I was introduced to foreign films late in life.
When you are raised western you have no idea how west-centric the film industry is.
Many of these films made in other counties are totally awesome and most folks here are also not introduced to them until the English re-make comes out and someone they meet asks if they've ever seen the original.

I don't mind reading subtitles and I can handle people's mouths not moving in time with their words.
My wife on the other hand says she can not concentrate on a film if either of these things is going on and so if I want to re-watch Ong Bak or experience any other foreign film I will be doing so alone.

I don't get much alone time... and although I like the fact that by the end of a translated film I've learned the pronunciation of a word or two by osmosis... I don't get to watch them much anymore.

So...

If they have derived ways to make animals mouths follow patterns of speech then they can use the same technology to animate an actors face to mimic whichever language the film is translated into.

Come on now film people. Chop chop.
Your greater audience awaits.

Seriously. The only way I got her to sit through Squid Game was to turn on both overdub and subtitles at the same time while we laughed at the differences between the two and speculated whether one translator had been paid more than the other, or which was actually a native speaker and which was Google translate.

That's not going to work much longer.

There's got to be a better way.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 08 2021

Spongebob Squarepants https://www.youtube...watch?v=r9L4AseD-aA
1st 8 seconds demonstrates state of the art in this space. [zen_tom, Oct 08 2021]

Like many others, I loved Squid Game. It was like Wes Anderson meets Quentin Tarantino, with a healthy side order of 1960's The Prisoner. (I've not watched Battle Royale, but imagine there's some of that in there too)

In lots of old Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies, the English voice actors do make an attempt at matching sounds to lip movements, but it's often laughably cursory.

And yes, with clever AI editing, you might be able to deep-fake lip movements to match a new voice-track which might be a way to deal with it, as you say, like how they did the lip movements in Babe, or other cute animal movies. [+]
-- zen_tom, Oct 08 2021


+ sure they could this. Maybe they could cut out around the actors mouth and insert a CGI mouth to do the talking.
-- xandram, Oct 08 2021


If all else fails, they could use the technique employed to animate the singing pirate at the beginning of "Spongebob Squarepants"
-- zen_tom, Oct 08 2021


//.. When ... you have no idea how west-centric the film industry is ..//

... you might be surprised how much better persons of color fit their various roles in foreign productions. There's a steep learning curve to Hollywood success and a generations-wide skills gap deeply inculcated in production, style, and modeling that hasn't yet been bridged even amid a multifactorial effort by studios and planners.
-- reensure, Oct 08 2021


Yes, Elizabeth Taylor wasn't the best of choices for the role of Cleopatra that's for sure... and remember John Wayne as Genghis Khan??? Hahahaha.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 08 2021


A historical Lovecraftian horror Western medical drama set in ancient China? I might have to watch that.
-- Voice, Oct 12 2021


When you live in any country outside of an English speaking one, every UK or Hollywood made film is in a foreign language to you. This means 90% of the world. ie China, Europe, India, East Asia, South America, most of Africa, Russia, The Middle East. It's worth remembering that "foreign film" is a relative term.
-- xenzag, Oct 12 2021


[xenzag]; absolutely. I'm a big supporter of Film Festivals here in New Zealand. Locally, there is a French FF, Italian FF (starting soon), International FF (also starting soon). I like French comedy, Russian action & sci-fi, Korean sci-fi, some Chinese stuff (their "epic" historicals are pretty amazing), Japanese anime of course. I'm OK with sub-titles, although many people don't like them.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Oct 12 2021


I like this one. I wonder if in the interim you could devise coloured glasses (think red/blue 3D glasses) which either hides or enhances coloured subtitles? Then one party or the other watching the film wear them allowing both to see what they want.
-- AusCan531, Oct 12 2021



random, halfbakery