During his acceptance speech for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2020 Golden Globes, director Bong Joon-ho had a message for Western audiences: "Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films."
His words may seem strange to audiences in Taiwan, where subtitles are present in every movie and TV show, even the Chinese-language ones. In the West, however, subtitles are often seen as a hindrance to viewing pleasure. It's no wonder that foreign films so seldom win the top prizes at awards shows.
Subtitles, in one form or another, have been around since the early days of silent film when dialogue was written on-screen between scenes. But as talking cinema became the new standard, English-language subtitles in American movies largely died out.
In Asia, on the other hand, films made in Hong Kong—the heart of Asia's film industry at the time—were commonly subtitled. Due to the large number of Chinese dialects spoken both inside and outside of China, subtitles were provided so that everyone would understand the dialogue—no matter what dialect they spoke. As a result, subtitles became a familiar feature for most Chinese film viewers.
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