PBS. Perhaps there may have been one or two but I just don't remember. The point I am trying to make here is that there are still very large barriers in the US for foreign cultural products to be marketed toward majority of Americans.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's when most of the acting parts that were given to Asians were minor roles. Television series "MASH" come to mind. This series depict Koreans as being incredibly poor/uneducated/needing protection of the US military. MASH is a landmark series with the highest ratings. These types of series (or other) have left such an everlasting impression among the public that it may be very difficult to portray Asian cultures in any other dimension. In DJG, we see a very advanced culture of Asia. This is a period of time before USA even existed and yet the Asians in DJG, unlike in MASH, are very cultured. Culture depicted in DJG series is perhaps even more advanced than that of US today. This depiction may not go well with majority of American who maybe more ingrained toward traditional roles for Asians.

Cultural products are different than products such as cars, toys, or electronics that Americans buy from Asia. Cultural products must over come a higher barrier. This involves racial and cultural acceptance and belief in its equivalence. I do believe that it is bit premature to give America such credibility. I hope I am wrong.

as another U.S. resident, guest is right. there is next to nothing on u.s. TV when it comes to actual asian stuff. they have like jackie Chan movies and thats it. there is a cable channel called AZN which is for asian americans and its quite good, they even had DJG on it.
as for dubbed voices: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! i really don't like it when they use english voices to dub japanese animations because the voices are all WRONG. and i would hate to hear my beloved DJG characters have voices like U.S. celebrities (ew!) i love it with korean voices, the way it should be: LYA's and YMK's soft and heart-melting voices give about 1/2 of the emotion! when it actually airs on a U.S. channel (like NBC, and it will happen!!) it HAS to be in korean!!!

[Alexa]

Personally I hate when movies are dubbed. I've watched a few American movies with spanish voiceovers and they are horrible!! they sound bad, and there are times when the actors are still speaking, but you can't hear anything because the one translating is done. The voices don't even sound like an authentic spanish speaker. I would hate to see Korean dramas with english voiceovers. I love to watch the dramas and hear them speak their language. It's more authentic, the emotions are real. I don't think I would keep watching the dramas if they were dubbed.

[yunyun]

Hello everyone,

It has been such a long time since my last post! As a campaigner to get Dae Jang Geum shown on the BBC, I do hope the drama will appeal to a Western audience ;D As to whether it should be dubbed or not in the US, I'd say definitely not. Having Jang Geum and Lady Han speaking in American accents would just kill this drama.

I watched DJG dubbed in Mandarin and thought it was OK.....until I heard the original Korean version. Much of the emotion is simply lost without the actor's own voice.

With Mandarin dubbing, Lady Han's voice sounded too soft and quiet, whereas YMK in reality has a much deeper voice.

But what I like about the Mandarin dubbed version is that it sounds so very polite and elegant!

Love, Yunyun